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Very impressive result from Donegal, how many of those u21's would expect to be in the starting 15 come the summer?

Hard to know how many will start but 16 of them featured at some stage during the league campaign & I'd say 5 or 6 of them would be nailed on starters with a number more on the bench.

That's a seriously young team, will be interesting to see how they fare come the summer. On a somewhat related note, I was listening to the Crossmaglen piece on OTB podcast from last week - ten of their 1997 team were U21.

The biggest issue for them would be the physical nature of championship football at the top level. Some of these lads will need another year or two before they are at full physical strength & the way Mayo bullied them in the second half last Sunday would lead me to believe that this summer might be a bit too soon for them.

Very impressive result from Donegal, how many of those u21's would expect to be in the starting 15 come the summer?

Hard to know how many will start but 16 of them featured at some stage during the league campaign & I'd say 5 or 6 of them would be nailed on starters with a number more on the bench.

Why always Mayo?

Why always Tyrone?

Why not?

More than a whiff of the blindingly obvious about this.

Just as well this game didn't count for anything important or Cormac Reilly could add Donegal to Mayo as counties he might be well advised to steer clear of In all seriousness though, how a man with no balls of any description gets to referee big county games is beyond me.

Having said that Donegal got a big lesson today & when push literally came to shove they were found wanting. Rory Gallagher has plenty to work on in the coming weeks.

Every team has a defensive system & I can never remember a time when teams didn't have a defensive system. The difference nowadays is that the top teams have defensive systems that work & the best teams have defensive & attacking systems that work.

Even Donegal, blamed by many for inventing defensive, negative football, now have the best of bot with a tight defensive system & an exciting attacking aspect to their play.

All any team can do is make the best of their resources but one thing is sure, without some sort of defensive system you are toast.

Kerry were very good but Cork were appalling. How many Kerry players got the black card? There was no way they were letting Cork in for a goal in the 2nd half.

Kerry footballers wouldn't do that would they?

No way Kerry footballers would get involved in that kind of disgraceful carry on.

He must have meant Tyrone or Donegal.

An awful lot of oul cobblers being spoken about the Donegal U21's being out on their feet paying 2 games a week.

These young lads can't wait for the next game with both Donegal teams going so well, besides which if they weren't playing midweek they would be training instead & injuries can be picked up in training as easily as playing. Momentum & confidence are huge factors in the success of any outfit & Declan Bonner should be delighted that so many of his players have had exposure to senior football & done well. It can only add to them as players.

As far as Rory is concerned, he is trying to meld a squad of rookies & old hands into a championship team that has Ulster in it's sights. He won't be able to do that if he can't play his key players week in week out.

In what will probably be a forlorn attempt at getting this thread back on track, I think Mayo will win this because their need is greater than Donegal's.

I don't think Donegal want to face the Dubs without Ryan McHugh & would prefer the unbeaten record to keep climbing till AI semi time & then when it is a proper mill stone round their necks & the media are going into overdrive,  cream the feckers.

We could play our entire club championship programme in that gap.

We have done it & more than once

Will Donegal be resting their U21 players or what given the semi v Cavan is on next Wednesday?

I would think some of them, at least, will be rested. Doesn't leave a lot of options though.

The word from Donegal is that Rory Gallagher doesnt give a damn about the u21 championship and wont be resting any players.

Might be an opportunity for a bet on Donegal opponents in either the semi  (v Cavan) or the final (either Derry or Armagh) as the U21 semi is this Wednesday and the final the following Wednesday, especially if some of Donegal's bigger names at U21 get more game time with the seniors in the Monaghan and Mayo games. The fact that there was extra-time and a replay against Tyrone probably wouldn't help matters.

The U21's who are involved in the senior team are loving life at the moment & can't wait for the next game to come along. At their age two games in a week is no big deal & as the old saying goes "playing beats training any day of the week".

Our last two games are Monaghan and Mayo.

I'll be shocked if we make the final. Get through those two games with no injuries or suspensions, and it will be a job well done for this year. A hammering by the Dubs in Croke Park is of use to no one.

There will be a lot of wonky results as each team tries not to finish in the top two with Dublin! Donegal and Mayo have renegaded on trying to win League semi-finals in recent years!

I think Donegal would quite fancy a run out in the wide open spaces of Croke Park at the moment. They have momentum & a bunch of young fellas who will run all day.

I don't think they will worry too much about winning it but they wouldn't mind seeing where they are at against Dublin at HQ.

Assuming Monaghan win today there would be four teams on 7 points & I think the finalists will come from that group.

Donegal have Monaghan at home & Mayo away.
Tyrone have Mayo at home & Kerry away
Monaghan have Donegal away & Dublin at home
Dublin have Roscommon at home & Monaghan away.

Looking at those pairings I would put my millions on a Dublin V Donegal final.

Targeting key players with innocuous fouling. Knees to the back of heads. Gut punching. Reffing the game. All good stuff. I'd be proud of Tyrone if they'd done the same. The more inexperienced Tyrone players will learn loads from this. The likes of Bradley experienced the difference between normal football and trying to play in the depths of hell.

I have a feeling that may have been a compliment but I'm not 100% sure!!

Fairly opens up the Ulster championship