monaghan v donegal

[Maguire01]

It is time to put up or shut up for Monaghan. The underdog tag has worn a bit thin at this stage. Either you have ambitions for an all ireland or you don't.

Gallant losers are just that "LOSERS"

Eh, hold on there mister - of course we have ambitions to win an All Ireland; what county doesn't? But when we're in our first quarter final, we're not going to get carried away.
Don't forget, Tyrone only lifted their first AI in 2003. They had been 'galant losers' (or sorry, is that just 'LOSERS') for many days in the run up to that.

Monaghan have come further this year than expected, and as for the underdog tag wearing thin, i expect in all honesty, Monaghan will remain the underdog no matter how far they progress. They've come, relatively speaking, from nowhere - all the other teams, with the exception of Sligo, have been to quarter final stage on a much more regular basis.

[Maximus Marillius]

Can any of the Donegal posters put up a reasonably argument as to why this crop of Donegal players going back 5/6 years always calf?

[The Bottom Brick]

I'd be celebrating too if my team had emerged from nowhere like they have.

I wouldn't agree with this J70. This team have been gaining momentum since 2004 when they beat Derry and Meath to win the Div 2 league. They also had good championship wins over Wexford and Louth and drew with Armagh in recent years.

What really helped this eyar was the Under 21 crop - they all trained together and the U21 run helped build up a lot of momentum early in the year. Plus, the emergence of the likes of Hanratty, Benny McKenna, Shane Smyth and Donal Morgan has freshened things up a lot!

[The Voice Of Reason]

Can any of the Donegal posters put up a reasonably argument as to why this crop of Donegal players going back 5/6 years always calf?

We're a bunch of chokers 

[taung]

From hoganstand.com;

Brian McIver has a parting shot at his players
03 August 2007

Brian McIver has a parting shot at his players
Brian McIver who recently resigned as Donegal team-manager after his sides defeat by Monaghan in the All-Ireland SFC third round Qualifier in Healy Park, Omagh had a few parting words about his players in a local newspaper. The up-front Ardboe native has told a Co. Board meeting that Donegal GAA people deserve much better in his analysis of last week-end's crushing defeat to Monaghan which ended their championship hopes for this season.
The Donegal side were routed in the final 20 minutes of that game and McIver described the period as 'unacceptable'.
"What happened in the closing minutes of the game in Omagh is totally unacceptable and must not happen again,'' he said.
"There are no excuses for what happened in the closing twenty minutes against Monaghan and also Tyrone. It is not acceptable.
"I would not accept it from a schoolboy team and most definitely not from a county team and it must not happen again. The Donegal side were in contention and we drew level after half-time. Indeed, we were in a great position to go on and win the game. Even when Monaghan scored their second goal I still believed there was enough time to turn it around.
"But at the end of the day, the players did not want it badly enough in the closing twenty minutes when the game was still there for the taking.
"There are a lot of good GAA people in Donegal and they deserved much better than we saw last Saturday evening in Healy Park, Omagh.
"The players must be prepared to wear their hearts on their sleeves. That is something that I have been encouraging them to do. But on Saturday evening last it was not the case,'' he concluded.

[Tyrones own]

  Just actually got to sit down and watch this game,
  Neil Gallagher is a dirty dog and should have walked twice and could have
  taken Barry Monaghan along with him for company. Not that it matters much now
  and its good enough for them. Refs need to start growing balls if they're to work
  at this level imo.

[orangeman]

I just knew by Mc Ivor's timing of his resignation that he was peeved ! This is proof - sound man is Brian.

[heurebag]

i heard karl lacy was out on the sauce a week before the monaghan game

[stew]

i heard karl lacy was out on the sauce a week before the monaghan game

Hoorbag you are living up to your name, good man! 

[J70]

  Just actually got to sit down and watch this game,
  Neil Gallagher is a dirty dog and should have walked twice and could have
  taken Barry Monaghan along with him for company. Not that it matters much now
  and its good enough for them. Refs need to start growing balls if they're to work
  at this level imo.

I take it the tv cameras missed incidents like Rory Woods laying a series of digs into Barry Monaghan's ribs then.

[J70]

Can any of the Donegal posters put up a reasonably argument as to why this crop of Donegal players going back 5/6 years always calf?

As McHugh was saying last week, its not just this group. Even in his term, Donegal would often exit the Championship with heavy hammerings at the hands of teams which would not necessarily be much better teams. The hunger and the players to lead and take responsibility when things are going wrong seems to be missing from a lot of Donegal teams. We've won All-Irelands at various levels when players like McHugh and Manus Boyle could be depended upon to step up when needed, but they seem to be the exception.

Devenney was saying that they had not done the necessary heavy training this year due to their concentration on the latter stages of the league, but if that's true and that is what it takes for Donegal to win a league, I think they'd be better off leaving the league to teams who can win it while doing the stamina work. Donegal need to be extremely fit to effectively play the type of game we play, but even allowing for that, the likes of Monaghan, Tyrone, and to a lesser extent (this year) Armagh, were able to counteract the running game by flooding their midfield and defence with players. Against Monaghan, the failure of Devenney and McFadden to win any long ball whatsoever, due to either being crowded out or failing to make the necessary space by making good runs, meant that we had no other option but to try to work it up the field. Apparently Devenney has trained very little over the past few months due to injury - if so, it showed, and you'd have to wonder why McIver didn't make the change much sooner. Monaghan's Woods and Finlay were able to deliver loads of good passes because they kicked early and because Corey could win high ball and Freeman had acres of space to run into in the corners. The contrast was unbelievable! It was particularly illustrated by Hanratty when he came on - he is exactly like Devenney was six or seven years ago when he was nigh unmarkable, with his pace and accuracy. Michael Murphy won a few good balls early on, but once he was pulled out the field, that option disappeared for Donegal. Maybe he'll turn into a top-class ball winner or maybe not, but its something we desperately need, along with getting the likes of McFadden to get some consistency into his game.

[Maximus Marillius]

J70 this does not answer my fundamental question, why od Doneagl players calf when the going gets tough, and particularly over the past 5/6 years. It si easy to say they don't have the balls for it....but why is that so

[J70]

J70 this does not answer my fundamental question, why od Doneagl players calf when the going gets tough, and particularly over the past 5/6 years. It si easy to say they don't have the balls for it....but why is that so

I'm sure the likes of Brian McIver and Mickey Moran are similarly perplexed! I don't know the answer, but it is clear that when the opposition gets to grips with our gameplan that we don't have other options at the moment, such as the big ball-winning full forward. As you say, that does not explain the various collapses, such as the most recent one against Monaghan when we gave up after Freeman's goal, despite being only four points down and having completely dominated possession for the previous ten minutes. There doesn't seem to be many players who are willing to take the responsibility and rally the team in those situations. You can rely on the likes of Karl Lacey, Barry Dunnion and Rory Kavanagh to plough on and give their all, but many of the others just seem to hide. Maybe its a tradition thing or a collective lack of self-belief, given that we won nothing whatsoever of note until the last 35 years, and haven't won a huge amount since then.

[J70]

Interesting piece on the Monaghan game from a former player. He doesn't spare the management from criticism either.

Hapless capitulation at Healy Park

Donegal's senior football season came to an abrupt end at Healy Park, Omagh on Saturday evening, writes Paul McGonigle.

The defeat was hard to take in itself but the utter capitulation of the side after Monaghan's second goal was really difficult to understand. After restoring parity with Rory Kavanagh's excellent finish early in the second period we then dominated for five more minutes but failed to add to our tally with Kavanagh who was one of our better performers guilty of two poor wides. Once Thomas Freeman stole in after a break ball from Neil McGee to finish past Paul Durkin then it was lights out for Donegal as we were unable to grab the game by the scruff and take it to our opponents.

The intensity with which Monaghan opened the game was a step up from what we experienced against Westmeath and Leitrim in the earlier rounds. They were much hungrier and more aggressive than us and their willingness to support and run for each other was not matched by the league champions. That said had Paul Durkan not made his apparently now customary blunder then there would have been nothing between the sides at half time. Maybe it's just me but do our goalkeepers in general make more basic errors than that of any other county's? The failure to collect a simple high ball while under no pressure was completely inexcusable at this level and the punishment was fitting.

Prior to this Donegal had opened the scoring with a quick long ball to big Michael Murphy who laid the ball off to Rory Kavanagh for an excellent finish. It was a tactic we all felt should be maintained as Monaghan were intent on flooding their defence as well as fouling their opponents in around the midfield area. However we persisted to overplay the ball in the middle third and invariably lost possession. This wasn't helped by the poor efforts of both Brendan Devenney and Colm McFadden in the full forward line. How Brian McIvor decided to remove Ryan Bradley from the game and leave Devenney on is beyond me and many other more neutral observers. At least Ryan was trying whereas the Eunan's club man touched the ball a full three times in the first half of the match. It was a soft decision from the bench and as one Adara man put it "an easy option" for the selectors.

It was particularly poor fare in that half but to go in at the break down only by that ridiculous early goal and with the wind at our backs we had right to feel a bit of optimism. After Kavanagh's third contribution and fifth point we looked like the only team in it. But football is a fickle game and the wides were compounded by Monaghan's first raid down field with a long high ball resulting in Freeman's sharp finish. After that we stopped. All over the pitch the heads went down and even off the pitch the management seemed uninterested as Monaghan sub Ciaran Hanratty was allowed to roast the old legs of Niall McCready. Up front Colm McFadden was trying to kick frees from the front row of the stand!! It was all very hapless indeed and completely devoid of any leadership.

Leaving the ground I told a clubmate that that would be the end of Brian McIvor. I have for some time expected him to go when the season ended and despite my worries over the Monaghan game I believed we had enough quality to beat them and that our season would not yet be finished. There is an element of the Donegal squad with neither the desire, pride and more importantly the intelligence to give the jersey the respect it deserves. This small minority needs to be weeded out once and for all if we are truly to fulfill our potential. It will be a difficult task for any new manager and unfortunately we now have to go through all the hoops to find the right man or men for the job.

With the senior club championship now to take centre stage we can only hope that we discover some new talent. For now we are left to support Monaghan, Derry and Tyrone as our Ulster representatives in the last eight.