Kevin Cassidy is in bother with the boss.

[Blowitupref]

Dublin got a few soft ones to beat Donegal and Donegal got the penalty when Derry didn't to swing the Ulster final their way.

Speaking of nonsense? that penalty Donegal got (which i believe was a foul) was irrelevant as they would have won that game anyways & It wasn't Dublin's better balance that beat Donegal it was those soft frees.

You could be at those sort of arguments all night.

Had Tomás O'Connor's legitimate goal stood in the quarter-final? etc.

That's the bit of luck they did get. Bad luck seems to follow Kildare the last few years, they must have watched Dublin lift Sam last September & thought that should have been us.

[muppet]

Dublin got a few soft ones to beat Donegal and Donegal got the penalty when Derry didn't to swing the Ulster final their way.

Speaking of nonsense? that penalty Donegal got (which i believe was a foul) was irrelevant as they would have won that game anyways & It wasn't Dublin's better balance that beat Donegal it was those soft frees.

You could be at those sort of arguments all night.

Had Tomás O'Connor's legitimate goal stood in the quarter-final? etc.

That's the bit of luck they did got. Bad luck seems to follow Kildare the last few years, they must have watched Dublin lift Sam last September & thought that should have been us.

Hard to get handy score-able frees with 14 men in your own half.

[fitzroyalty]

Sure it's all part of the craic, whispering sweet nothings into your man's ear.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Brolly has a sensible take on it in this week's GL: "The Donegal management have made an appalling error in banishing a current All Star for simply telling a few yarns..."

[INDIANA]

Dublin also had to "Dumb" down their game to win the All Ireland, yes not to the extreme Donegal did however without the defensive style Dublin could have shipped another hammering like they did in 08,09.

For year's under different management Donegal played free flowing football without success fitzroyalty is correct McGuinness worked wonders.

All he did was get them organised off the pitch and improve their lifestyle. You don't need a degree in Sports Science or coaching for that. He brought 14 men back into a very confined space and invited the opposition onto them in the hope that their long range shooting would fail them.

A lot of it was pure dumb luck. On the pitch he revolutionised nothing. They beat Antrim who are awful. Tyrone who were destroyed by Dublin and Derry who were thumped by Kildare. They needed a woeful decision to beat Kildare.

They have some fine footballers at their disposal and arguably two of the top 10 GAA players in Ireland at their disposal. I absolutely refuse to accept they cant play some form of conventional Gaelic Football and get as far in the championship.

At the end of the day we are all Gaelic Football fans. Its a great game when played properly in my view. If every team was to go down Donegal's route - the game is finished. Their is nothing wrong with a blanket defence when you make an effort to play when you have the ball. Donegal made no effort to do so. Thats not coaching in my opinion.

As regards Dublin- we had the perfect balance last year between defence and atatck. We've spent years trying to ape Tyrone and finally we did last year.

We'll see how good a manager Mc Guinness is next season when he'll have to show his team to play a bit.

[imtommygunn]

Dublin also had to "Dumb" down their game to win the All Ireland, yes not to the extreme Donegal did however without the defensive style Dublin could have shipped another hammering like they did in 08,09.

For year's under different management Donegal played free flowing football without success fitzroyalty is correct McGuinness worked wonders.

All he did was get them organised off the pitch and improve their lifestyle. You don't need a degree in Sports Science or coaching for that. He brought 14 men back into a very confined space and invited the opposition onto them in the hope that their long range shooting would fail them.

A lot of it was pure dumb luck. On the pitch he revolutionised nothing. They beat Antrim who are awful. Tyrone who were destroyed by Dublin and Derry who were thumped by Kildare. They needed a woeful decision to beat Kildare.

They have some fine footballers at their disposal and arguably two of the top 10 GAA players in Ireland at their disposal. I absolutely refuse to accept they cant play some form of conventional Gaelic Football and get as far in the championship.

At the end of the day we are all Gaelic Football fans. Its a great game when played properly in my view. If every team was to go down Donegal's route - the game is finished. Their is nothing wrong with a blanket defence when you make an effort to play when you have the ball. Donegal made no effort to do so. Thats not coaching in my opinion.

As regards Dublin- we had the perfect balance last year between defence and atatck. We've spent years trying to ape Tyrone and finally we did last year.

We'll see how good a manager Mc Guinness is next season when he'll have to show his team to play a bit.

What about belief? Do you not think that was a factor? Who gave them that? What about the work ethic? Who organised the team into who is playing where, when, who's covering who, what style do you play when you break?

Yes he took extreme measures to get it but it was a needs must scenario.

Any random joe can not take a football team, improve their lifestyle, organise them a bit, stick fourteen men behind a ball and then not be a kick on the ass from an all ireland final. Do you really think they could?

Do you really think all his game plan was based on was the hope that the opposition had an inability to score from long range? Seriously?

[INDIANA]

Dublin also had to "Dumb" down their game to win the All Ireland, yes not to the extreme Donegal did however without the defensive style Dublin could have shipped another hammering like they did in 08,09.

For year's under different management Donegal played free flowing football without success fitzroyalty is correct McGuinness worked wonders.

All he did was get them organised off the pitch and improve their lifestyle. You don't need a degree in Sports Science or coaching for that. He brought 14 men back into a very confined space and invited the opposition onto them in the hope that their long range shooting would fail them.

A lot of it was pure dumb luck. On the pitch he revolutionised nothing. They beat Antrim who are awful. Tyrone who were destroyed by Dublin and Derry who were thumped by Kildare. They needed a woeful decision to beat Kildare.

They have some fine footballers at their disposal and arguably two of the top 10 GAA players in Ireland at their disposal. I absolutely refuse to accept they cant play some form of conventional Gaelic Football and get as far in the championship.

At the end of the day we are all Gaelic Football fans. Its a great game when played properly in my view. If every team was to go down Donegal's route - the game is finished. Their is nothing wrong with a blanket defence when you make an effort to play when you have the ball. Donegal made no effort to do so. Thats not coaching in my opinion.

As regards Dublin- we had the perfect balance last year between defence and atatck. We've spent years trying to ape Tyrone and finally we did last year.

We'll see how good a manager Mc Guinness is next season when he'll have to show his team to play a bit.

What about belief? Do you not think that was a factor? Who gave them that? What about the work ethic? Who organised the team into who is playing where, when, who's covering who, what style do you play when you break?

Yes he took extreme measures to get it but it was a needs must scenario.

Any random joe can not take a football team, improve their lifestyle, organise them a bit, stick fourteen men behind a ball and then not be a kick on the ass from an all ireland final. Do you really think they could?

Do you really think all his game plan was based on was the hope that the opposition had an inability to score from long range? Seriously?

Thats all it was based on Tommy.

Physically impossible to play their style of football for 70 mins without incredible luck.

Lets face it they needed Ray Charles as an umpire to beat Kildare and for Kildare to kick 17 wides.

Their gameplan was based on giving the opposition the ball. It was soccer without the offside rule.

[cadence]

just read about this. sad state of affairs, but if there's a code of conduct and if cassidy is none too repentant as he's quoted as saying in an article, there's less wriggle room for mcguinness. tough call, but the right one imo. can't have players challenging the manager and team's code of conduct. he can say all he likes when he's retired, why didn't he do that?! tut, tut.

I think the players are entitled to challenge lunacy.

When will donegal fans realise that all mc guinness did was dumb down gaelic football rather then up-skill anything. The latter takes managerial talent the former doesn't.

Terrible to see talent being reduced to playing like apes. Its garbage in my view to suggest Donegal couldnt get to an all-ireland semi playing conventional football with the quality at their disposal.

In my view Mc Guinness's biggest issue with Cassidy is that he simply confirmed that they had been effectively brain washed into playing caveman football and he doesn't like being exposed like this.

i'm glad we can rely on you indiana, you being the fervent mcguinness admirer that you are, to relay your unbiased and considered opinion on what his issues with cassidy are.

if you could continue to tell us donegal folk where we're going wrong we would appreciate it greatly. your sophisticated concepts of football take a while for us to process you see. please repeat as usual ad nauseum.

   

[imtommygunn]

Interesting viewpoint.

- Donegal had no real belief in big games before McGuinness.
- Donegal had no form of defense before McGuinness.
- Donegal hadn't won an ulster title in 19 years before McGuinness.
- Donegal had one forward Michael Murphy and a host of other forwards who when the going got tough were found wanting.
- Systems do not work by accident. They played an effective system - yes it was overkill but it was effective. You play to the strength of the players you have and that, bar Murphy, is what he did. I doubt there are particularly many teams who could implement that system to the same effect.

You get lucky every now and then. You don't get lucky in an unbeaten league run and then unbeaten in the all ireland championship until you get beaten by the eventual champions who can't break you down until very late on in the game. Incidentally that begins to happen only when the defensive talisman of the team has to go off injured.

Maybe Donegal got a lucky decision to beat Kildare but sure so did Dublin.

McGuinness is well into his pscychology - some people believe in it and some don't but it definitely worked. He got players believing, he got a togetherness, he got his team playing with a system. All of these were nowhere to be seen before him.

If next year a raft of teams start playing 14 behind the ball then you will see that it is not that easy to implement.

Did McGuinness do overkill on the system - yes. However he took a team of players who were getting beat hands down every ear when it came to the crunch into an All Ireland semi final unbeaten all year. Luck? I think not.

[skeog]

jim should know his phycology as he spent 10 yrs studying it all round ireland

[Blowitupref]

Dublin also had to "Dumb" down their game to win the All Ireland, yes not to the extreme Donegal did however without the defensive style Dublin could have shipped another hammering like they did in 08,09.

For year's under different management Donegal played free flowing football without success fitzroyalty is correct McGuinness worked wonders.

All he did was get them organised off the pitch and improve their lifestyle. You don't need a degree in Sports Science or coaching for that. He brought 14 men back into a very confined space and invited the opposition onto them in the hope that their long range shooting would fail them.

A lot of it was pure dumb luck. On the pitch he revolutionised nothing. They beat Antrim who are awful. Tyrone who were destroyed by Dublin and Derry who were thumped by Kildare. They needed a woeful decision to beat Kildare.

They have some fine footballers at their disposal and arguably two of the top 10 GAA players in Ireland at their disposal. I absolutely refuse to accept they cant play some form of conventional Gaelic Football and get as far in the championship.

At the end of the day we are all Gaelic Football fans. Its a great game when played properly in my view. If every team was to go down Donegal's route - the game is finished. Their is nothing wrong with a blanket defence when you make an effort to play when you have the ball. Donegal made no effort to do so. Thats not coaching in my opinion.

As regards Dublin- we had the perfect balance last year between defence and atatck. We've spent years trying to ape Tyrone and finally we did last year.

We'll see how good a manager Mc Guinness is next season when he'll have to show his team to play a bit.

What about belief? Do you not think that was a factor? Who gave them that? What about the work ethic? Who organised the team into who is playing where, when, who's covering who, what style do you play when you break?

Yes he took extreme measures to get it but it was a needs must scenario.

Any random joe can not take a football team, improve their lifestyle, organise them a bit, stick fourteen men behind a ball and then not be a kick on the ass from an all ireland final. Do you really think they could?

Do you really think all his game plan was based on was the hope that the opposition had an inability to score from long range? Seriously?

Thats all it was based on Tommy.

Physically impossible to play their style of football for 70 mins without incredible luck.

Lets face it they needed Ray Charles as an umpire to beat Kildare and for Kildare to kick 17 wides.

Their gameplan was based on giving the opposition the ball. It was soccer without the offside rule.

Every team has some luck on the way to success, it was no more incredible than what Dublin got themselves v Kildare,Wexford & Donegal.

The Kildare v Donegal game will be best remembered for the fightback from 3 points down when all looked lost & it took attacking play to do that.

[Jinxy]

These sort of 'A fella on the panel told me what was said' stories are a cancer in the GAA.
Players names are being blackened all because some gobshite starts a rumour.

[Hardy]

I simply don't believe that the members of our community who are inter-county GAA players would forget, abandon or compromise the decency with which they were reared or the values that are innate to them or betray the sport we all love by abusing a bereaved family for a tawdry advantage in a game of football.

People occasionally post here about vile verbal abuse of opponents' families, even in club matches. I just don't believe it. In my paltry, brief and long-ago football career, I never experienced even the slightest inkling of it and didn't know anybody who did. It just didn't arise. (We were too busy trying to knock each other senseless.) My son played at club level until he emigrated quite recently. I never heard him mention such conduct. I've never heard it in all the time I've spent on the sideline in local matches. I think it's a nasty myth.

[brokencrossbar1]

I simply don't believe that the members of our community who are inter-county GAA players would forget, abandon or compromise the decency with which they were reared or the values that are innate to them or betray the sport we all love by abusing a bereaved family for a tawdry advantage in a game of football.

People occasionally post here about vile verbal abuse of opponents' families, even in club matches. I just don't believe it. In my paltry, brief and long-ago football career, I never experienced even the slightest inkling of it and didn't know anybody who did. It just didn't arise. (We were too busy trying to knock each other senseless.) My son played at club level until he emigrated quite recently. I never heard him mention such conduct. I've never heard it in all the time I've spent on the sideline in local matches. I think it's a nasty myth.

As much as I would love to agree with you, unfortunately I can't.  Having been subject to some of it myself, and having first hand knowledge what was said to a team mate it happens.  And I'm not talking about the "aye tell yer ma I'll be over to collect my shoes tonight" shit.  As the stakes and the pressure have increased the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable have been futher blurred.  And what is even more surprising is who might say it.  I was subjected to the vilest insinuations from someone who knew me and my family for years and whose family had a close relationship with my own and who ended up being you're archetypal pillar of the community.

[mylestheslasher]

I simply don't believe that the members of our community who are inter-county GAA players would forget, abandon or compromise the decency with which they were reared or the values that are innate to them or betray the sport we all love by abusing a bereaved family for a tawdry advantage in a game of football.

People occasionally post here about vile verbal abuse of opponents' families, even in club matches. I just don't believe it. In my paltry, brief and long-ago football career, I never experienced even the slightest inkling of it and didn't know anybody who did. It just didn't arise. (We were too busy trying to knock each other senseless.) My son played at club level until he emigrated quite recently. I never heard him mention such conduct. I've never heard it in all the time I've spent on the sideline in local matches. I think it's a nasty myth.

As much as I would love to agree with you, unfortunately I can't.  Having been subject to some of it myself, and having first hand knowledge what was said to a team mate it happens.  And I'm not talking about the "aye tell yer ma I'll be over to collect my shoes tonight" shit.  As the stakes and the pressure have increased the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable have been futher blurred.   And what is even more surprising is who might say it.  I was subjected to the vilest insinuations from someone who knew me and my family for years and whose family had a close relationship with my own and who ended up being you're archetypal pillar of the community.

You beat me to it. I'm afraid Hardy this is part of the game today and I have heard 1st hand from a lot of my mates still playing the type of verbal abuse going on. Its shocking to be honest. Even more amazing is that its so common now that most players are not even reacting to the horrendous stuff being said to them.

Maybe Donegal should sign another agreement this year called the "respect" agreement, it would then go into their personnel folders with the "discipline" and "confidentiallity" agreements.