Messages

[movement to create space to allow players to take the defender on]

Pure crap, a team playing with fear of Donegal, and that message had to have delivered by the manager in whatever what they communicated to the squad. No body taking anyone on except McGuckin, slow laborious play with no purpose. Higgins is a quality player. A coached team that took one of the best u20 forwards in Ulster out of game in any threatening way. Hopefully this is a wake up call about how not to play

Was at the game yesterday evening, the above were the comments I made on the Donegal game a few weeks ago. Make no mistake, this is the result of coaching. Literally no kicking of the ball when the space was available to kick it forward-however I could live with that if we had purpose in our attacking play, if we were structured & movement to create space to allow players to take the defender on, but no, we were so static. There simply was no evidence of coaching weaving movements that shift defenders that then allow for a space that then allows the forward to take his opposing player on. Gallaghers comments were crude, but unfortunately blunt in truth. Last years u20 team played exactly the same way.

Antrim took a serious beating in the Ulster u16 final from Derry at the weekend.

O' Donnell played in the cship for Ballinderry and played well. McKindless was the only player missing. They are close to it at all

Pure crap, a team playing with fear of Donegal, and that message had to have delivered by the manager in whatever what they communicated to the squad. No body taking anyone on except McGuckin, slow laborious play with no purpose. Higgins is a quality player. A coached team that took one of the best u20 forwards in Ulster out of game in any threatening way. Hopefully this is a wake up call about how not to play

The problen is that full forward line, none of them are fast enough to beat a man over 20/25m if Derry looking to kick quick ball in.Why D McDermott not on the panel? Was on it tail end of last yr?

I am left speechless after reading that. Murray is pace & power, your street cred on foot IQ just plummeted

Just reading through the Antrim Camogie page who are playing D1 with all their best players available and performing well. Then in Derry we are in D2 and doing very poorly, tanked at the weekend and an embarrassing write up on the game on the Camogie facebook. The vast majority of the best players from the top teams in the county are not playing. What happened from 3 seasons ago when we had most of the best players playing and won the All Ireland intermediate. 2 players from s'neil, one I think from my own club Swatragh and none from Bellaghy who had 7 there over the past 3years. Screen I think has 2 there as well. Something seriously wrong when that is happening

The performance against Louth was seriously poor. Our main players like Rodgers, Glass, McGuigan all below par, its like the easy games against Cork & Offaly left us soft. It was similar in style to the Meath game, passing the ball around the arc but no one really taking men on, no genuine direct hard running on a consistent bases.

That wasn't a penalty, side to side hit

[A possible solution or catalyst could be a divisional academy for underage players not that aren't just meeting the grade for the development squads. That's really a role that schools should be fulfilling but they aren't.]

Agreed that the best players are in South Derry. That has always been the case and probably always will be but since RG came in it has become even more pronounced. In the past Dungiven would always have had 2 or 3 important players in the panel along with 1 or 2 from Glenullin or Banagher respectively and we briefly had Coleraine weighing in with the McGoldricks. But only having one Steelstown player representing the whole of North Derry highlights that there is definitely an issue with developing County standard players and some sort of intervention is required because the clubs and schools in North Derry can't seem to do it themselves.

A possible solution or catalyst could be a divisional academy for underage players not that aren't just meeting the grade for the development squads. That's really a role that schools should be fulfilling but they aren't.

I recall Damian Cassidy conducting a review of coaching & games in Derry with Sean McGoldrick, Philip Kerr, Danny Quinn, Brian O'Donnell and came up with a host of recommendations that was presented to the clubs, all really good ideas. One I recall was 4 divisional teams made up from jun & intermediate teams to play in the senior championship I think with 12 senior clubs, which those jun & intermediate clubs were interested in, similar to Kerry. County Board didn't drive most of the ideas that were agreed with the clubs. I did a quick search on the derry website and found it https://derrygaa.ie/coaching-and-development-strategy/

Any predicted changes or improvements to the team. IMO we need a chf, we also need another cb who is consistent reliable in one to one situations. Hoping Higgins can give us proper cover at mf if Rodgers/Glass get injured. Do any of you know the timeline for Scullion returns to nets?

He had a very good cship, scored heavily and can win his own ball imo, has the physical size and strenght.  I saw most of the games played in Owenbeg the past championship, he is like a number of fringe players needs a game or two that level to gauge his worth and can he adapt to that level, the problem will be getting that game or two.

Bradley from the screen must be injured? He hasn't featured yet. Thought he did well last year and imo is a more aggressive and physical natural defender than Baker. Higgins has to play at Mf, its obvious we are struggling physically on the long kickouts, was a problem last year and further emphasised last wednesday V Donegal.  Our ball winning in this position will be a problem we have to fix.

I haven't a problem calling someone by their chosen name, but a pronoun such as 'them' when it is a singular person in front of me, no way.

And while I'm at it, Cahair O'Kane picked his best 15 from the past 25 years. He didn't think Glass was in our top 15 in this period. That in itself just lost him serious credibility, just can't take him seriously now. Particularly when you see the players he had on before him, a player who simply was the catalyst for Derry winning back to back Ulsters.