Messages

I wouldn't be so harsh on Carew, certainly he was found out against Mayo last year but he has done a decent rebuilding job on a team he inherited that was over the hill and has introduced a lot of new player who have equipped themselves fairly well.

Anyone care to have a crack at our lineup for Sunday. Don't think there are too many changes to what played the majority of the league. Presuming everyone is fit.....

1. Devaney
2. Harrison
3. McDonnell
4. Maye
5. Cawley
6. Egan
7. O'Kelly Lynch
8. McIntyre
9. Murphy
10. Ewing
11. Mark Breheny
12. Can Breheny
13. Kyle Cawley
14. Hughes
15. Marren

The big call is really whether Carew starts with Brian Egan or Kyle Cawley.

Feeling pretty confident about this one, think the two teams are at a similar level despite what the Rossie think. It's hard to know whether we're a better team than last year. Ross Donovan and Kelly are huge losses but great to have McIntyre  back and good to have Charlie fit again.

The achilles heel of midfield still remains, ideally we'd like to free McDonnell up here to partner McIntyre but then we have a big gap at full back.

Pat Hughes is the key for us, if we can get good ball in for him then I don't think Roscommon have a back physically capable of stopping him. I also think we have an edge in mobility around the middle of the pitch, if we can hold our own on kickouts then I think we will shade it.

Collins is well able for Mr. Hughes. Sligo have a bit of ludraman for a manager and that's part of the reason I've every hope we'll out-fight Sligo on the field and out-think them off it. Has no clue how to adjust when plan A fails imho.

We'll see, he certainly has the height on Collins.

Feeling pretty confident about this one, think the two teams are at a similar level despite what the Rossie think. It's hard to know whether we're a better team than last year. Ross Donovan and Kelly are huge losses but great to have McIntyre  back and good to have Charlie fit again.

The achilles heel of midfield still remains, ideally we'd like to free McDonnell up here to partner McIntyre but then we have a big gap at full back.

Pat Hughes is the key for us, if we can get good ball in for him then I don't think Roscommon have a back physically capable of stopping him. I also think we have an edge in mobility around the middle of the pitch, if we can hold our own on kickouts then I think we will shade it.

There's definitely an ill-conceived arrogance about Roscommon that you can't deny. They think they are a couple of levels above teams like Sligo and Fermanagh when in reality they aren't. I've been hearing plenty of bravado about their team of superstars who have been coming for years but I think it has yet to dawn on them that they're not actually that good.

Excuses can be made for the result against Sligo but Sligo won that game despite getting cleaned in midfield, your much vaunted forward line is actually pretty ordinary and I wouldn't swap it for ours in any means. Our problems are well pronounced, we have the smallest team in the country and will just end up getting bullied and failing to win primary possession against the serious teams but I'd be hopeful we can take Roscommon again next year.

Roscommon are at that delusional level where they think they are miles ahead of counties meandering along causing the odd shock but effectively doing nothing and think they are not far off the top teams in the country. The reality is they are a little better than the meandering counties and absolutely miles off the top level counties.

It could get very ugly for them in Div 1 this year, particularly in the latter stages of the league when teams are scrambling for results.

[really went to town on him during the week]

Carew has agreed a new two year deal. O'Hara really went to town on him during the week, some of it with merit and some over the top. He's had a nice bit of rebuilding to do with the age profile of the squad he took on so hope he kicks on from here. How many of the minors will progress to the seniors next year do we think? Would probably say Cummins and McGuinness are two best physically equipped. No real standout club players not involved right now excluding those who didn't make themselves available like McIntyre.

What's the sense in that?

He had a go at him for dropping McDonnell and accused him of scapegoating him as well as his tactics. I don't think O'Hara is one of those people who will ever be satisfied which might not necessarily be a bad thing either.

Really don't see Sligo improving beyond their current level in the coming years. We just don't have the size and it was the same with the minors. Paul Durcan is 10 years gone from the county scene now and we still haven't replaced him.

The two games to end the year were very disappointing and hopefully Carew will take something from them, I think he's done a reasonable job of freshening things up though.

Carew has agreed a new two year deal. O'Hara really went to town on him during the week, some of it with merit and some over the top. He's had a nice bit of rebuilding to do with the age profile of the squad he took on so hope he kicks on from here. How many of the minors will progress to the seniors next year do we think? Would probably say Cummins and McGuinness are two best physically equipped. No real standout club players not involved right now excluding those who didn't make themselves available like McIntyre.

Mc Stay / Mc Hale double act with Frankie Dolan as forwards Coach  / Cake as goalkeeping coach. 
This could be the ticket into dreamland for the long suffering rossies.

There's no diving specialist there so I don't know about it.

Who did O'Donnell have in for that in 2010? I presume you could get him back in.

Felt we were desperate yesterday and Tyrone could have won by whatever margin they wanted but were fairly content with just beating us. Impressed by Tyrone I must say, didn't give us a sniff of a goal chance and McCurry looks a class footballer.

Durcan, 2 McGees, McGrath,  R McHugh,  Thompson,  McGlynn,  Gallagher, McElhinney,  MacNiallais,  Toye, M McHugh,  C McFadden,  Murphy,  McBrearty

Thompson in for Lacey, otherwise unchanged.

I read that O'Connor had done his knee again.

Heard jigger damaged his kneecap. He's been really unlucky this year with injuries

Eoghan ban Gallagher been introduced to the subs bench for this game, was really impressed with him last year at minor level

Is he the only one of last year's minor side to get a call up for the Donegal team so far? McBrearty's brother was impressive last year too, how is he coming along?

I'd be hoping to see a few changes from the last day, not sure we have too many better options at the back sadly though and will probably need to keep McDonnell in there if Cavanagh is in the full forward line.

I'd start Gilmartin in midfield and move Hughes out there too, the two young lads have done well there but they're not natural midfielders and lack presence there.

Devaney
Donovan McDonnell Maye
Cawley Egan Flanagan
Gilmartin Murphy Hughes
Breheny Breheny Ewing
Marren Kelly

Not expecting much but hope the lads can put in a spirited performance and salvage a bit of pride after the last day, it wasn't pretty and we've a lot of guys like Egan, Donovan, Breheny, Kelly and Marren who have been around around for a while now and given a lot who didn't really deserve that humiliation.

Donegal missed plenty themselves. How exactly one team playing a blanket and hockeying another team playing a blanket would have done anything to convince them not using a blanket is the way to way I don't know.

Saying Kerry playing a blanket like Donegal is just complete and utter nonsense. They put a defensive system in place, and that is more acute when playing against a team who play a blanket like Donegal or Monaghan, but its nowhere near what Donegal and Monaghan do.
Look at how Kerry or Dublin would set up against each other or against Mayo or Galway, and compare that to how Donegal would set up against Dublin, Kerry, Mayo or Galway.  Vast difference in approach.

It's not nonsense. Kerry had more in common with Donegal or Monaghan or peak Tyrone than Mayo or Dublin last year, a system totally predicated on stuffing the other team by having a lot of bodies back and breaking fast. I was at both of Kerry's semis and the final last year, it was plain to see that it was a far more 'modern' Kerry than the one under even Jack O'Connor. Fitzmaurice saw that he needed to tailor his team to guard against its weaknesses and exploit its strengths (JOD up until the semi replay, and Star for the final two games) and that was good management. On paper there's no way Kerry should have beaten that Mayo side or indeed even Donegal - their win was as much a triumph of a system as Donegal's was in 2013 or Tyrone in any of their winning seasons.

To say it's nonsense reeks of the romantic image of Kerry football, this Kerry team learnt its lessons from being burnt to the the ground tactically by northern teams a few too many times for their liking.

I'd suggest you watch the final back - if you think both sides were playing the same defensive system.
In terms of Donaghy's goal from Durkan's mistake - keep an eye on where Donaghy and Geaney were located for the Donegal kickouts throughout the game - it wasn't happenstance that Donaghy turned out to be where he was - Kerry were putting pressure on the Donegal kickout all the way throughout the game; not exactly a hall-mark of the blanket.

One reason why a lot of people say Kerry were so defensive in the final was because they weren't as daft/stupid as Dublin in the semi - when you compare Kerry's defence to the Dublin's complete and utter lack of a half-back line in the previous game Donegal played, of course Kerry look defensive - however for the most part it was just a standard half-back line.

Also people saw the poor quality of shooting for the Kerry team, then said it was a poor match and then said it was a poor match because of two sides playing defensively. Overall Kerry had 13 different players take shots for points in play in the final - really hard to see how Kerry were ulta-defensive with those sorts of numbers shooting. To do a bit of speculation in the rest of Kerry's championship games last year there were running around 50% in terms of shots from play - if they had performed at the same level in the final  they would have had an extra 7 points (which would have been a 10 point victory margin) and that's before you consider the other Kerry goal chances - there was the ball that hopped over Durkan's head and went narrowly wide, the long-range dropping effort that Durkan pushed onto the post and the effort that Geaney threw a foot at that went narrowly over the ball that could very easily have ended up in the back of the net. All hypothetical but how did Kerry have such an amount of chances playing uber-defensively?

Kerry might not have been playing 6 backs, 6 forwards and 2 in the middle but the notion that they were as defensive as Donegal is well wide of the mark.

The point about 13 different players taking shots from play makes little sense if you're trying to use it as a reason for Kerry not being defensive last year. The Ulster teams all have reputation for being very defensively set up which is a fair point as they are but how many times have we seen McGlynn, Lacey, the McGees and Thompson up kicking points at the other end of the pitch? It's a regular occurrence and using your logic would seem to suggest that Donegal aren't ultra defensive either.

You don't really seem to be too convinced by what you're trying to argue there.

As I said I'd suggest watching the game back again and see what your opinion of how defensive Kerry were.
Overall there's no way that Kerry were anywhere near as defensive as Donegal in the final.

And as I said, you don't seem to be convinced of the argument you're trying to put forward. Referencing 13 different shooters from play seems to be clutching at straws. Donegal had 7 different scorers from play to Kerry's 4 in that same game. But stats don't really give you a lot when you look at them in isolation and they can be quite easily manipulated to suit an agenda like you've done there.

There's absolutely no doubt Kerry were very defensive last year and it would take an extreme level of delusion not to realise that. There's nothing wrong with what Kerry did and they were deserving winners on the day and the season but it didn't fit well with the good vs evil narrative that has been played out in recent years about certain counties and their style of play.

Kerry turned to the dark side and certain people don't want to face up to the reality of it.

Donegal missed plenty themselves. How exactly one team playing a blanket and hockeying another team playing a blanket would have done anything to convince them not using a blanket is the way to way I don't know.

Saying Kerry playing a blanket like Donegal is just complete and utter nonsense. They put a defensive system in place, and that is more acute when playing against a team who play a blanket like Donegal or Monaghan, but its nowhere near what Donegal and Monaghan do.
Look at how Kerry or Dublin would set up against each other or against Mayo or Galway, and compare that to how Donegal would set up against Dublin, Kerry, Mayo or Galway.  Vast difference in approach.

It's not nonsense. Kerry had more in common with Donegal or Monaghan or peak Tyrone than Mayo or Dublin last year, a system totally predicated on stuffing the other team by having a lot of bodies back and breaking fast. I was at both of Kerry's semis and the final last year, it was plain to see that it was a far more 'modern' Kerry than the one under even Jack O'Connor. Fitzmaurice saw that he needed to tailor his team to guard against its weaknesses and exploit its strengths (JOD up until the semi replay, and Star for the final two games) and that was good management. On paper there's no way Kerry should have beaten that Mayo side or indeed even Donegal - their win was as much a triumph of a system as Donegal's was in 2013 or Tyrone in any of their winning seasons.

To say it's nonsense reeks of the romantic image of Kerry football, this Kerry team learnt its lessons from being burnt to the the ground tactically by northern teams a few too many times for their liking.

I'd suggest you watch the final back - if you think both sides were playing the same defensive system.
In terms of Donaghy's goal from Durkan's mistake - keep an eye on where Donaghy and Geaney were located for the Donegal kickouts throughout the game - it wasn't happenstance that Donaghy turned out to be where he was - Kerry were putting pressure on the Donegal kickout all the way throughout the game; not exactly a hall-mark of the blanket.

One reason why a lot of people say Kerry were so defensive in the final was because they weren't as daft/stupid as Dublin in the semi - when you compare Kerry's defence to the Dublin's complete and utter lack of a half-back line in the previous game Donegal played, of course Kerry look defensive - however for the most part it was just a standard half-back line.

Also people saw the poor quality of shooting for the Kerry team, then said it was a poor match and then said it was a poor match because of two sides playing defensively. Overall Kerry had 13 different players take shots for points in play in the final - really hard to see how Kerry were ulta-defensive with those sorts of numbers shooting. To do a bit of speculation in the rest of Kerry's championship games last year there were running around 50% in terms of shots from play - if they had performed at the same level in the final  they would have had an extra 7 points (which would have been a 10 point victory margin) and that's before you consider the other Kerry goal chances - there was the ball that hopped over Durkan's head and went narrowly wide, the long-range dropping effort that Durkan pushed onto the post and the effort that Geaney threw a foot at that went narrowly over the ball that could very easily have ended up in the back of the net. All hypothetical but how did Kerry have such an amount of chances playing uber-defensively?

Kerry might not have been playing 6 backs, 6 forwards and 2 in the middle but the notion that they were as defensive as Donegal is well wide of the mark.

The point about 13 different players taking shots from play makes little sense if you're trying to use it as a reason for Kerry not being defensive last year. The Ulster teams all have reputation for being very defensively set up which is a fair point as they are but how many times have we seen McGlynn, Lacey, the McGees and Thompson up kicking points at the other end of the pitch? It's a regular occurrence and using your logic would seem to suggest that Donegal aren't ultra defensive either.

You don't really seem to be too convinced by what you're trying to argue there.

[end who in a funny way made the debacle slightly less painful.]

Sorry for not posting til now - I'm not the type for ducking but just didn't get a minute to do it. Congrats to Mayo. Very strong all over and it will take a really, really good team to beat them. That game did them no good though. It was a disgrace and I lay the vast majority of the blame at the management's door. As Mano rightly said - we were lambs to the slaughter with absolutely no game plan. Some in Sligo are willing to give management a free pass because we've made some progress (weren't fighting relegation and beat a dreadful and totally complacent Roscommon team) but the magnitude of the mistakes must surely be taken into account. I never believed we'd win the game and didn't even back Sligo +7 but thought we'd be competitive. We should have been.

As for Hyde Park - thought it was grand. I took a longer route than most and had literally no traffic. Met a few sound Mayo folk (honestly - they exist - who knew!!!!) behind the goal at the town end who in a funny way made the debacle slightly less painful. They were sympathetic but Gaels (who know everyone has their pride) so they tried not to be, if you get my meaning. I'll remember them for that. Got a bagful of free protein shakes which was possibly the highlight of the day!!!!

Could have been my gang Magpie! We were there.

I dunno how ye could have been more competitive though. Forwards did very well. But it was always going to be a hard game to manage for Sligo. This Mayo team does not get much respect ( no Mayo team ever does really), but they are  probably the best we ve seen. Galway 98 - 01 would not have done that to a Sligo team.

Markievicz Park 2000

SLIGO 0-4 GALWAY 0-22

I'll never forget that day. Lashing rain, think Galway had 14 points on the scoreboard before we finally registered one, Neil Finnegan putting them over from all angles. We had just beaten Mayo in the QF at Markieveicz and would have went into that game with a good deal of confidence.

It was probably worse than Sunday as we had a good team back then and would strongly have fancied taking Galway.

[Carew's done a good job]

Mayo were outstanding today, there's a huge gulf between the two teams in terms of physicality and pace and we just couldn't cope with it. Tough on the lads to be on the end of such a humiliating result but the way football has gone now you need to have good big physical athletic players and they are in short supply in Sligo at the minute, it was the same story with the minors who put in a dogged display but they just couldn't cope physically with Galway and were lucky to get a draw.

Mayo's back line must be a big worry for them given the joy we had with the limited ball we did get but I would suspect they'll tailor their plans for more threatening opponents.

Pat Hughes was about the only player we had up to it physically. Carew's done a good job and we've got some good young players but hard to see us doing anything when we don't have seem to have any big physical players up to the standard in the county. Parsons has really blossomed into a superb midfielder, makes it all the more sickening as he could make a huge difference to this team.

Not looking forward to the Tyrone game, hopefully the lads can regain a bit of respectability.

Can't agree with that bit Sligoman. He sent those lads out today like lambs to the slaughter with no game plan. There was no sweeper, no blanket, no defensive structure nothing to make the game competitive. AOS cleaned an experienced defender like Hanley against Galway and he expected a raw 19 year old who was a midfielder until this year to try to keep AOS quiet. There was no attempt to cut off the supply line. The u21s he managed got a similar hiding against Roscommon in the championship. He got lucky against a cocky, arrogant, injury plagued Roscommon team.
Finally any clown would know Mayo were going to push up aggressively on the Sligo kick outs yet we started with 2 midfielders under 6 feet. Gilmartin may not be the greatest player but we needed him in there to try and make the midfield area a fair contest.
That's it, rant over

No doubt he got it badly wrong today but we showed some good performances toward the end of the league and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for today.

Very impressed with Cummins, McGuinness and Power today, felt they were our three standout players. We were very dogged in defence but just couldn't compete on kickouts against a far bigger side. I couldn't understand why we persisted in kicking long ball into a full forward line that wasn't winning the ball in the second half.