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Donegal's Martin Shovlin.  He's 52 (I think) and still playing..

Great commentary from Radio Ulster of the last 2 Donegal points -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/the_championship/14374310.stm

Would love to hear the Highland coverage!!

Second period of extra time in full 

http://www.highlandradio.com/sport/

Are any of the radio stations providing Live coverage of the Armagh v Donegal game ?

Long shot but does anybody know somewhere in New York that has TG4 and shows the live games on a Sunday...?

Over there for this weeekend and have my fingers crossed that they will show the St. Eunans V Crossmaglen game when they announce their schedule later in the week

Cheers..!!

At last night's bizarre meeting of the Donegal county board in Ballybofey, the balance of power effectively placed John Joe Doherty back in line to claim the vacant manager's seat.
The county board failed to ratify Declan Bonner and Charlie Mulgrew, who were not in attendance, as joint managers despite indicating all week that theirs would be the names put in front of the club delegates.

Such behaviour has been the norm in the north-west since Brian McIver opted out of the role of manager last month, and, as anticipated, things were far from smooth.

The farcical situation saw Doherty initially offered the post last Wednesday night from county board chairman Sean Kelly, only for the 1992 All-Ireland winning defender to hear 15 minutes later from the same man that the offer had been reneged.

It was said that during the first phone call, Doherty had requested a meeting to discuss the job, only to hear after a second call thereafter that his services were not required.

A proposal was passed last night that enabled Doherty to turn back the clock to the point of that first phone call. He will now be afforded the meeting that he had requested last week.

No date was set for this meeting but it appears that the Bonner-Mulgrew ticket is now back in second place at best as Doherty fields his requirements and objectives to the county board.

At the meeting last night, Doherty clashed with former manager Brian McEniff, who he felt had interfered in the selection process.

"I feel as though I have been very unfairly treated," Doherty said. "The impression that people are getting is that I have demanded money in one way or another and that is certainly not the case. I feel that I have been labelled in this way.

Doherty went on to say that he was also disappointed in the last few weeks that neither Bonner nor Mulgrew had contacted him before they accepted the position.

The partnership of Bonner and Mulgrew were informed it would be their names that would be put forward for ratification and the county board meeting was brought forward almost two weeks to enable that to take place last night.

Rumours stated both were unhappy at being effectively second pick, but Bonner dispelled these doubts on Monday evening when he stated that he and Mulgrew would not be withdrawing their application.

Last Wednesday's decision came after two nights of interviews that saw former player Jim McGuinness, Glenswilly boss Francie Martin and former St Eunan's and Glenfin manager Mickey Houston interviewed as well as Doherty and the Mulgrew/Bonner combination.

The selection committee, headed by the chairman Kelly, whose position also fell under question last night, also included county secretary Charlie O'Donnell, county treasurer Charlie Cannon, vice chairman PJ McGowan and former county player Sean Ferriter.

Donegal football has been in turmoil since McIver resigned from the manager's position at September's meeting of the county board. Having returned to the role last autumn, and only one year into a three-year term, a vote of no confidence confronted the former Ballinderry manager.

Although his continuation in charge was not even on the agenda for that September meeting, McIver had heard enough and decided to leave the county he took to the 2007 NFL Division One title.

Now, with the Donegal county board basically rolling the clock back a week, it is Doherty who is now in pole position for the job, although his appointment will have to ratified when the county board sit again

John Joe Doherty is back in the race to succeed Brian McIvor as Donegal manager.

Doherty was offered the position initially but failed to reach agreement on a number of issues


The position was then offered to Charlie Mulgrew and Declan Bonner, who were expected to be ratified at last night's County Board meeting.
However, Doherty addressed the meeting and will meet the interview panel again in the coming days.

Here we go again....

Cries from the gallery get rid of a top manager The Boot Room
By Brendan Crossan
05/09/08

IT was a desperately sad and undignified way for Brian McIver to end his time with Donegal earlier this week.

The Tyrone native not only deserved to see out

his current managerial arrangement in the north-west, but he deserved better treatment than the shoddy kind afforded to him on Monday night.

Captain Kevin Cassidy articulated perfectly the treatment as being a "disgrace".

But it was regrettable to read the nauseating

comments of others in the county following McIver's demise.

These comments were akin to feeding raw meat to satisfy the howling cries from the galleries.

The comments also suggested that McIver was not the man for the job, that McIver was no longer a good manager and that somewhere along the road he had forgotten the art of man-managing young amateur footballers.

Of course, there are those in Donegal with conveniently short memories.

Only last year, McIver delivered the first piece of meaningful silverware – a National League title – since 1992.

He also guided the little parish of Ballinderry to an All-Ireland club title.

He is one of the most meticulous and respected managers in Gaelic Games.

The smug assessments of McIver's managerial credentials were not only embarrassing clap-trap, but populist in the extreme.

What the dissenting voices in Donegal should have said was that they didn't like the fact McIver resigned last summer and was audaciously re-instated.

In many ways, by going back, McIver made a rod for his own back.

What St Eunan's, Letterkenny, who tabled the no-confidence motion, should have said was that they didn't like McIver's scant use of iconic footballer Brendan Devenney.

In hindsight, McIver should never have gone back after resigning in Omagh last summer.

The new landscape that greeted him on his return was far less friendly.

An Ulster title and possibly an All-Ireland semi-final appearance was arguably the only combination of results that would've kept the wolves away from the door.

What kind of environment is that to work in? Essentially, McIver's position was on the verge of being untenable prior to their first League clash against Kerry.

With each passing year, the GAA becomes more like the English Premiership insofar as when results don't come, the manager goes.

Almost sub-consciously, the GAA has become infected by the warped etiquette of the professional soccer world; where no-one properly considers the repercussions because they're too caught up in the moment of demanding change.

It's an unhealthy position the GAA finds itself in, and one that sadly appears irreversible.

The effective purging of Brian McIver earlier this week has set the county team back by three to five years.

Ironically, Donegal football was crying out for someone of McIver's ilk, a manager who would bring discipline, professionalism and structure to the county.

Evidently, it was too much for some. Donegal have lost an excellent manager.

Now he's gone – but those in the gallery don't have to pick up the pieces.

Mulgrew (whether he is with Silgo or not) is currently working with St. Eunan's reserves and the players absolutely love the positivity that he brings to the team (not..!!  )

Kilcoyne is a nice guy but not an inter county manager.  He will never have the right personality to be one - the players would be running the team....

I believe the meeting last night was a rough one...  Highland Radio has been on the subject for most of the morning as well with McIvor also being interviewed...

Basically, he was faced with no choice but to tender his resignation.  One club tabled a vote of no confidence, and this was backed very quickly by others...

Was heading to Galway from Dublin for a Stag this weekend.  Before getting to Galway, we were going to Pallas karting at Tynagh. 

Anyway, traffic was jammers at Moate on Saturday lunchtime so I took the left for Tober.  Sat Nav recalulated, and rather than taking me back on the main Dublin/Galway road, it took me via Offaly and Ferbane..!!!!!    Had never heard of the place until following the story on here...

No sign of Declan and the lads though..

More interesting observations around the midfield Voice Of Reason.  The first I agree with, the second I don't. 

If you look at the game in Kildare this year, Gallagher/Rafferty tried to catch every ball against Earley/Brennan and got played off the park. Breaking the ball would have been the better option.  In all games since, when things were going against the midfield, the ball is being broken down a lot more. On Sunday we just didn't get enough of it though.  Walsh would have been another addition to Roper in this area on Sunday.

There's one reason why I feel Toye will not work at midfield.  His tracking back.  He gets exposed at half forward, a position where I believe it is easier to track your man.  This will be even harder for him at midfield.  I can't get my head around Toye at the moment though or even the past couple of seasons.  In the games he started in this year (I'm particularly thinking about Kildare and Laois) he has been poor.  Yet the games where he came off the bench (Tyrone and Derry) he has made an impact.  I really thought that sitting out the Tyrone game would have been the kick start he needed, but his peformance against Laois proved it wasn't

Gallagher/Kavanagh will be the midfield partnership I believe come June...

Hegarty hit the right footed frees in the past couple of games.  Doing alright at it too...

Another dissappointing game yesterday and it will be heard to see an Ulster Championship this year unless we can get a few more scoring forwards and a decent pairing in the middle of the field.

A lot of focus has been on the midfield (and rightly so) as we know that Devenney, Murphy and others can give us soem sort of forward option. I'm wondering what it takes to be a good midfielder nowadays though...??  I stand to be corrected here, but you could probably count on one hand the number of 'clean' catches by the numbers 8 and 9 for both teams yesterday...  Alot of breaking ball and free kicks in there...

Also J70 - can you explain this comment to me..? 

Is Rafferty really a serious option after all these years?

Rafferty opted out of the panel for a number of years because he could not give full commitment to the team. Despite numerous calls from management in the intervening years, he stuck to this decision until this year.  At 27 years of age there's still plenty of potential and time there.  A weights program like Kavanagh is going to be a help here..

Any word on a Donegal starting line-up..? Kavanagh is back from suspension but U21's will not be available..  rumour doing the rounds too that we will have a new full-forward..