Donegal v Dublin semi final 28-8-11

[Leo]

It was Tyrone in 03 that started this blanket defence stuff remember the semi final will they held Kerry to 6 scores & from what i seen today Dublin also displayed plenty of blanket defence cute fouling, as they say it takes two to tango so why are Donegal getting all the criticism for a poor game?

You are quite wrong.
Armagh developed this trend first, Tyrone took it to a new "professional" level.

I do wonder to what extent the "scientific analysis" of gaelic football at UUJ contributed to this defensive style .....?

Roll on Donegal, was McGuinness not a graduate of that school?

A simple game of football, flaws and all, has been analysed  -and coached - mostly by paid coaches - into extinction.

It is the Ulster way and (as an Ulsterman) it is pathetic.

Now, broken record time:
Limit the handpass to 3
A free awarded must be kicked in a forward direction
Any more than two players going into  tackle an opponent is a foul

Let me go back to my handpass argument (although why it's still called "foot" ball is now a moot point), it will be difficult to referee this restriction for a couple of years but eventually coaches will realise the folly of this possession type of game and, in training, will get back to a combination of ball movements including the  foot pass.

Witness Donegal today, a succession of maybe 8 or 9 handpasses leaves a player with  a final option of having to foot pass. Result? can't do it and it inevitably goes astray to a Dublin player, time and again.

All McGuinness has done is he has looked at our flawed rules, identified how best to use them to counter better footballers, and the better footballers get frustrated and can't function. Having said that, those who think that football won today are deluded. It's just that Dublin (a very negative team with a couple of very goos footballers) are not just as dire at the dark arts as our Ulster colleagues.

Where McGuinness did go wrong was that when Dublin went down to 14, it was surely time to plant Murphy on the square - but as Brolly said there was no plan B.

But all we saw today was the inevitable drift of gaelic football under the current playing rules - and who has the balls to say so?

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

If the game continues in the vain it did today I think we will see attendances plummet even further next year.....it was awful awful stuff

Glad to come out the right side in the end though, lads saying that the ref gave us everything must really really hate us, donegal tried to bate the living shite of us today, anyways fellow country lads thanks for some of the kind words and the begrudgers and haters 

[Leo]

If the game continues in the vain it did today I think we will see attendances plummet even further next year.....it was awful awful stuff

Glad to come out the right side in the end though, lads saying that the ref gave us everything must really really hate us, donegal tried to bate the living shite of us today, anyways fellow country lads thanks for some of the kind words and the begrudgers and haters 

From the culchie zone, I thought the referee did well - both teams ver physical - although the red card was harsh.

[INDIANA]

a victory for football. if donegal won today every club team in ireland would play that way. mc guinness would want to take a long cold shower and ask himself if he is happy with that shite. awful game terrible skills but i dont care.
tell screen the chimps were happy with the bananas from derry

[Rufus T Firefly]

If the game continues in the vain it did today I think we will see attendances plummet even further next year.....it was awful awful stuff

Glad to come out the right side in the end though, lads saying that the ref gave us everything must really really hate us, donegal tried to bate the living shite of us today, anyways fellow country lads thanks for some of the kind words and the begrudgers and haters 

Congratulations Sack!!   

[Shrewdness]

Glad to see Dublin win, because at least it ensures that the final will be between two teams who want to win it by playing football.
There is no place in an All Ireland Final for the type of shite that masquerades as football in Donegal.

When you consider the thrills and excitement that the soccer in England provided today, would it be any surprise to see our kids turn their backs on the Gaa, when you see the trash that was on offer in Croke Park today.

For the wellbeing of the Gaa, football needed that Dublin win today, because the alternative would have been to see the life strangled out of the All Ireland Final as well.

[The Hill is Blue]

Ref was awful--Dublin had to win. He gave the Dubs so many handy frees --a few of which were straight after stupid Donegal backs had dropped clean, unopposed catches.

As John Patrick McEnroe used to say - you cannot be serious.

[saffron sam2]

Donegal are the most despicable shower ever to disgrace themselves at Croke Park. May they never be given the opportunity to sully the hallowed sward again.

[squire_in_navy_slacks]

If the game continues in the vain it did today I think we will see attendances plummet even further next year.....it was awful awful stuff

Glad to come out the right side in the end though, lads saying that the ref gave us everything must really really hate us, donegal tried to bate the living shite of us today, anyways fellow country lads thanks for some of the kind words and the begrudgers and haters 

Congratulations Sack!!   

Ah rufus ya ledge.....thanks dude, appreciate it 

[The Hill is Blue]

Very sorry for Diarmuid Connolly. No way did he deserve a red card.

It would be a gross injustice if he were to miss a chance to play in the Final.

[under the bar]

If I was Kerry I'd beworried in that Dublin got the softest frees awarded tis year.  Donegal forwards got savaged by 3-4 Dubs with nothing given yet every time Bernard Brogan and the Dub forwards grimaced they got a free.  What a joke.

Headquarters has already decided Sam is coming to the capital.

[ONeill]

I found it fascinating too but, at the same time, detested the way Donegal persistently and consistently passed backwards when they actually broke free over the half forward line. It was conservative football in the extreme and I suppose it's Donegal's prerogative to play that well. Ugly and frustrating to watch though and on a lesser stage than today (devoid of the prize at stake) it would be wretched.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I found it fascinating too but, at the same time, detested the way Donegal persistently and consistently passed backwards when they actually broke free over the half forward line. It was conservative football in the extreme and I suppose it's Donegal's prerogative to play that well. Ugly and frustrating to watch though and on a lesser stage than today (devoid of the prize at stake) it would be wretched.

I think that's spot on ONeill. The match was immensely interesting given the numerous sub-plots and the immensity of the occasion. I found today's game compelling in its own right but the reality is that if this was the prototype for how Gaelic football is to develop then our games are likely to become significantly less popular.

But at the end of the day Jim McGuinness deserves credit in my eyes. I saw Donegal deliver two gutless shameful displays against Armagh last year yet twelve months later they are a transformed team capable of giving severe difficulty to the best in the country. The players are generally the same individuals who performed so abysmally in 2010 and so the manager can take immense credit for their magnificent progress. And indeed but for some fairly fortunately awarded frees to "even up" the sending-off Donegal could have gone all the way.

[dublin7]

That Donegal player who took a dive to have Connolly sent off was a disgrace. If a premier league footballer did that he would get dogs abuse.

That performance by Donegal was the most cynical display I have senn by any football/hurling team in 15 years going to matches. One forward for the whole game & constant dives to delay the game.

Would have been a disgrace if those tactics would have taken them to an all ireland final

[cadence]

i feel very sorry for the players. but they came up a wee bit short but gave it everything and you can't knock the huge effort they put in. i'm hopeful they'll be back tougher, stronger and a little bit fitter to finish games like that off next year. for the first 50mins we played with a level of intensity that even dublin were struggling to find answers to. i've never seen a donegal side strip ball like that, nor sweep up breaking ball as good. they were awesome. but for whatever reason, whether we felt it was in the bag and just took the foot off the gas, we didn't press home when we should have. from 50-60mins we had a couple of opportunities to get the ball to men in scoring positions and we didn't switch play and take those opportunities when they were there. the left wing was wide open in the second half and our runners who got there were ignored. it just kept going right. then a couple of dub scores and we started coughing up ball unnecessarily, lacking in concentration or maybe we were starting to get fatigued, but we should have shut that game out. it was there for the taking. it's kinda inexplicable really. i don't know why we didn't kill it off when we had the impetus and the legs for it. it's the first game we went full pelt from the off and perhaps it was unknown territory for us as far as whether we were fit enough for it. in the last 10mins the legs were going and then left and we lost our shape and were a spent force by then.

what i'm hoping for the future is that we stick to our guns and trust in it to take us further next year. at one point a stat for possession was shown and it was so lopsidedly in favour of donegal i had to look at it again. so the plan to move the ball through the hand was a good one, we just ran out of gas to do it for the full 70mins effectively.  the type of game we play requires everyone being fit enough to go full 70mins and beyond and get enough players up there in support. too many players didn't have the legs at the finish to forward in support. i don't want to single any one player out, but in a general sense, our passing and vision wasn't what it should have been at times today.