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Its finally arrived... championship Looking forward to tomorrows game. Hoping Donegal can pull through. It will be dificult without Murphy but hopefully some of the other lads can step up to the challenge. Thankfully Neil Gallagher is fit again which is a big bonus for midfield where we struggled last year. I do not expect us to be as defensive this year.. but fear not a blanket will be in place somewhat Hopefully McFadden and young McBrearty will have their shooting boots on !

Also good luck to the minor team. And an interesting fact that there wil be two sets of brothers from the same club (Kilcar) playing between the two games.. Patrick & Stephen McBrearty and Mark & Ryan McHugh. Infact Kilcar will have 6 representatives on the day I think? (Eoin McHugh and Aodhan McGinley also playing minor)

Donegal-Abu I think we are entitled to question Donegal's style of play as it is awful to watch and makes refereeing even more difficult as it puts so many bodies close together that it is hard to decide what is a foul or not - maybe that is the plan. (have to say I thought referee did well yesterday though). On a positive though everyone knows their system which makes it earlier for replacements to come in as they know their role. At the minute Armagh do not have this which is why they got relegated.

Fair enough when its beats you your going to question it. But a lot of people above seem to blaming DOnegals style for Armagh losing... Armagh did that all on their own

So typical that all Armagh people are on here slating Donegals style now!!! Take your beating lads caus Donegal deserved the win after showing that determination. The funniest thing is we were without our best player Michael Murphy (who most say is the DOnegal team on his own) and our all star full back Neil McGee and others aswell like McGrath and Toye while McBrearty wasnt on form after his trial.

And no offence or anything... but oww boy revenge for the last few years sure is sweeeet

Out of curiosity who would peoples top 3 players in the country be. Personally i would have Michael Murphy in there. Also a big fan of Declan O'Sullivan. Thoughts?

so hard to choose just 3  but i would have the gooch, murphy & galvin i think. very hard to choose though. would be easier to choose 3 defenders, 3 forwards 2 midfield

Hope they take care of young McBrearty.  How old is he?

Paddys just 18. by the times he's Michaels age I fear he could be in the same boat.

[reserve]

How many operations has that lad had? I'd be worried about his longevity if i was a donegal supporter (and his health)

He has had 5 ops I think. Its obviously burnout. the amount of football he has had to play in last few years is crazy. minor, u-21, reserve, senior for club. minor, u21 and senior county. dcu underage & senior international rules. he is put under too much pressure and its having its toll now. hes a fantastic player but no body can sustain what is put through

I blame the club. Putting Senior County players out in reserve matches is the win at all cost attitude by Managers which are to the detriment of the player.

I mean playing reserve before he was old enough to play senior for his club. I presume from the day he turned 17 he has been on their senior panel

[Naw he only turned 22 during at end of summer there]

How many operations has that lad had? I'd be worried about his longevity if i was a donegal supporter (and his health)

He has had 5 ops I think. Its obviously burnout. the amount of football he has had to play in last few years is crazy. minor, u-21, reserve, senior for club. minor, u21 and senior county. dcu underage & senior international rules. he is put under too much pressure and its having its toll now. hes a fantastic player but no body can sustain what is put through

Holy fcuk that's crazy!! What age is he? Would he be 23 yet??

Naw he only turned 22 during at end of summer there

You do realise it's March?

Yes.. do you realise August is 6 months away so he isnt near 23 yet ?

August is basically only 4 months away, unless you wrote that post when your were in the DeLorean.

ah what difference does it make. making a mountain out of a mohill

[Naw he only turned 22 during at end of summer there]

How many operations has that lad had? I'd be worried about his longevity if i was a donegal supporter (and his health)

He has had 5 ops I think. Its obviously burnout. the amount of football he has had to play in last few years is crazy. minor, u-21, reserve, senior for club. minor, u21 and senior county. dcu underage & senior international rules. he is put under too much pressure and its having its toll now. hes a fantastic player but no body can sustain what is put through

Holy fcuk that's crazy!! What age is he? Would he be 23 yet??

Naw he only turned 22 during at end of summer there

You do realise it's March?

Yes.. do you realise August is 6 months away so he isnt near 23 yet ?

How many operations has that lad had? I'd be worried about his longevity if i was a donegal supporter (and his health)

He has had 5 ops I think. Its obviously burnout. the amount of football he has had to play in last few years is crazy. minor, u-21, reserve, senior for club. minor, u21 and senior county. dcu underage & senior international rules. he is put under too much pressure and its having its toll now. hes a fantastic player but no body can sustain what is put through

Holy fcuk that's crazy!! What age is he? Would he be 23 yet??

Naw he only turned 22 during at end of summer there

How many operations has that lad had? I'd be worried about his longevity if i was a donegal supporter (and his health)

He has had 5 ops I think. Its obviously burnout. the amount of football he has had to play in last few years is crazy. minor, u-21, reserve, senior for club. minor, u21 and senior county. dcu underage & senior international rules. he is put under too much pressure and its having its toll now. hes a fantastic player but no body can sustain what is put through

He had surgery on the knee yesterday. Will definitely not be back for the league and possibly not for the first champo game. but hopefully he can make it back before that. out for an estimated 6-8 weeks.

this is a huge blow for us. as we proved on Saturday, without murphy we fall apart. there is nobody to score, no leader, nobody to dictate play. i hope saturday taught the boys that we cannot depend on Murphy to do everything

Have you seen donegal play lately? If we beat them it won't be thru our full forward line. Really doesn't matter who plays inside - they'll be surrounded.

are ye serious ? Donegal are not defensive this year and we'll still being critisied. a lot of other teams are far worse and nothign is said. exhibit A : dublin on saturday night. no word of their defesivness

i was just imputting on your convo.. never said I was trying to prove anything to YOU. hmm I bet you wish that alright  

Michael Murphy single marked => Donegal put up a big score
Michael Murphy double marked (sweeper) => Donegal struggle for scores
Michael Murphy triple marked => Donegal desperately look for anyone to put the ball over the bar

Mayo let Cafferkey mark Murph on his own on Sunday and the big man had a good game. I fully expect that last Sunday will be the last time this year that Murphy will experience one-on-one coverage though. And as that happens you can expect him to be pulled out the field more and more and for the same mantra to come from the media about how we are not utilising him correctly.

But even single marked Murphy played deep alot the last day. And how many teams can afford to triple mark a player? Though I see what you mean, defenders close will swarm around him at the first hint of danger, and worry about other forwards later.
McFadden on the other hand is much easier to handle. This was the second time I saw Higgins make him look cumbersome. A bigger slower defender would suit McFadden better. There s no doubting McFaddens ability to kick the ball though. He might be the best bet to play in a deeper role if that is necessary.

sometime triple marking doesnt work..he scored a fine point in first half while being surrounded by 3 mayo defenders !

[its promising to see men go forward for us aswell though. i think its 6 different scorers we had today which makes a change from the murphy and mcfadden show !]

Have to say I was very proud of the Donegal lads today after their second half performance. they came out a different team and once things things went right we were flying. McFadden out at half forward and murphy in on edge of the square worked great today. to not have murphy in when a highball can be played in is a sin. McFadden was lookinglazy and downright useless this year but was forced to work when brought further outfield in second half today. caught some good ball there and some good passes in. Himself and Murphy v.good in forward. young mcbrearty had a good game too... he seems to be trying harder and goign back more.. not just giving up and standing there which is good.

Neil Gallagher had an exceptional game at midfield. won everything that came to him.. won most them clean in the air. he has been having a great year so far but today was exceptional. man of the match without doubt in my mind. his height is great at midfield. kavanagh was good until he was sent off which was unfortunate. he raised a hand but no way did he hit the buck as hard as was made out, i question whether he hit him at all.

half forward was ok.. mc hugh had a good enough game. ryan bradley was quiet enough today, as was reilly for most of it. he did a few good bursts in fairness though. when Mc Elhinney came on he did well, linked up some great ball and its great to see him back from injury!

backs were good aswell. second half they didnt give mayo a chance. was nearly added time before maybe got a score.. and it was a free. lacey good as always, mc loone good aswell but needs to mark his man closer. few times in first half he slipped up their. anthony thompson did well enough too.

Frank McGlynn did well, but not as well as some other games. none the less he cant be faulted. paddy mc grath had a good game and is having a good year. hes really developing. pity neil mcgee was out with flu but the big brother did step up. the mayo goal was a fault on him, he let the ball over his head into his marker and the goal came. however he did make up for it and had a very good game. very promising performance. he is a very strong player and i hope to see him get more starts in the half back line.. probably centre. hes strong and tough and wont let many men away, he put in some very good tackles and would be a good one for scooping up th braking ball.

Durcan also did well. some nice saves and caught a lot of balls that dropped short by mayo. as always his kickouts were good and accurate. he also varies them well.

overall good performance from donegal, even if against a not so good mayo team. should be a very good confidence boost though. shows the lads that when they try they do very very well and once they go on a burst they are hard to stop. dublin ext week is the big one but after their loss to down they mightnt be as hard as we think. b brogan will be a loss to them however they have plenty of other options.

its promising to see men go forward for us aswell though. i think its 6 different scorers we had today which makes a change from the murphy and mcfadden show ! If we cud get points from dublin we'd really be flying as i fancy our chances at home to armagh. cud even make a semi-final yet !!!

to be fair it is still pretty much the murphy and mcfadden show they contributed 12 points out of the 17 scored but it is still good to see a few other players come up the field and take opportunities and the 2 lads are getting more support this year than they did last year

Aw yea obviously Murphy & McFadden wil lways be our high scores. but its good to see 3/4 points even come from other players. the two lads cant score everything and its good to get other boys scoring.. cud boost their confidence to try more often