NFL Division 1 - 2020

[Maroon Manc]

I do laugh when the pundits comment how the Dubs & Kerry players are only back from holiday and won't be as fit as the other teams, what a load of nonsense. Ciaran Kilkenny didn't even go out the day after winning the All Ireland, these lads would have looked after themselves on holiday. Parkinson & Spillane were at the same wedding the week before xmas and talked about the Kerry panellist who wouldn't have a drink at the wedding.

Watched most of the Donegal Mayo game last night, Donegal should have 7 or 8 points clear at half time; They were so dominant until AOS came on although Paton went very long on a lot of kickouts which Mayo ended up winning. Mullin looks a future top player although they've got their work hanging onto him. O'Hora looks good, excellent kicker of the ball but don't know whether he'll be quick enough on harder ground. Conroy had a bigger impact than Walsh, O'Donoghue & Reape put together, liked the look of him.  Donegal have a lot of good younger players, as long as Murphy hangs around they'll be knocking on the door in the next few years.

[Mayo Border]

Any truth to Horan and McDonald leaping around the place celebrating Mayo's draw on the weekend?

No but they did have a smile from ear to ear

[Cunny Funt]

With PJ on board Galway will be unstoppable this year. It's only a matter of time before the media get wise to this.

they have been ender achieving for the last few years. I think they have not looked padded beating mayo and feel their season is a success if they do that .
Boxcar's son may be the missing piece of the Jigsaw

If you class winning 2 Connacht titles in 4 years, become establish division 1 team and reaching a first All Ireland semi final for 17 years as underachieving what do you call 2009 to 2014 where Galway ended up as a middle of the road Div 2 team with no provincial titles won?

[An Fhairche Abu]

Galway team for Saturday named:
1   Connor Gleeson
2   Johnny Duane
3   Sean Mulkerrin
4   Johnny Heaney
5   Gary O'Donnell
6   John Daly
7   Cillian McDaid
8   Ronan Steede
9   Cein D'Arcy
10   Eamon Brannigan
11   Damien Comer
12   Finnian Ó Laoi
13   Robert Finnerty
14   Shane Walsh
15   Michael Daly

[Duine Eile]

Galway team for Saturday named:
1   Connor Gleeson
2   Johnny Duane
3   Sean Mulkerrin
4   Johnny Heaney
5   Gary O'Donnell
6   John Daly
7   Cillian McDaid
8   Ronan Steede
9   Cein D'Arcy
10   Eamon Brannigan
11   Damien Comer
12   Finnian Ó Laoi
13   Robert Finnerty
14   Shane Walsh
15   Michael Daly

These early team announcements are great, gets people discussing the games if nothing else. Good to see Steede get his chance, hopefully it goes well for him, he's earned it in fairness. It'll be interesting to see how he fares out at the next level. Surprised to see Comer start, there's never a full 70 in him. Same back 6 as the last day which is a worry up against those Kerry forwards. Think Duane is only keeping that corner warm for Liam Silke. Not too sure about the thoughts of Johnny Heaney up against O'Donoghue either 

[GalwayBayBoy]

Galway team for Saturday named:
1   Connor Gleeson
2   Johnny Duane
3   Sean Mulkerrin
4   Johnny Heaney
5   Gary O'Donnell
6   John Daly
7   Cillian McDaid
8   Ronan Steede
9   Cein D'Arcy
10   Eamon Brannigan
11   Damien Comer
12   Finnian Ó Laoi
13   Robert Finnerty
14   Shane Walsh
15   Michael Daly

These early team announcements are great, gets people discussing the games if nothing else. Good to see Steede get his chance, hopefully it goes well for him, he's earned it in fairness. It'll be interesting to see how he fares out at the next level. Surprised to see Comer start, there's never a full 70 in him. Same back 6 as the last day which is a worry up against those Kerry forwards. Think Duane is only keeping that corner warm for Liam Silke. Not too sure about the thoughts of Johnny Heaney up against O'Donoghue either 

Comer needs the game time now. Missed all last year pretty much. Doubt he'll last the whole match though. Probably off after 50 minutes or so.

Heard Silke interviewed on Parkinson's podcast there recently. More or less admitted he doesn't like playing corner back but Galway have quite a few options at wing-back. Not so much in the corners.

[An Fhairche Abu]

Galway team for Saturday named:
1   Connor Gleeson
2   Johnny Duane
3   Sean Mulkerrin
4   Johnny Heaney
5   Gary O'Donnell
6   John Daly
7   Cillian McDaid
8   Ronan Steede
9   Cein D'Arcy
10   Eamon Brannigan
11   Damien Comer
12   Finnian Ó Laoi
13   Robert Finnerty
14   Shane Walsh
15   Michael Daly

These early team announcements are great, gets people discussing the games if nothing else. Good to see Steede get his chance, hopefully it goes well for him, he's earned it in fairness. It'll be interesting to see how he fares out at the next level. Surprised to see Comer start, there's never a full 70 in him. Same back 6 as the last day which is a worry up against those Kerry forwards. Think Duane is only keeping that corner warm for Liam Silke. Not too sure about the thoughts of Johnny Heaney up against O'Donoghue either 

Whatever about the viability of Duane in the corner long term, we need to pump the brakes on bigging up the likes of Silke until they actually play up to reputation at inter county level. A phenomenal club player without doubt but he's done very little at all in a Galway jersey, he wasn't even on the panel for the most successful season we've had since 2001 in 2018. He was last seen for Galway getting absolutely cleaned out in successive championship matches against Roscommon and Mayo. At least we've seen the much maligned Kerin and Wynne put in good shifts in big championship matches on occasion, Silke getting MOTM against a Sligo team that couldn't beat anyone last year doesn't count for much when it's followed up by being the worst outfield player against Mayo in a proper knockout match.
We'd all love the Corofin players to bring their on pitch success and fantastic club performances with them into the Galway team but outside of Burke in 17/18 none of them have been great in a Galway jersey so far, in mitigation it's far from ideal coming into the Galway setup late every year after a hugely demanding club campaign, maybe with the restructure of the calendar this year it'll give them a better opportunity to perform well at inter county level. The incompatible style of play excuse is certainly gone now.

Wouldn't judge Steede purely on the basis of just the next game, very difficult situation to go straight in away to Kerry with basically a rookie alongside him as well. Midfield, HF and FF line have never played as selected before for Galway either, big ask to get anything out of the match.

[galwayman]

Galway team for Saturday named:
1   Connor Gleeson
2   Johnny Duane
3   Sean Mulkerrin
4   Johnny Heaney
5   Gary O'Donnell
6   John Daly
7   Cillian McDaid
8   Ronan Steede
9   Cein D'Arcy
10   Eamon Brannigan
11   Damien Comer
12   Finnian Ó Laoi
13   Robert Finnerty
14   Shane Walsh
15   Michael Daly

These early team announcements are great, gets people discussing the games if nothing else. Good to see Steede get his chance, hopefully it goes well for him, he's earned it in fairness. It'll be interesting to see how he fares out at the next level. Surprised to see Comer start, there's never a full 70 in him. Same back 6 as the last day which is a worry up against those Kerry forwards. Think Duane is only keeping that corner warm for Liam Silke. Not too sure about the thoughts of Johnny Heaney up against O'Donoghue either 

Whatever about the viability of Duane in the corner long term, we need to pump the brakes on bigging up the likes of Silke until they actually play up to reputation at inter county level. A phenomenal club player without doubt but he's done very little at all in a Galway jersey, he wasn't even on the panel for the most successful season we've had since 2001 in 2018. He was last seen for Galway getting absolutely cleaned out in successive championship matches against Roscommon and Mayo. At least we've seen the much maligned Kerin and Wynne put in good shifts in big championship matches on occasion, Silke getting MOTM against a Sligo team that couldn't beat anyone last year doesn't count for much when it's followed up by being the worst outfield player against Mayo in a proper knockout match.
We'd all love the Corofin players to bring their on pitch success and fantastic club performances with them into the Galway team but outside of Burke in 17/18 none of them have been great in a Galway jersey so far, in mitigation it's far from ideal coming into the Galway setup late every year after a hugely demanding club campaign, maybe with the restructure of the calendar this year it'll give them a better opportunity to perform well at inter county level. The incompatible style of play excuse is certainly gone now.

Wouldn't judge Steede purely on the basis of just the next game, very difficult situation to go straight in away to Kerry with basically a rookie alongside him as well. Midfield, HF and FF line have never played as selected before for Galway either, big ask to get anything out of the match.

For sure - Steede needs a run of games to show what he can do. This is his very first start ever for the Galway senior footballers.
Michael Daly needs to start producing or his hold on a starting jersey will loosen pretty quickly.
Kerry is a great test for this team. Roll on Saturday.

[rosnarun]

Id always be very wary of lads getting a chance based on Club performance . each year a new club comes along and does well there are call of most of them to be Promoted to the county team .
I happened in Mayo with Knockmore, ballina, and crossmolina but with a a few game with the odd exception the new guys were  dropped one by one until only the guys who would have made it anyway were remaining .
Steede was fantastic  in the final but he was hardly an unknown entity before that so is it a case he has been mistreated of just had one exceptional game?

[An Fhairche Abu]

For Steede to date there has been a mixture of both not getting an opportunity at times and of him not committing to the county setup. Whether he can make the step up is hard to know, pace wise he certainly isn't the ideal for IC standard but the league is there for trying lads out against proper competition, no better acid test than Kerry away for a start.

I think Steede is being put in straight away as Galway are short of bodies in the midfield sector due to current injuries and player unavailability, in addition the Conroy/D'Arcy midfield tandem did not look good enough against Monaghan, although that's only on the basis of one match in fairness to them both. Certainly for the moment Paul Conroy looks like he is going to have a much greater impact coming into the game as opposed to starting, while the likes of Maitias Ó Bairéid is only just out of U20. I would imagine Comer will also be tasked with trying to make an impact around this sector until his legs go in the second half, certainly as he wasn't positioned in the FF line last Sunday, lined up more at wing forward where he played underage.

Michael Daly needs to start producing or his hold on a starting jersey will loosen pretty quickly.

This is certainly the case, good for a couple of scores in a match along with one or two other nice plays but he is completely inconsistent and not the type of impactful player that he looked like coming out of U21. His excellent performance as a 2nd half substitute in the 2017 League final is nearly the best outing he's had in a Galway jersey and I can't recall if he had even togged for the Seniors before that.

[Manning18]

Id always be very wary of lads getting a chance based on Club performance . each year a new club comes along and does well there are call of most of them to be Promoted to the county team .
I happened in Mayo with Knockmore, ballina, and crossmolina but with a a few game with the odd exception the new guys were  dropped one by one until only the guys who would have made it anyway were remaining .
Steede was fantastic  in the final but he was hardly an unknown entity before that so is it a case he has been mistreated of just had one exceptional game?

I'm sure he'll get a bit of a run in the league but considering no other Corofin player is included, it's safe to put this one down to sheer necessity. Flynn, Duggan, O'Currain injured, Cooke away. Presuming he thinks Conroy doesnt have the legs for Kerry or soemthing could be amiss there also. He's probably more of a forward for the rest of his career anyway. Tbh the other midfielder Darcy is too inexperienced for a game like this, so it tells its own story when he's the one people are questioning least.

[thejuice]

Unless we get our injuries sorted we're going to struggle to earn a single point. Bad enough to lose our keeper in the warm up against Tyrone but for our 2nd and 3rd choice keepers to be so under prepared is not good enough for this level. Still we had enough possession and opportunities to salvage something but we don't have the Type of players available to take on a blanket defense which Donegal could easily revert to this weekend. Hopefully Andy has been giving the mark some thought this week because we'll need it.

[Cunny Funt]

Id always be very wary of lads getting a chance based on Club performance . each year a new club comes along and does well there are call of most of them to be Promoted to the county team .
I happened in Mayo with Knockmore, ballina, and crossmolina but with a a few game with the odd exception the new guys were  dropped one by one until only the guys who would have made it anyway were remaining .
Steede was fantastic  in the final but he was hardly an unknown entity before that so is it a case he has been mistreated of just had one exceptional game?

I'm sure he'll get a bit of a run in the league but considering no other Corofin player is included, it's safe to put this one down to sheer necessity. Flynn, Duggan, O'Currain injured, Cooke away. Presuming he thinks Conroy doesnt have the legs for Kerry or soemthing could be amiss there also. He's probably more of a forward for the rest of his career anyway. Tbh the other midfielder Darcy is too inexperienced for a game like this, so it tells its own story when he's the one people are questioning least.

Steede will perform well I can imagine, afterall Kerry aren't that strong in midfield and especially without David Moran.

[Lar Naparka]

Am I the only one interested in Saturday's proceedings in McHale Park??

[Rossfan]

Ahh Lar will you stop interfering in the Herrins forum 
They seem to be getting pretty excited about things since young Joycheen took over