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Haha, but that takes away my last aim to play against an old club in the Comórtas Peile!

They're both decent suggestions, although I'd be reluctant to try and implement Wooly's without some support from the county in question.

Donegal beat Derry, Rossfan. 

19'
Latest: Cushendall 0-3 Na Piarsaigh 1-7

Neil McManus has missed two very scoreable frees for the Ulster champions and Na Piarsaigh have punished those misses, with Dowling (free), Peter Casey and Alan Dempsey pointing in quick succession to make the gap seven.

In fairness, I don't think McManus should have taken them as the missed frees came right after his marker played whack-a-mole with his head. It should have been concussion protocol time after that, and someone else should have had a go at the free, as even unconcussed, he wasn't going to compose himself in time.

Roscommon the much better team today, it wasn't much of a contest for 50odd of the 70 minutes.

Much like midway through the league last year, Donegal didn't really operate a defensive system and were then beaten man for man all ends up. They were second to every ball.

Gallagher's description is pretty much spot on:
http://www.donegalsporthub.com/rory-gallagher-we-were-beaten-by-the-better-hungrier-team/

On a side note, two wins from 13 games in the new ground in LK is awful. I get the reasons behind it but the rotation of games is a bit of a slog.

Congrats to the Rossies anyway - Cregger was excellent. The Connacht Champo thread this year could make a thousand pages.

Unfortunately, in comparison with the other two county grounds Letterkenny is anything but a fortress. The lads had some bad losses there, the Laois match in particular.

Get your tickets early for this one by the way - it'll sell out, comfortably - and enjoy the trip up!

While I do sometimes think that he may have been better off training up as a keeper, Hugh is occasionally exceptional in midfield at club level, for spells, but he has yet to put it all together really. One thing that's noticeable at county level is his reluctance to shoot - he really rakes them from distance for Killybegs.

And JoG2, if you have Colm Cavanagh and Cian O'Sullivan marked down as poor players you must have exceptional standards! Both lads have grown with responsibility, and are perfect role models for Hugh really.

Yeah, I have to agree with the above. The fines are an ineffective procedure really.

Anyway, the results are out, and as per DonegalSportHub:
"The two counties have each been hit with fines of €7,500 while Donegal full-back Neil McGee has been given a one-game ban."

Much like biting or eye-gouging incidents, from an administrative point of view it strikes me as strange that they feel comfortable enough with the evidence to place a ban, and yet place such a short one. If they'd come back with no ban (lack of evidence) or three games (we're confident that the incident took place) it'd make a bit more sense.

For the record, no other played deserved a citation, and credit to the committee for dealing with it quickly.

Credit also due to most on here for the level of discussion in this thread, a cut above what I'd find elsewhere. Now, on to the Rossies for me!

I was going to add a post here but really, there's already a longer, more measured and generally better discussion on this in the Division 1 thread for anyone interested 

Oh, I neglected to mention Leo's red. I love the fella, but a swing's a swing, and off you go I'm afraid. The lack of control and indiscipline in the approach to the ref and pushing matches with opponents spills over into the indisciplined tackling, I'm sure of it.

On a lighter note, delighted with the progress of the ladies team so far this year. They need to be in Div. 1 really and it looks like they might be next year.

Edited to add: It was a shame for the Kerry hurlers that their big day didn't go their way, and I hope they bounce back and give staying in 1B a real crack. I'm glad to see that the Donegal game next week is a double header with the hurlers too - hopefully they can give Down a match.

Looks like it's Rory's team now, for better or worse! An awful lot was made of little after the Mayo match, but I wasn't pleased with the attitude and discipline today. Aside from holding the team to a moral standard that I probably don't always meet myself - that sort of approach isn't going to help you win any matches!

About the specific incidents, Donaghy's was an awful way to start the game, and just an awful challenge, while both lads should have been off for the first red. Neither the provocation nor reaction was ok. The black cards were fine - harmless challenges really but black cards by rule. Shame for both players. I was annoyed with the amount of whinging that our lads did to the ref, especially Hugh McFadden, who could really stand to cut that out of his game. There was a million things going on, but to be honest, I'd rather not get caught reflecting too long on what the opposition did or didn't do, I just hope that Rory enforces a new attitude and approach, starting in the Roscommon match because that wasn't nice to watch and that attitude won't stand to you.

Now that that's out of the way, it was something of a spoiled game, but both teams can take plenty from it. Thought Donnachadh Walsh, Fionn Fitzgerald and Ryan McHugh were very good. Perhaps Kerry finished with a stronger team than they started with, although Colm Cooper was way, way off the pace and struggled to get and stay in position to deal with runners. Might be time for a tweaked role for him, as I'm sure that he still has plenty to offer.

Kerry should be quite happy, with the points and more importantly with the stress placed on the new players and a chance to see them in a very hard game. Donegal learned a tough lesson at the goal, and (although they weren't as bad as last week) at kick outs.

Congress coming up with new rules to highlight my inability to kick the ball out accurately to the left. Thanks lads!

Both teams should be quite happy. High standard for a mid-league match. Rather enjoyable for a neutral.

That's not unusual for the first couple of games of the league.

Should be a good match today. Whatever the result, I hope that it's played at a good pace, like last night's game in Croker. That'd do more to bring Donegal on than another heavy win against a relatively poor opposition performance.

Nice to see so many new faces for Donegal. May as well let them loose, at least from here until the break in the league.

The likes of Thompson, O'Brien, and McBrearty looked at a good level yesterday, and with quite a few of the new players out (including Carr & McClenaghan, who both have real potential) it's very positive. I wonder if, the day after one Burtonport man's defeat in the UFC, the most immediately important thing might have been Danny Rodgers' debut in goals though.

[Michael Murphy]

Mayo's to lose. Full forwards all over Ireland are on the piss in celebration.

Rory has promised to let Kieran Donaghy and Michael Murphy out of his pocket before he leaves

O'Caroll's an excellent player and really one of the key components of their runaway success of late, but that's not very accurate. He had a good first three quarters on Murphy in an u21 game six years ago, before Murphy came alive (and then blew the match with the missed penalty). Similar 1st / 2nd half dynamic in 2014. From what I've seen he also doesn't take Donaghy on directly very often.

Fair play to O'Carroll, I'm sure he'll have a great year and do well for himself and his career, and be back in plenty of time to get in great shape again for 2017. No harm at all to the lad and it'll give Dublin a chance to try something else. If there's ever a time where change can be an impetuous for success, it's those pesky 'hangover' years.