Messages

So is it true that Jim McGuinness is pulling out of the McKenna cup and Donegal will enter their u.21s?

Well, if you think about, putting in the DL U21's wouldn't mean that Donegal are pulling out of the competition. The main issue is the relevance of the competition in relation to the preparation of the Donegal team and in my view he has point. He felt that is was extremely hard to prepare the "team" when the majority of his players were heavily involved with their respective 3rd level teams (College / University Vs County), thus development of the squad was almost non-existent.

Here's an article that should explain his views with a bit more clarity than maybe I am making:
http://donegalnews.com/2012/07/07/mcguinness-set-to-assess-mckenna-cup-entry/

They are not the only County with a lot of college players, he needs to wind his neck in a bit.

Absolutely, I agree with you on that he's not the only county manager affected by this nor is he the only county manger to voice his concern about these competitions. However, winding ones neck in would probably be a different matter all together.

John Maughan, of Mayo, who managed NUI Galway is another county manger who voiced his concerns about the inter provincial leagues in 2012 and he is in the privileged position of having managed inter-county and 3rd level teams.

It's a fair question and one I pondered many times however I seriously doubt if its an issue in the GAA, I mean its not as if a team has come from no-where and won an All-Ireland in the last year or two... Oh, hold on a sec

Assuming that you know and are aware of the current system that the GAA have in place with the ISC regarding PED's then there should be no ambiguity here and as such you wouldn't be left in a pondering state. And to be more precise, making a damning statement on the last two All-Ireland winners surely you couldn't be overlooking the current training methods that Dublin & Donegal are involved in.

GAA player's are tested to the same standards that professional Rugby players, Cyclists and Olympic athletes are in this Country. One of the only differences being that blood testing has yet to implemented as all samples are urine based. Which is soon to be reviewed given the current problems this places on teams and players. RE: Jackie Tyrrell & Paddy Hogan of Kilkenny after this years Hurling Final; this being the most recent example as there is countless occasions of this.

Players & teams are to be tested randomly throughout the year at their training venues. Missing such a particular training session results in a County Board fine of approx. €500. Once the All-Ireland series begins i.e. Quater Final onwards, in football 3/4 players are randomly selected after the game to give urine samples. If actually found and proven guilty I think it results in a heavy County Board fine and a lengthy ban of the player from the GAA. 

So is it true that Jim McGuinness is pulling out of the McKenna cup and Donegal will enter their u.21s?

Well, if you think about, putting in the DL U21's wouldn't mean that Donegal are pulling out of the competition. The main issue is the relevance of the competition in relation to the preparation of the Donegal team and in my view he has point. He felt that is was extremely hard to prepare the "team" when the majority of his players were heavily involved with their respective 3rd level teams (College / University Vs County), thus development of the squad was almost non-existent.

Here's an article that should explain his views with a bit more clarity than maybe I am making:
http://donegalnews.com/2012/07/07/mcguinness-set-to-assess-mckenna-cup-entry/

I WAS THINKING THERE WITH MY COUNTY BOARD CHAIRMAN'S HAT ON THERE! I WOULD BE ALL FOR A HOME TIE FOR DONEGAL, LIKE EVERY OTHER COUNTY.

What can they do to the ground? there is limited space around the actual area to make bigger or indeed safer.

I'm not certain on this now, and would happily be corrected if someone knows more, but I think that the capacity was reduced on health and safety grounds relating to the lack of 'proper' exits and surfacing of the entrance roads.

Would love this to take place in Ballybofey.

Exactly, hope that's the way it tunes out.

i think there would be a lot of disappointed people if this was the case. but only having 12,000 people into see this fascinating game would be shooting themselves in the foot. If the match went to Clones could the Donegal board still not get all the gate receipts? They would get 36,000 easily.

Im over the moon that we are at home, Celtic Park to my knowledge has not been packed since 1994 for a game, when indeed we played Down! this game may not be a sell out but it'll be the best crowd we would have had for years.

Absolutely there will be a lot of disappointed people but wasn't there lots of very disappointed people only 11 days ago trying to get tickets for the final. It happened in 2005 with Armagh but this time round being champs surely Donegal would possess a bit more clout and tell the Ulster council to get te. Not sure how much or what % they would stand to net from gates at Clones. But in this case it wouldn't be about that; running out onto your home pitch as Champs would be special and in my view should not be relinquished regardless. 

If the DL county board were to act quickly on this one it wouldn't take much to sort out the few things that the Slattery report wants fixing, meaning that the effective capacity of Ballybofey would be just under 20K. And there is time like.

Making it an all ticket event would sort out any over crowding issues, Has be to Ballybofey

[And there's another person who if he was here would be out of the room as well.]

The full indo article (apologies for lack of paragraphs, cutting and pasting from my phone.) Jim's language is extremely emotive. Having not read DB's book you would assume he wrote something very close to the bone in relation to JMcG, which doesn't add up to what those who have read it report. Strange.


Jim McGuinness had just completed perhaps the great coaching journey of the modern era in Gaelic football an hour earlier, but when he walked into the post-match press conference it quickly became obvious that he had something on his mind.The positivity that had radiated from him all season was absent as he fixed his stare on a stopwatch strapped to his arm, clearly gathering his thoughts. He rose from his chair and returned briefly to the ante room that links the TV interview area and the dressing-room corridor.A representative from the Croke Park press office then re-entered to deliver a request from McGuinness to Declan Bogue, the Ulster-based journalist who had collaborated with Kevin Cassidy for the controversial book 'This Is Our Year' that led to Cassidy's removal from the squad last November, to leave the room. Only if his request was acceded to, it emerged, would he return to conduct any print media interviews.When McGuinness re-entered the auditorium he gave the background to the request and why, after 10 months, he was now addressing the vexed issue of Cassidy's contribution and seeking the author's removal. Bogue had been to all of Donegal's post-match press conferences this summer without any disapproval from McGuinness and had even been to the Donegal media night in advance of the final three weeks earlier.But now McGuinness, with the journey complete, was delivering what he felt was the necessary riposte in their time of glory."There were a lot of untruths in the book. There was a lot of things said about me. I've never broken court on it since the whole thing happened. I've held my dignity. I've let myself be castigated. And I did that because I gave somebody an agreement that I wouldn't break my court on it.Incorrect"There were a lot of things said in the book that were incorrect and untrue, some of it about me personally and about some of my players. The person who wrote that book had no researcher on the book to qualify what was said. The other people in the media that wrote fairly vile articles had no researcher to qualify the comments. It was an all-out attack for a couple of months on my character. I know what I've done, I know what I've coached, I know what I am as a person."So I'm not going to let somebody sit in a room and fill their pages tomorrow on the back of what we've done today when they in their wisdom degraded me as a person and some of my players," said McGuinness. "I'm not a two-faced person, I'm not going to be two-faced here and let somebody have their jam on both sides. It was a very hard period in my life, for my family and everybody else and I still held my dignity."Pressed as to why he hadn't responded at the time of the book's launch, McGuinness said there was little comeback for him. "If I challenged it at the time, it makes the story bigger and the people who've read it in the first place have made up their minds about it anyway. So why would I go over old ground, creating a bigger story, making it bigger and bigger and bigger and the people who have read it in the first place will have their own view? I'm not going to answer any more about it."And there's another person who if he was here would be out of the room as well. It was absolutely vile what he wrote, all on falsehoods. Absolutely vile that you could get away with that and degrade somebody to that level and feel then that you can write another article to rectify the wrong."It's wrong that people should act in haste and repent at leisure. It's not hard to get a researcher on a book. That's the end of it. I'm leaving if there's another question."

Who is Jimmy referring to here?

Vincent Hogan from the Irish Indo; after he called Jim: "The leader of sheep" captioned by the infamous picture of the team in a huddle around Jim back in November 2011 when the Kevin Cassidy incident was in full swing. Vincent then made a half arsed apology just before the Cork game in August.

Haha

Yep, here's is one the everybody can practice. It may be hard to grasp at first but I can assure you that it will become second nature to you.

Ok so, put your left foot forward and then immediately afterwards your right foot should come forward all the while readying you left foot once again to thrust forward and before your know it your walking.

And if I had ye a while I'd eventually have ye at the Right (Left) Step.

laoislad

Your pretty set against a pitch invasion. And to be fair, there is a lot to be said for the crowd not coming onto the pitch afterwards.

It appeared for the All-Ireland final last year that the Dub's didn't really bother with trying to get onto the pitch and fair play to them for that because given the late nature of the win in the dying seconds the fans were so overcome with joy and there is everything to suggest this may happen again. What I'm actually talking about is targeting the red netting that is used all around the perimeter apart for the Hill. It requires one or two guys taking one for the team so to say to create an opening and targeting that same space again. And there in lies the problem because the distribution of tickets is done more than likely to counter act this.

Once again I'm not suggesting that this what people should do or I would even condone such an action but this is what could be done.

[. Concentrate on one particular point around the pitch and overload them with loads of fans.]

Pick a weak point in the guard i.e. Concentrate on one particular point around the pitch and overload them with loads of fans. This is one sure way, as if one guard is broken then pressure will come on others.

Don't suppose you ever heard of Hillsborough have you?

I agree with Hardy.

I'm defiantly not suggesting that this is what should happen but as the poster asked this is how I feel fans could get onto the pitch.

Yeah heard about the Hillsborough disaster but I am not fully sure if the exact details. I guess that's why Hill 16 now has a new perspex fencing. Whether or not it is right is up for debate, but if fans really want on the pitch I don't think it would be too hard to orchestrate.

Yep, heard that there was a fair delay across Lifford bridge. The North-West News Group are out for only one thing.

Pick a weak point in the guard i.e. Concentrate on one particular point around the pitch and overload them with loads of fans. This is one sure way, as if one guard is broken then pressure will come on others.

If Donegal are lucky enough to lift Sam, I fully expect for the fans to be on the pitch.

Wondering if anybody can help me out with X2/x3 Premium Level tickets for this one. If you can, please message me back or PM me and if you's can't thanks all the same.