Messages

Great to see Mamdani win in NYC. Trump will be throwing the toys out more than usual.

He'll try to do more than that. He has already pulled federal funding for the desperately needed new railway tunnel under the Hudson as well as an extension of the subway line up 2nd Avenue into Harlem. He'll also try to make good on his promise to end the city's congestion pricing operation that started this year, although I'm not sure what authority he actually has on that front.

Most of all though, expect him to start sending ICE into the city in massive numbers to harass and intimidate (and worse in some cases) anyone with brown skin (and there are huge numbers in NYC). I'm sure there will be a few early am helicopter assault operations on various projects and in places like Corona, Queens along the lines of the one they did in Chicago last month when people, including little kids and the elderly, were dragged from their apartments in the middle of the night. He'll federalize the state National Guard too and send them in to supposedly fight crime under the guise of NYC being a lawless hellhole. Which it of course is not, but even if it was, that would be a policing issue.

Looking a wee bit better these past couple of games. The return of Robertson has made a huge difference, as has the step up in form by Bradley. Maybe Slot has learned that some new players need to be eased into it and learn what's needed to make the step up, just like Klopp did with Robertson and Fabinho back in the day. Hopefully that win tonight will also give them a good shot of belief to go to City and then hopefully beyond and put in some strong performances. They could easily lose to City regardless, but performance is the main thing.

Think the Trent reaction is over the top. Yeah, boo like f**k during the match, but the (presumably ) young bellends who vandalized his wall are brain dead scum. He earned his spot.

Slot hung those young lads out to dry with that bench. Feel terrible for young Nallo. Two appearances, two red cards within minutes for getting caught as the last man in a third string line up against a much stronger opponent. Hope the club rallies around and supports him.

Yep, does it really matter how they score their goals? They have superb weapons in Declan Rice's delivery and the ability of the likes of Gabriel in attacking the ball and scoring. Maybe teams will learn how to defend them better, but they've had this strength for quite a while. As said, they're just much tighter in defense now as well.

WTF does he keep putting Szoboszlai in at right back and then moving him back to midfield?

Bradley was decent enough on Saturday night, and if he's managing his minutes or whatever, just go straight to putting Gomez on as a direct replacement rather than messing with the whole midfield!

Salah scored an absolute belter, but was poor the whole night. Is it a service thing or is he that desperate to score he's drifting in centrally and then Bradley and the midfield don't have his as an option!!

Szoboszlai is bizarre. He has been superb this season (shades of Gerrard with the amount of ground he covers) and is one of the few physically adept players they have in midfield who can pressure the opposition and win dirty ball. Why you would move him back to full back when he is performing so well is beyond me.

Another issue is the combination of Kerkez and Gakpo on the left. Gakpo ALWAYS turns inside looking to go across the edge of the box. He never combines to put Kerkez in on the overlap (or underlap). The only time Kerkez was put in on Saturday was a simple ball inside the fullback from Jones (yeah, he passed the cross straight to Kelleher, but at least he got behind the defence for the first time). I watched a bit of Hungary's last game (Armenia?) and yes, the opposition wasn't great, but Kerkez was tearing up and down the left wing constantly, like he did with Bournemouth last year. Instead we have this deer in the headlights player who appears to be terrified of getting on the ball at either end of the field.

I don't know what Slot does with this. It will take time to build any kind of system, but right now they look to me like United did for most of the time under Amorim, a bunch of very talented players who look completely ill-equipped to deal with whatever system the coach is trying to impose on them.

Shucking performance. Physically bullied all over the field, second to every ball. I'm no expert, but to my eye a lot of the problems today came down to Mamardashvili being relatively uncomfortable on the ground against the press, meaning they ended up hitting aimless long balls which, even when they went near a Liverpool player, ended up gifting possession back to Brentford due to their physical advantage (or maybe their commitment). I don't know if they put ten passes together all day in the final third. I thought Palace and Chelsea performances were bad, but that was a new low. Even if they'd undeservedly stolen an equalizer at the end, their approach needs a total rethink. Slot has his work cut out.

[eg last yr you had St Pats and the Donegal amalgamation in the final, if the the Donegal team had of won, that was there season over and St Pats go forward.]

Amalgamations shouldn't be permitted for schools football at all.

Its a difficult one, I'm conflicted, on one hand I agree, on the other I can see an argument for it. However I can't agree with areas such as Belfast that have long established clubs being allowed to amalgamate. FFs get your finger out and put in the yards. St Brigids & St Galls are doing it. As for an amalgamation winning the Mac Rory, as in the Kerry championship, they should not be allowed to progress any further in the competition, the stand allow college should go forward, eg last yr you had St Pats and the Donegal amalgamation in the final, if the the Donegal team had of won, that was there season over and St Pats go forward.

It was actually Abbey VS who made the final last year (they beat SW DL in the semi), but I think it's a fair enough point.

I fully support the amalgamation though. It'll help us develop players by allowing those players to play at the highest schools level against those large northern schools.

I see two of the five amalgamated schools, Gaoth Dobhair and Glenties, have teams in the Markey again this year. Does anyone know if players have to choose one or the other?

Was more nervous than usual for this game, well more than I have been in recent years.
Should really have won with the amount of chances created but it's just not happening right now for whatever reason, thankfully it's not my job to correct it.

So many strikers being brought on I was half expecting Ian Rush to come on at one stage!

First win in 10 years for that lot at Anfield, what's rare is wonderful.


Looking like a battle for Top 4 is what we're going for this season!

Yeah, they could have won it, but every single game they've played this season has been the same. They could have won each of them, but they could easily have lost all of them! The team's defensive set up is all over the place, and just about every game turns into a game of basketball, end to end, with no controlled possession to be seen and whoever gets the winner being almost down to chance. And lately it's getting predictable: Liverpool will fall behind on the break, then eventually Slot will pile on the forwards and get an equalizer, only for the horribly unbalanced team to then secumb to a late opposition goal.

He needs to make some hard calls and remove some out of form players from the starting line-up for a bit (can't remove them all, especially with the defensive options!).

Salah needs to sit for a couple of games, as does Isak, McAllister and Kerkez. I'd try Joe Gomez in at right full for a few matches, and surely Chiesa has done enough at least be tried from the start, whether in place of Salah or Gakpo. And for all the abuse he's been getting, I thought Wirtz looked decent yesterday and against Chelsea when he came on.

Nothing can be done about it, but they need Allisson back asap. Is it just me, or was Mamardashvilli a bit weak on that Mbueno goal? Maybe harsh on him, but that looked a shot and position that Allisson would likely have saved.

I agree on the top 4 battle. I thought at the start of the season that they'd struggle to mount a serious title challenge with all the squad upheaval and Jota to be worked through, but I figured they'd still be steady enough to finish a comfortable third. Not so sure right now!

Personally i find mcguiness over rated in the sense that his management style wouldn't work in any other county. He relies heavily on donegal players buying into the believe that they are some how treated unfairly and forgotten about. He demands absolute dedication and sacrifice.

His path to the final was probably the easiest he could have wished for but did some amount of giving out when every time they lost apart from the final. As soon as any soccer job comes along he will be off however this may not happen as it has been proven his style and approach doesnt work in soccer.

They lost twice. The final and to your own boys when he admitted you were deserving winners on the night.

I've no idea where you're coming up with this perceived unfair treatment/forgotten county stuff being a major component of how he motivates his squads.

Declan Bonner, Paddy Carr and Aidan O'Rourke clearly missed a major trick if that's a big part of what motivates us Donegal people to succeed. Hope Kevin McHugh is listening across the street in Finn Park.

In terms of the rules suiting Kerry - is that surprising? the FRC based the rules in large part on that survey that almost 10,000 players, coaches, manager and GAA folk answered.

They released the report of what people said they wanted to see under the new rules.

The top five skills that people like are kicking, catching, scoring of long-range points, goal scoring and general creative play.
• The top three tactical skills were: 1 v 1 contests to gain possession of the ball; taking on an opponent in a 1 v 1 situation; and good support play during speedy attacking transitions.
• There was a strong dislike from people regarding dissent towards match officials and cynical/delaying tactics.
• In general, people want to see:
- A game where skill and risk taking are rewarded.
- A game which encourages forward momentum.
- A game of contests.

Full report is at the link

There's also a raft of data indicating that the people who responded to the various FRC surverys

Folk going as if the new rules are only popular because of some sort of GAA media conspiracy really need to give their heads a wobble. 

https://www.gaa.ie/api/images/image/upload/prd/kiulqmb3ytauroc5prmi.pdf

Also in terms of it being some conspiracy against Northern teams the makeup of the committee

PETER CANAVAN - Errigal Ciaran GAA, County Tyrone
COLM COLLINS - Cratloe GAA, County Clare
MAURICE DEEGAN - Stradbally GAA, County Laois
PATRICK DOHERTY - The Downs GAA, County Westmeath
ÉAMONN FITZMAURICE - Finuge GAA, County Kerry
SHANE FLANAGAN - Johnstownbridge GAA, County Kildare
JIM GAVIN - Round Towers GAA, Clondalkin, County Dublin
JAMES HORAN - Ballintubber GAA, County Mayo
ALEC McQUILLAN - Con Magees Glenravel GAC, County Antrim
MICHAEL MEANEY - Old Leighlin GAA, County Carlow
COLM NALLY - Newtown Blues GAA, County Louth
SÉAMUS KENNY (Runaí) – Simonstown Gaels GFC, County Meath

Plus Jim Gavin as chairperson

Michael Murphy and Malachy O'Rourke were there for a bit as well.

If this was some Kerry grand plan against the North, Eamonn Fitzmaurice must be one hell of a slick-tongued operator.

Not surprising at all that the rules would suit Kerry - in fact it was predicted.

Look anyone going down the route of it being a conspiracy against Northern teams, they're wide of the mark IMO.

But it took rule changes for Kerry and Clifford to get back to this level. Is anyone disputing that? Does anyone believe that Kerry were on their way to becoming champions in 2025 regardless?

I mean it took extra-time for Armagh to beat them in the semi-final last year, they lost the final in 2023 by 2 points and they won it in 2022, so there's a strong chance they could have won it this year under the old rules as well so anyone saying they definitely wouldn't have won it under the old rules would have difficulty making all that strong a case. Any rules changes that favoured attacking football were always going to favour a side who had the strongest attack.

This is spot on.

There is an eejit on this board who has described their win as almost fraudulent as they claim it required new rules to manufacture the Kerry win. Apparently, this is a northern viewpoint, although that may be a generalisation.

Is it possible we have malevolent bots trying to sow division and disinformation in the GAA board because these couldn't be  the views of actual people, could they???

 

As a northerner whose team were just very publicly on the receiving end of Kerry's excellence, I have not seen or heard anyone from my county utter a word about fraud or unfairness. Kerry were absolutely brilliant on the day and played by the same rules we did. They had an all time great player at the top of his game, along with top class performances from a number of his teammates. We were beaten fair and square in almost every position on the field.

This "debate", like much else going on on this board lately, is just internet ignorance platforming and attention seeking and symptomatic of the decline of this place. In my opinion of course.

Fraudulent win me arse.

Does anyone else find the criticism of Jim McGuinness and his strategy a bit OTT after the final. In particular from Spillane and Parkinson. It's not like it's a completely broken system of play.

They got to a final in convincing fashion. They won Ulster. Granted it's not flawless but no system is perfect, had Kerry an off day in terms of shooting 2 pointers we'd be having a different conversation.

A bit of tweaking and loosening up might be all it needs for them to get over the line.

Of course it's over the top. Good old fashioned Irish begrudgery.

Jim has overwhelming backing within Donegal, as well as our gratitude, and rightly so. He's human, and at the end of the day it's sport. He'll learn from his mistakes and will have the team pushing for Ulster again next year and, hopefully, another AI semi at least.

Kerry imperious - Donegal muck.

Donegal manager a spoofer.

Thats how the debate flies after this AI final and the level of opinions about the losing team who are Ulster champions and the 2nd best performing team this year.

Yep, McGuinness a spoofer and Donegal an eyesore.

This place is going the way of the rest of the online world.

Why is the parade a big deal?

I could have sworn I've seen numerous teams break early before, including Donegal in other games this year, unless I'm imagining things.

In the hurling games at CP, numerous times one team split early.

I thought Donegal had a number of players who were well capable of scoring points from outside the arc but in this game I think they only had one effort late on. I guess this was a deliberate tactic, to go for the more safer scoring option instead.

They just didn't seem to work the openings for two pointers, whether that was deliberate or down to Kerry's defending.

Langan, O'Baoill, McBrearty, Thompson, McHugh, Gallen and Murphy have all hit twos this season, especially Langan, O'Baoill and Thompson.

Thompson's early injury didn't help on that front, but who knows if he would have gotten the opportunity?

Where does McGuinness go from here now that his aura is well and truly smashed?

What kind of kneejerk nonsense is this?

He took a squad on its knees to two Ulster titles and an AI final appearance.

He's won five Ulster titles in six attempts, three AI final appearances in the same six attempts with one win.

How many other managers have a similar rate of return, especially with one of the lesser counties like Donegal?

He's single handedly responsible for almost half of the senior trophies we've ever won.

Congratulations to Kerry. Far and away the better team on the day. Paudie Clifford and Gavin White just brilliant. David Clifford on the periphery (by design?) but absolutely killed us when he did get on the ball.

Poor performance for the most part from our men and they'll have a lot of regrets, but nothing but gratitude from this supporter for a great year.