Donegal v Down Ulster Semi June 23

[Fuzzman]

Spillane has been spouting this stuff for years now and he never acknowledged that his own team when he played often brought back wing backs to help the defence. Sure you'd often see Pat back in his own full back line helping out
He often talks about kicking direct ball into the FF line but as stated this no longer works.

[PAULD123]

As ever an excellent article from Dara ó Sé.
You'd nearly wonder is his first line aimed at Pat Spillane.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/three-minutes-of-play-between-down-and-donegal-sum-up-the-demands-of-the-game-1.1442714?page=1

Very interesting line where he said he used to get cross with himself for being blocked down and losing possession. Now it's almost expected and ye just move onto the next turn over.

Jesus can they not get this lad on The Sunday Game? He'd be a great foil for Brolly I think and wouldn't take any of his shit! Very insightful, relevant article with the appropriate thought gone into it rather than the drivel Spillane trots out or Brolly's Donegal love in!

I saw his Gaelic Life article last week talking about Vince Lombardi and I think he's mentioned that particular analogy a few times in his articles about McGuinness!

I'd agree but we have to acknowledge that this guy has had about three days to get his thoughts down on paper. Most of Spillane's stuff is pure knee jerk.

Yeah he has plenty of time to gather his thoughts. Let me tell you a story about Darragh O'Se. I wrote a forum post two years ago before the Down vs Cork qualifier explaining what happened in the AI Final and why Cork would prevail again. That weekend Darragh O'Se straight-out word for word copied it into the paper as his own article (I still have the original print).

I called the paper who took one look at it and abdicated to him for an answer saying it was his responsibility. He emailed me and said that it was a pure co-incidence. Cheeky sod, like I said it was word-for-word and about 500 words long (some co-incidence!!)

Don't trust Darragh O'Se to be an expert witness when on the spot!

[Aristo 60]

As ever an excellent article from Dara ó Sé.
You'd nearly wonder is his first line aimed at Pat Spillane.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/three-minutes-of-play-between-down-and-donegal-sum-up-the-demands-of-the-game-1.1442714?page=1

Very interesting line where he said he used to get cross with himself for being blocked down and losing possession. Now it's almost expected and ye just move onto the next turn over.

Jesus can they not get this lad on The Sunday Game? He'd be a great foil for Brolly I think and wouldn't take any of his shit! Very insightful, relevant article with the appropriate thought gone into it rather than the drivel Spillane trots out or Brolly's Donegal love in!

I saw his Gaelic Life article last week talking about Vince Lombardi and I think he's mentioned that particular analogy a few times in his articles about McGuinness!

I'd agree but we have to acknowledge that this guy has had about three days to get his thoughts down on paper. Most of Spillane's stuff is pure knee jerk.

Yeah he has plenty of time to gather his thoughts. Let me tell you a story about Darragh O'Se. I wrote a forum post two years ago before the Down vs Cork qualifier explaining what happened in the AI Final and why Cork would prevail again. That weekend Darragh O'Se straight-out word for word copied it into the paper as his own article (I still have the original print).

I called the paper who took one look at it and abdicated to him for an answer saying it was his responsibility. He emailed me and said that it was a pure co-incidence. Cheeky sod, like I said it was word-for-word and about 500 words long (some co-incidence!!)

Don't trust Darragh O'Se to be an expert witness when on the spot!

Not at all like a Kerry man to get one over on a Down man 

[Applesisapples]

I am surprised you think Tyrone still have what it takes to defeat Donegal as we've come up short now three times in a row.
This year especially we had near enough our full squad fit & hungry for them but we just ran out of ideas and couldn't get the ball into scoring positions.
We don't have enough talented & strong enough forwards to battle it out under such intense circumstances. We tried Big Sean & Stevie in the FF line but again we couldn't get them on the ball enough. I think we still are a bit slow at moving the ball fast and play into Donegal's trap of playing counter attacking football.

Donegal are masters at getting 12/13 men behind the middle third and letting you push into their half. As your midfielders and often half backs push forward to support the attack, they leave massive space behind them. Donegal make this happen on purpose so then they let you pass laterally back and forth waiting for an opening that often never comes. Instead someone gets a hand in and strips the ball from you.
Suddenly the moment of realisation that the pants are truly around your ankles and your caught out of position.

Before you know it the mass blanket defence you've been staring at, has passed you out accelerating up the field into the space you've left them. As per the second goal v Tyrone, they can hit a pass then into McFadden or McBrearty who has space to create a much easier scoring chance and maybe even a goal.

I think Down didn't fall for this trap as much as we and many others have done in the past. They kept a lot of bodies back at all times and made it very hard for Donegal to find room to get easy scores. That's why so many scores were from frees.

I think Tyrone will have learned from their own and Down's encounters with Donegal.

[screenexile]

I am surprised you think Tyrone still have what it takes to defeat Donegal as we've come up short now three times in a row.
This year especially we had near enough our full squad fit & hungry for them but we just ran out of ideas and couldn't get the ball into scoring positions.
We don't have enough talented & strong enough forwards to battle it out under such intense circumstances. We tried Big Sean & Stevie in the FF line but again we couldn't get them on the ball enough. I think we still are a bit slow at moving the ball fast and play into Donegal's trap of playing counter attacking football.

Donegal are masters at getting 12/13 men behind the middle third and letting you push into their half. As your midfielders and often half backs push forward to support the attack, they leave massive space behind them. Donegal make this happen on purpose so then they let you pass laterally back and forth waiting for an opening that often never comes. Instead someone gets a hand in and strips the ball from you.
Suddenly the moment of realisation that the pants are truly around your ankles and your caught out of position.

Before you know it the mass blanket defence you've been staring at, has passed you out accelerating up the field into the space you've left them. As per the second goal v Tyrone, they can hit a pass then into McFadden or McBrearty who has space to create a much easier scoring chance and maybe even a goal.

I think Down didn't fall for this trap as much as we and many others have done in the past. They kept a lot of bodies back at all times and made it very hard for Donegal to find room to get easy scores. That's why so many scores were from frees.

I think Tyrone will have learned from their own and Down's encounters with Donegal.

If they have it wasn't very evident in the last game!

[snoopdog]

I'm not so sure lads
In my biased eyes, if you take McFadden out of that team then you lose one hell of a target man and score getter. I'd love to see his scoring (or even assists) stats for the last 2 seasons. Jimmy has made him into one of the hard to mark forwards ever and he's married to his sister.

totally agree, take McFadden out of the equation and Down would have won on sunday. A system alone wont win an all Ireland you also need quality footballers which donegal have. to say a system alone won donegal last years All Ireland is a massive kick in the teeth for a lot of those guys in green and gold. they all deserved massive credit for their own ability and class.

[snoopdog]

The referee made decisions that gave Doengal opportunities they should not have had. In the first half twice Down were denied blatant frees which (after the player was fouled) resulted in Donegal points. On an other occasion he gave Murphy a phantom free when no foul had occurred. Considering Donegal only scored 6 in the whole half this means 50% of their scores were gifted to them from the referee.

On the other hand, Down were lucky not to have played the last hour of the game with 14 men, while one or two of Coulter's frees looked marginal to my (admittedly biased) eyes.

I suppose you missed the clothes line on Laverty and then the clenched fist swing at laverty from McFadden, athough he didnt strike him the intent was clearly there.

[J70]

The referee made decisions that gave Doengal opportunities they should not have had. In the first half twice Down were denied blatant frees which (after the player was fouled) resulted in Donegal points. On an other occasion he gave Murphy a phantom free when no foul had occurred. Considering Donegal only scored 6 in the whole half this means 50% of their scores were gifted to them from the referee.

On the other hand, Down were lucky not to have played the last hour of the game with 14 men, while one or two of Coulter's frees looked marginal to my (admittedly biased) eyes.

I suppose you missed the clothes line on Laverty and then the clenched fist swing at laverty from McFadden, athough he didnt strike him the intent was clearly there.

Missed the McFadden one. The other -didn't David Walsh get booked? And not excusing it (players still have to be held accountable), but Laverty is a tad on the small size. I would imagine he gets clotheslined  a fair bit, not necessarily maliciously.

Regardless, I'm not claiming that Donegal didn't get easy frees or perhaps escaped cards. Just countering the whinging that a biased ref basically decided the result.

Does anyone have the free/card breakdown?

The last stat I heard during the match, if I remember correctly, was when 43 frees had been awarded overall, 22 of them to Down.

[Fuzzman]

Yis will be fighting this battle all year (Donegal) lads and it will probably get worse next year with the new rules.
It's part and parcel of being AI champs (as far as I can remember).

[J70]

Yis will be fighting this battle all year (Donegal) lads and it will probably get worse next year with the new rules.
It's part and parcel of being AI champs (as far as I can remember).

I've been on the board for more than a decade and its always been this way, especially with other Ulster teams!

If there were more Donegal members on the board, then perhaps some of us would always be crying about the referee every game as well.

[RMDrive]

Yis will be fighting this battle all year (Donegal) lads and it will probably get worse next year with the new rules.
It's part and parcel of being AI champs (as far as I can remember).

I've been on the board for more than a decade and its always been this way, especially with other Ulster teams!

If there were more Donegal members on the board, then perhaps some of us would always be crying about the referee every game as well.

No we wouldn't. We're above that sort of stuff. 

[BluestackBoy]

Yis will be fighting this battle all year (Donegal) lads and it will probably get worse next year with the new rules.
It's part and parcel of being AI champs (as far as I can remember).

I've been on the board for more than a decade and its always been this way, especially with other Ulster teams!

If there were more Donegal members on the board, then perhaps some of us would always be crying about the referee every game as well.

No we wouldn't. We're above that sort of stuff. 

Donegal men crying about the referee? Never did happen never will happen. Far too classy

[Fuzzman]

Do the lads on Highland radio still give the refs a hard time.
I used to love listening to donegal matches on that channel just to hear the craic with them.

[Goldengreen]

Do the lads on Highland radio still give the refs a hard time.
I used to love listening to donegal matches on that channel just to hear the craic with them.

The commentator that gave out about the refs all the time on Highland, Charlie Collins, left just the week before last. Not to sure what the commentary was like last Sunday as I was at the match, and NOT  giving out about the Ref as indeed we are too classy  Though it was a bad ref 

[Whitnail]

Do the lads on Highland radio still give the refs a hard time.
I used to love listening to donegal matches on that channel just to hear the craic with them.

The commentator that gave out about the refs all the time on Highland, Charlie Collins, left just the week before last. Not to sure what the commentary was like last Sunday as I was at the match, and NOT  giving out about the Ref as indeed we are too classy  Though it was a bad ref 

Did he retire or get a job somewhere else?

Would always enjoy Charlie's biased commentary.
Alas couldn't always listen to him though as he was about 15 secs ahead of the picture commentary on RTE  and about12 secs ahead of BBC .

Ahead of his time he was