Dún na nGall v Cill Dara

[Jinxy]

Mayo men are lovers, not fighters.

[regal]

Well done to donegal but anyone (obviously apart from Down supporters) has to feel for McGeeney. Shocking refereeing decisions. To be fair, both teams are a long way short of an All Ireland. McGuinness has done a fine job with Donegal considering their last performance in last year's championship against Armagh.

There was to be 3 mins of injury time to be played at the end of the first half yet Karl Lacey (i think) scored 30 seconds after this time was up. Again Donegal scored after injury time had lapsed at the end of the first half of extra time. How did the ref get 2 mins of injury time for the second half of extra time (this is the equivalent of 7 mins injury time in a normal half).

[Main Street]

The ref's performance hovered between very good to excellent. Coldrick got the injury time spot on.
Some fans bitch and moan like a bunch of old hags.

[ck]

I know this is a discussion board and everyone is entitled to their opinion but jesus ck, every post I have read of yours over the past 3 weeks seems to be very anti-donegal!

Yes they have had a few lucky breaks, but theres no need to continue bringing them up in every post! Donegal are not the first and definetly wont be the last to be accused of cynical fouling. I think Kildare in extra time today proved they are not the only team that can be accused of it!

And I find it almost laughable that you casually confirm to us all how McGuinness feels about Donegals attacking ability! He has repeatedly stated how he feels Donegals forward line is one of the best in the country.
This Donegal team, and many that have passed before it have been praised as great "natural" footballers who have the skills and talents to match anyone, but just didnt try hard enough. Now that they are finally working hard with every player tracking back to defend- but also running forward to attack, they are being classed as a team with no ability that just scrap out the matches.

I think this team deserves a few lucky breaks!

Fair points raised James. I'm certainly not anti-Donegal and have praised and criticised them in equal measure on various issues. Also I have never mentioned the penalties or disallowed goal before so I can hardly be accused of "bringing them up in every post" The fact of the matter is that Donegal are the toughest team in Ireland to beat right now - much of the reason for this is through negative cynical play. But its not every team can play it, you work harder, be fitter and hungrier than the opposition, and Donegal certainly are that at the moment. There is much more to it than tactics. Credit to Donegal for setting themselves up to become a formidable opposition despite having some very limited players.

[J70]

Negative tactics aside - Donegal have been damn lucky this year with big decisions, penalties not given against them, panalties given to them and a clear goal disallowed... can it continue?

Donegal deserve credit for raw hunger and work rate. McGuinness knows they are not good enough to compete in open attacking terms so has given them a game plan that is working. Awful to watch but there is not a team left in the c'ship who will want to play them now.

There is one thing that really bugs me though and that is the fact that Donegal have perfected the strategic foul. They foul consistantly in certain areas of the pitch to kill the pace and break attacks, allowing them to get back in numbers to swarm defence and gain turnovers. You will notice that different players do the fouling (never same player twice in a row) so as to avoid yellow cards. When referees start to act against cynical fouling then the game will be less defensive and Donegals game plan will drastically reduce its impact.

We were obviously very lucky with the goal today and, probably, not conceding a penalty against Derry, but that's it. I doubt if the Derry penalty would have made a difference the way that game was going anyway. Today's decision, leaving us six points down, would obviously have left us with a big mountain to climb. Would that have been too much? Who knows? We looked dead and buried in extra time and came back to win. We looked in big trouble when five points down to Tyrone, but reeled them back in.

[screenexile]

To be fair the quality of attacking in this game left a lot to be desired... these 2 teams and Mayo would be the poorest attackers left atm.

Donegal were also extremely lucky with the goal incident. I was disgusted with the first half but what followed was probably the most intense 55 mins of football I have ever seen. The effort, commitment, defending and just honest to goodness heart shown by the 2 teams was amazing and for that both teams must be commended.

Karl Lacey put in one of the best individual performances I have ever seen or am ever likely to see. It looked like he could barely walk at the end. Fair play.

Having said that I still stand by my gym monkeys theory... Should either of these win the All Ireland our games are fcuked. When up against serious opposition at the business end of the Championship Donegal don't have the footballers to handle it.

[J70]

To be fair the quality of attacking in this game left a lot to be desired... these 2 teams and Mayo would be the poorest attackers left atm.

Donegal were also extremely lucky with the goal incident. I was disgusted with the first half but what followed was probably the most intense 55 mins of football I have ever seen. The effort, commitment, defending and just honest to goodness heart shown by the 2 teams was amazing and for that both teams must be commended.

Karl Lacey put in one of the best individual performances I have ever seen or am ever likely to see. It looked like he could barely walk at the end. Fair play.

Having said that I still stand by my gym monkeys theory... Should either of these win the All Ireland our games are fcuked. When up against serious opposition at the business end of the Championship Donegal don't have the footballers to handle it.

Lacey should be a cert for a third All Star after that game. He'd be the first Donegal man to accomplish that.

I agree that we're unlikely to be able to handle Cork or Kerry, assuming we grind our way past Tyrone/Dublin. But we'll worry about that if we make it. Don't agree that our games will be fucked though. Tyrone/Armagh both won All Irelands using blanket defense and while they introduced the tactic, the game hasn't suffered. The difference in their cases was that their attacking units were further advanced and more potent than ours currently is, or perhaps ever will be.

[Hound]

Well I thought it was fantastic entertainment, I really enjoyed it.

Exactly like Geraghty v Kildare and Muldoon v Kildare, O'Connor's goal should have stood. From the TV, it looked like it was the umpire's decision. Overall I thought Coldrick had a very good game.

Donegal should certainly have won it in normal time. Had chances to go 4 and 5 points up, then stopped playing - but kudos to Kildare for clawing their way back and grabbing the draw.

At that stage I was confident Kildare would win out, and I was sure it was game over when they went 3 points up. But terrific fightback by Donegal, and the winning point was sensational - worthy of winning any game.

Hard luck to Kildare. If I was them I'd do all I could to keep McGeeney - but if he does walk away I'd guess Jason Ryan's door will be knocked at

[Leo]

The "goal" - even in slow motion a borderline decision. But if his foot was over the line as the ball was in flight - and it seemed to be - it is a square ball.
The cynical fouling - I think you'll find Kildare well ahead on that count, especially when they thought they had it in the bag in extra time. We could take a leaf out of rugby where the referee can warn the captain that for persistent fouling the next offender will see red.
The no-free near the end - no different to any number of decisions in any gaelic football game, this one included, so many can go either way.
And I thought the referee was very good.
MOM - in my opinion the Donegal full back McGee gave a real tour-de-force from start to finish.
He didn't even get a mention from the RTE panel & commentators who displayed a naked pro-Kildare bias throughout.
Fitness now rules football and we will only get football back when we restrict the handpass.

[goh4205]

McGee diffently had a horse of a game I thought as well. Averaged enough player, but has been playing well so far. It's a shame when people pay their hard earned money to see games lost on a ref. Kildare diff should have had a free before the winner was scored by Cassidy. Was he afraid to give it? Certainly looked like it. As for the sq ball Leo regarding of weather he had his foot in the sq of not (which I don't think he had) once the ball came off the upright it was back in play and therefore the goal should have stood, end off.
The gave muldoon's sq ball the week before, but the clearest sq ball from last weeks games was Joe McMahons  against  Armagh and it didn't even get a mention oh sorry it didn't from that nob Tony Davis.  Burns was right when he said on tv last night, once the ball leaves the foot of the kicker if the sq is clear its all to fight for.

[Hound]

Hitting the post is irrelevant - other than indicating the ball was in the square a long time.

The cynical fouling comments are nonsense IMO. There's hardly a field game in the world were tactical fouling does not play some element of defensive tactics. Most GAA teams fall into it when they are defending a lead - and its no more cynical than most fouls at most times! The Kildare fouls at the end were panic fouls rather than cynical fouls (exactly like Donegals fouls at the end of normal time - and you can undoubtedly pick out similar cases in other games).

Both teams defended very well without fouling. When the panic fouling started all it did was help the opposition back into the game, so I don't understand the moaning at all.

[Hoof Hearted]

To be fair the quality of attacking in this game left a lot to be desired... these 2 teams and Mayo would be the poorest attackers left atm.

Donegal were also extremely lucky with the goal incident. I was disgusted with the first half but what followed was probably the most intense 55 mins of football I have ever seen. The effort, commitment, defending and just honest to goodness heart shown by the 2 teams was amazing and for that both teams must be commended.

Karl Lacey put in one of the best individual performances I have ever seen or am ever likely to see. It looked like he could barely walk at the end. Fair play.

Having said that I still stand by my gym monkeys theory... Should either of these win the All Ireland our games are fcuked. When up against serious opposition at the business end of the Championship Donegal don't have the footballers to handle it.

i wouldnt be so sure, and i wouldnt be backing against them

[Dinny Breen]

Kevin Cassidy the new Jody Devine.

Dreamt I drove my car into a canal last night 

[Atticus_Finch]

Who ended up getting man of the match for the game ?

[Main Street]

I think Kildare were slightly the fitter team and made hay when Donegal were floundering in the last 10 minutes of normal time.
Also in ET, some Donegal players had hit another brick wall while Kildare racked up a lead.
Donegal will be hard to beat if they can build a bit more on that resolve.

Coldrick made a good call according to the rules with the disallowed goal, unfair or hard done-by doesn't come into it.