Galway v donegal

[seafoid]

Galway are back in to 22/1 after a few weeks at 66/1

[ck]

Was at the game. Donegal were shocking. A shambles of an outfit.
Galway are best team in Connacht despite their blip against Rossies. If they can get a win in Croke they could be hard to top.

[ballinaman]

Has Gallagher resigned yet?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Donegal have landed about 7 or 8 players into the starting team without any real Championship experience.

Look at the team yesterday - Ward, McGee, Brennan, Gallagher all started when it would have been their first year of Championship football. In addition to that they've also had Ciaran Thompson, Michael Carroll and Cian Mulligan starting Championship football this year who are in the same boat.

Kieran Gillespie saw a few appearances last year in Championship but isn't experienced at this level, even the likes of Hugh McFadden and Eoghan McHugh haven't seen much before last year so you're looking at a side where two thirds of it have been mostly unexposed to Championship football.

You have to lay the blame at Gallagher's door with this, I think some of these lads should have seen more time and been phased into the side when they had a lot of experienced players around them. Now there doesn't seem to be any real leaders on the side - Lacey and McGlynn were two magnificent players whose legs have given out, Michael Murphy looks in danger of being flogged to death, if a manager wants to play him in the middle of the pitch he simply can't expect him to be going box to box, it's simply not his game and he's not mobile enough. McBrearty is up front trying to do everything himself. They are a shambles.

Donegal could do a lot worse than Pete McGrath right now, he was able to organise Fermanagh and set them up very well defensively. I'm sure Lacey and McGlynn will now call it a day but if Donegal get MacNiallais and McLoone back in might help in some way.

There seems to be a huge age gap between the Donegal team, you have McGlynn, Lacey and McGee now over 30. Then you have the likes of Murphy, McElhinney and McGrath who were part of the u21 side which lost to Dublin in the final. Apart from that, there seems to be a massive gap in any sort of talent until you hit McBrearty and Ryan McHugh. If you look at the majority of top sides now they will nearly all have the nucleus of their team in the age group around 24-30, there's not much in Donegal there.

[PW Nally]

Since when has kicking out at someone become a black card?

Deliberate trip is a black card.
GAA Black card offences are:

1 To deliberately pull down an opponent

2 To deliberately trip an opponent with hand, arm or foot

3 To deliberately body collide with an opponent after he has played the ball away or for the purpose of taking him out of the movement of play

4 To use abusive or provocative language or gestures to players

5 To remonstrate in an aggressive manner with a match official.

http://www.gaa-dna.com/gaa-talk/GAA%20-black-card-.html

[manfromdelmonte]

Since when has kicking out at someone become a black card?

Deliberate trip is a black card.
GAA Black card offences are:

1 To deliberately pull down an opponent

2 To deliberately trip an opponent with hand, arm or foot

3 To deliberately body collide with an opponent after he has played the ball away or for the purpose of taking him out of the movement of play

4 To use abusive or provocative language or gestures to players

5 To remonstrate in an aggressive manner with a match official.

http://www.gaa-dna.com/gaa-talk/GAA%20-black-card-.html

a kick is a RED CARD

[PW Nally]

Since when has kicking out at someone become a black card?

Deliberate trip is a black card.
GAA Black card offences are:

1 To deliberately pull down an opponent

2 To deliberately trip an opponent with hand, arm or foot

3 To deliberately body collide with an opponent after he has played the ball away or for the purpose of taking him out of the movement of play

4 To use abusive or provocative language or gestures to players

5 To remonstrate in an aggressive manner with a match official.

http://www.gaa-dna.com/gaa-talk/GAA%20-black-card-.html

a kick is a RED CARD

So ref made the RIGHT decision 

[seafoid]

Donegal have landed about 7 or 8 players into the starting team without any real Championship experience.

Look at the team yesterday - Ward, McGee, Brennan, Gallagher all started when it would have been their first year of Championship football. In addition to that they've also had Ciaran Thompson, Michael Carroll and Cian Mulligan starting Championship football this year who are in the same boat.

Kieran Gillespie saw a few appearances last year in Championship but isn't experienced at this level, even the likes of Hugh McFadden and Eoghan McHugh haven't seen much before last year so you're looking at a side where two thirds of it have been mostly unexposed to Championship football.

You have to lay the blame at Gallagher's door with this, I think some of these lads should have seen more time and been phased into the side when they had a lot of experienced players around them. Now there doesn't seem to be any real leaders on the side - Lacey and McGlynn were two magnificent players whose legs have given out, Michael Murphy looks in danger of being flogged to death, if a manager wants to play him in the middle of the pitch he simply can't expect him to be going box to box, it's simply not his game and he's not mobile enough. McBrearty is up front trying to do everything himself. They are a shambles.

Donegal could do a lot worse than Pete McGrath right now, he was able to organise Fermanagh and set them up very well defensively. I'm sure Lacey and McGlynn will now call it a day but if Donegal get MacNiallais and McLoone back in might help in some way.

There seems to be a huge age gap between the Donegal team, you have McGlynn, Lacey and McGee now over 30. Then you have the likes of Murphy, McElhinney and McGrath who were part of the u21 side which lost to Dublin in the final. Apart from that, there seems to be a massive gap in any sort of talent until you hit McBrearty and Ryan McHugh. If you look at the majority of top sides now they will nearly all have the nucleus of their team in the age group around 24-30, there's not much in Donegal there.

It''s all about possession, Bomber, and playing a system as a team. The moves have to be practiced over and over . Players need to know what to expect from the others and vice versa. Older players have experience that younger ones don't.  If you take a couple of older lads with loads of experience and replace them with young lads with none it is going to be very challenging.
Galway have been doing the iterations for a bit longer.

[Captain Obvious]

Donegal have landed about 7 or 8 players into the starting team without any real Championship experience.

Look at the team yesterday - Ward, McGee, Brennan, Gallagher all started when it would have been their first year of Championship football. In addition to that they've also had Ciaran Thompson, Michael Carroll and Cian Mulligan starting Championship football this year who are in the same boat.

Kieran Gillespie saw a few appearances last year in Championship but isn't experienced at this level, even the likes of Hugh McFadden and Eoghan McHugh haven't seen much before last year so you're looking at a side where two thirds of it have been mostly unexposed to Championship football.

You have to lay the blame at Gallagher's door with this, I think some of these lads should have seen more time and been phased into the side when they had a lot of experienced players around them. Now there doesn't seem to be any real leaders on the side - Lacey and McGlynn were two magnificent players whose legs have given out, Michael Murphy looks in danger of being flogged to death, if a manager wants to play him in the middle of the pitch he simply can't expect him to be going box to box, it's simply not his game and he's not mobile enough. McBrearty is up front trying to do everything himself. They are a shambles.

Donegal could do a lot worse than Pete McGrath right now, he was able to organise Fermanagh and set them up very well defensively. I'm sure Lacey and McGlynn will now call it a day but if Donegal get MacNiallais and McLoone back in might help in some way.

There seems to be a huge age gap between the Donegal team, you have McGlynn, Lacey and McGee now over 30. Then you have the likes of Murphy, McElhinney and McGrath who were part of the u21 side which lost to Dublin in the final. Apart from that, there seems to be a massive gap in any sort of talent until you hit McBrearty and Ryan McHugh. If you look at the majority of top sides now they will nearly all have the nucleus of their team in the age group around 24-30, there's not much in Donegal there.

Gallagher didn't help things by flogging the U21 players this year. Had them playing in the McKenna cup instead of the seniors and overplayed them in the NFL. The Donegal U21s had a right good chance of winning the All Ireland but the Dubs were too fit and fresh for tired team. Donegal seniors maxed themselves out for the NFL this spring from beating Tyrone well and holding them to just 0-6 in March to getting beat out the gate by Tyrone in June. The writing was on the wall for Donegal before yesterdays game.

[Gael85]

Great to see Michael Meehan back playing for Galway yesterday.

[Maroon Manc]

Great to see Galway respond to the horror show the last day although surprised at how poor Donegal were but the warning signs were their with the dreadful display against Tyrone.

Power did well, kickouts were good and he hits them with a better trajectory then Lavelle does and the pen save and follow up save were great keeping. That was easily Flynn's best performance in a while, playing with FOC & Conroy clearly doesn't work and I hope we never see the 3 of them starting again. I thought Ian Burke did well, his pass for Heaney's first goal was superb and not many players would have taken it on. Once again we're all fully aware of the limitations of the full back line and how it will be exposed next Sunday but its great to see a bit of fight in this bunch and there's plenty of hope for for the future.

[Cunny Funt]

Was at the game. Donegal were shocking. A shambles of an outfit.
Galway are best team in Connacht despite their blip against Rossies. If they can get a win in Croke they could be hard to top.

Losing by 9 points at home in a game Galway could have lost by 15 is a quare blip. Roscommon deserved their Connacht success they beat the team that Mayo couldn't comfortably but the championship is in the business end now and look at the odds to see who people think are the best in Connacht.

We'll find out more about Galway next week but i feel that game yesterday said more about Donegal than Galway.

[Syferus]

Was at the game. Donegal were shocking. A shambles of an outfit.
Galway are best team in Connacht despite their blip against Rossies. If they can get a win in Croke they could be hard to top.

Galway are the third best team in Connacht.

[ballinaman]

Galway need to appeal if Kyne is not suspended for next weekend.

[Manning18]

It was great to see Meehan getting some time on the pitch

Legitimately, hope he avoids injury and finishes his playing career the way he started it!

I don't mean to be a spoil-sport but Meehan has been a glorified mascot for Galway since he was added to the panel. With Armstrong out for the CF and Galway shoddy on frees the fact Meehan made no appearance spoke volumes about his role, much more than coming on in a match that had been over for 40 minutes. Apparently he's not going very well in training, but honestly that shouldn't come as any surprise given he has a bum ankle. Walsh either misled Meehan or thought his ankle had magically healed itself, I don't know which of the two scenarios make him look worse. Either way, a return for a player who was unwilling to admit his enforced retirement a few years ago was even what it was, retirement, would have been an easy sell.

I hope the best for the lad because in terms of pure talent he is one the best players I have ever witnessed and he seems a good guy to boot, but no matter what happens this is not a fitting end for a great player. I hope he goes into coaching because he has a lot to give still to the sport and that would be a more fitting finale to his story than this sideshow.

The weekend Meehan returned, he kicked 12 points in a club game. His first challenge game he got 1-3 from play. Ive heard he was badly off the pace in a subsequent game against Kerry, but that was coming off the injury to his other "good" ankle. On all club action seen of him in the last 2 years, he's comfortably in the top 10 forwards in the county, nothing to do with him being a big name. Bringing him back in was very fair at the time.

There's only space for 2 inside forwards in Walsh system, or 4 overall. Comer has to be one. Then youve Army playing well, Ian Burke had a good debut yesterday. Danny Cummins was all star nominated last year and cant get a look in now. Lundy can't get a squeak, same with Sice who's been our most consistent performer for a few years. Galway have problems elsewhere but the forwards have a lot of depth. I suspect he's doing ok, just not to say, Armstrongs level at the moment. The way Shane Walsh talked about him coming back in, saying they were in awe. Can't be bad from a team perspective having him there. If he's happy enough, then its all ok.