Division 2 2024

[Westside]

Teams faking injury to break momentum and run down the clock isn't new, but a referee not adding on that time and essentially rewarding the behaviour is annoying. It takes a special effort of bad refereeing to have both the winning and losing teams approaching the ref to complain at full time.

Cavan paid Donegal a bit too much respect I thought and we should have been more forceful on the press when they were down to 14. Instead we stood off them a bit and ended up a point further behind in that period. When we went at them in the second half, we caused lots of problems. A few mistakes and poor individual performances let us down. We just didn't have a forward of Gallen's calibre.

Cavan play Cork in 2 weeks in what will be a huge game for both sides.

[Itchy]

Teams faking injury to break momentum and run down the clock isn't new, but a referee not adding on that time and essentially rewarding the behaviour is annoying. It takes a special effort of bad refereeing to have both the winning and losing teams approaching the ref to complain at full time.

Cavan paid Donegal a bit too much respect I thought and we should have been more forceful on the press when they were down to 14. Instead we stood off them a bit and ended up a point further behind in that period. When we went at them in the second half, we caused lots of problems. A few mistakes and poor individual performances let us down. We just didn't have a forward of Gallen's calibre.

Cavan play Cork in 2 weeks in what will be a huge game for both sides.

How many quick kick outs for both teams did he stop because the ball wasn't lined up with the goals! Maybe 4 or 5 kickouts. He was terrible. And I'm not blaming him for the loss other than I think we would've got that score if he'd recorded the time properly. Cavan need to do some major work on retaining our own kick outs and we need to unearth a Full Back if Faulkner and Clarke are playing out the field.

[Westside]

Teams faking injury to break momentum and run down the clock isn't new, but a referee not adding on that time and essentially rewarding the behaviour is annoying. It takes a special effort of bad refereeing to have both the winning and losing teams approaching the ref to complain at full time.

Cavan paid Donegal a bit too much respect I thought and we should have been more forceful on the press when they were down to 14. Instead we stood off them a bit and ended up a point further behind in that period. When we went at them in the second half, we caused lots of problems. A few mistakes and poor individual performances let us down. We just didn't have a forward of Gallen's calibre.

Cavan play Cork in 2 weeks in what will be a huge game for both sides.

How many quick kick outs for both teams did he stop because the ball wasn't lined up with the goals! Maybe 4 or 5 kickouts. He was terrible. And I'm not blaming him for the loss other than I think we would've got that score if he'd recorded the time properly. Cavan need to do some major work on retaining our own kick outs and we need to unearth a Full Back if Faulkner and Clarke are playing out the field.

Yeah we didn't compete well for breaking ball around the middle when we went long. A really good kickout strategy needs to be in place if we're going to play the type of football Ray is aiming for.

Are Eoin Clarke or Evan Crowe on the panel? Clarke clearly doesn't have the legs for midfield anymore. I'd leave him at full back.

[Itchy]

Teams faking injury to break momentum and run down the clock isn't new, but a referee not adding on that time and essentially rewarding the behaviour is annoying. It takes a special effort of bad refereeing to have both the winning and losing teams approaching the ref to complain at full time.

Cavan paid Donegal a bit too much respect I thought and we should have been more forceful on the press when they were down to 14. Instead we stood off them a bit and ended up a point further behind in that period. When we went at them in the second half, we caused lots of problems. A few mistakes and poor individual performances let us down. We just didn't have a forward of Gallen's calibre.

Cavan play Cork in 2 weeks in what will be a huge game for both sides.

How many quick kick outs for both teams did he stop because the ball wasn't lined up with the goals! Maybe 4 or 5 kickouts. He was terrible. And I'm not blaming him for the loss other than I think we would've got that score if he'd recorded the time properly. Cavan need to do some major work on retaining our own kick outs and we need to unearth a Full Back if Faulkner and Clarke are playing out the field.

Yeah we didn't compete well for breaking ball around the middle when we went long. A really good kickout strategy needs to be in place if we're going to play the type of football Ray is aiming for.

Are Eoin Clarke or Evan Crowe on the panel? Clarke clearly doesn't have the legs for midfield anymore. I'd leave him at full back.

That leaves a vacancy at midfield and I can tell you Ray was not happy with Donohoe, almost whipped him off after 20 mins but then did at half time. Galligan on at half time, did ok for 5 mins and then proceeded to have a nightmare before being whipped off himself.

[Dreadnought]

Major emergency at Cavan General today, all ambulances used up bringing severely injured Donegal players to A&E. All injuries occured in last 5 minutes.

Joking aside Cavan a little unlucky to not get the draw. Didnt win enough of our own kick outs in 2nd half and left wrong man marking Gallen for too long. But we never gave up and only for some shocking refereeing in injury time where ref called 5 minutes in which Donegal players feigned injury for at least 2 minutes which wasn't added on. Then last play Cavan win a mark from kick out (right in front of me) Donegal player grabs the ball from Cavan man mid air. Ref throws in ball and then immediately blows final whistle.

As poor a display of referring as I've seen in a few years. Then he did have Barry Cassidy advising him from the line so what hope did he have.

As for Donegal, Brolly called it puke football. 15 behind the ball all night, horrible to watch. They'll win nothing and as I suspected totally over hyped due to the return of the Messiah. More like the return of the anti Christ.

I am pleased to see you are taking that loss well.

Most Cavanites are actually fine with the result. Could or should have been a draw at least. We weren't given a hope all week or with the bookies, and really on this showing Donegal aren't all that and have a lot of work to do. The ref poor, feigning injury and all that. Shows we can compete here, so as we expected to lose this, it's not all bad

[greatpoint]

The years stuck competing in the Bibi Baskin Cup can do awful things to the mind

[J70]

FFS lads, Donegal are a couple of league games into McGuinness's new tenure, of course we're "not all that" and we might never be. Personally, I was expecting a very tough game, based on meetings in recent years, based on Cavan beating Kildare away last week, based on it being an away league game in February, and based on us still finding our feet, trying out new players etc. etc. like most teams at this time of year. Spare us the "poor us, no one rates us!" whinging.

[Dreadnought]

FFS lads, Donegal are a couple of league games into McGuinness's new tenure, of course we're "not all that" and we might never be. Personally, I was expecting a very tough game, based on meetings in recent years, based on Cavan beating Kildare away last week, based on it being an away league game in February, and based on us still finding our feet, trying out new players etc. etc. like most teams at this time of year. Spare us the "poor us, no one rates us!" whinging.

Versus a rookie manager though in his 2nd ever game?

[J70]

FFS lads, Donegal are a couple of league games into McGuinness's new tenure, of course we're "not all that" and we might never be. Personally, I was expecting a very tough game, based on meetings in recent years, based on Cavan beating Kildare away last week, based on it being an away league game in February, and based on us still finding our feet, trying out new players etc. etc. like most teams at this time of year. Spare us the "poor us, no one rates us!" whinging.

Versus a rookie manager though in his 2nd ever game?

I'm not sure I'm understanding.

So this perceived dismissal of Cavan you're all on about was reasonable then?

[Dreadnought]

FFS lads, Donegal are a couple of league games into McGuinness's new tenure, of course we're "not all that" and we might never be. Personally, I was expecting a very tough game, based on meetings in recent years, based on Cavan beating Kildare away last week, based on it being an away league game in February, and based on us still finding our feet, trying out new players etc. etc. like most teams at this time of year. Spare us the "poor us, no one rates us!" whinging.

Versus a rookie manager though in his 2nd ever game?

I'm not sure I'm understanding.

So this perceived dismissal of Cavan you're all on about was reasonable then?

Not at all. Just McGuinness is experienced, won titles before and all that. Of course they're not a finished team, neitehr are,you'd just expect more vs a team with a rookie manager.

[Captain Scarlet]

Getting roasted. Just don't have anyone to make the penetrating runs and threaten the Armagh goals.

The situation with Meath continues to be very depressing

Tell me about it. It's like a "can I copy your homework" situation where I wish I could see what we're not doing that everyone else is. There's no logical reason to me why we aren't a D1 team given the resources and tradition we have. We have a strong fanbase that are crying out for a bit of success. I can only conclude our coaches aren't doing it right and not sure if O'Rourke is up to speed on the game the way it's played now.

We are asking the same in Kildare. Poxy moaning about the Dubs and Croke Park while Fermanagh dominate us. We can hardly scream about their resources.

In Kildare we have even less of an excuse as we do OK at underage, but it all falls off then. There is a Messiah thing whereby it all falls on the manager. Geezer got all the love despite lads like Dermot Earley and Johnny Doyle doing the business. Then when the wheels come off it's all on the sideline. Players get an easy ride and to be honest they are not as good as we, or the pundits think.

This season is heading for a write-off already.

[Armagh18]

I know its only the league and long way to go yet, but outside the obvious few bigger teams Ulster sides are much stronger than the rest

[imtommygunn]

Fitzmaurice reckons the mckenna cup a big factor in that in that it os much better preparation than the other pre-season competitions.

[befair]

Sure, blame the ref......

[J70]

FFS lads, Donegal are a couple of league games into McGuinness's new tenure, of course we're "not all that" and we might never be. Personally, I was expecting a very tough game, based on meetings in recent years, based on Cavan beating Kildare away last week, based on it being an away league game in February, and based on us still finding our feet, trying out new players etc. etc. like most teams at this time of year. Spare us the "poor us, no one rates us!" whinging.

Versus a rookie manager though in his 2nd ever game?

I'm not sure I'm understanding.

So this perceived dismissal of Cavan you're all on about was reasonable then?

Not at all. Just McGuinness is experienced, won titles before and all that. Of course they're not a finished team, neitehr are,you'd just expect more vs a team with a rookie manager.

Well, luckily for Jim we in Donegal are not expecting instant miracles.  

What's out on the pitch has to be considered too. By the accounts I've read, some of our inexperienced players struggled against the Cavan physicality (and no, I'm not talking about Patton time wasting at the end), which is obviously something they'll have to learn to deal with at intercounty level. Systems and tactics will only take you so far. Individual skill and speed of thought have to be there and the physicality has to be developed too.