All Ireland senior football final 2012 Donegal v Mayo

[cuconnacht]

cadence



i'll swap you a bottle for a ticket!
[/quote]Im gonna see and raise ya C,I,ll give ya four tickets for four bottles.

Bring a jumper!their for  leabgarra  ferry in 1st week a november.God damn Doney men and their mountain dew,the only thing worse than than postin drunk,is makin a solemn agreement with Tir Conallites in da same condition or callin yer wife at three in da mornin and tellin her yer late coz ya had to help robinhood or spiderman fight crime.Ach eist,your donegal agus mise mayo,the one  thing we do well to world wide acclaim is dig tunnels,your 4buideals and my shovels, jones road midnight saturday 22,what says ya.
[/quote]



i don't fly in until sunday morning, but if you get her started i'll bring the air spade and a muck board and we'll skip the breakfast and horse into it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwlsko1YqkM
[/quote] sound,on me way you bring the teabags   .Thats a great we video too,good find,have look at it again though,that mans capeen seems to have a life of its own,like he has a pet frog or somethin underneath or am i seein things
[/quote]

think that vid was posted on here is where i first seen it. he is as pissed as a frog i think, if that's possible. good luck sunday!
[/quote]Of course it is but are ya talkin bout the musician,the frog under his hat,my watchin of it,your postin of it or a frenchman
and good luck ta yourselves too and safe trip.
footnote;did ya pick up your tickets london side or home,only enquirin as moyside demand has gone crazy so id rather have a look this side through old teammates/clubs and what not than add to  the frenzy,any ideas?wahoo

[cuconnacht]

Was Danny Geraghty used the last day moysider? I don't think he was. He's another buck you could throw in to hammer away at the likes of Donegal's midfielders.

No he wasn t but he was in the 26. Carolan was as well.

Donegal s midfield is the best we ll have met. Gallagher is the alpha male midfielder in the country now imo. O Sé was missing in Ballyshannon but Gallaghers display was still scary. The Cork monobrows in midfield didn t compete well. Mind you post match analysis on that game seems to have neglected how badly Cork approached that game in general - from selection, tactics, attitude. Manager sitting down with his head in his hands said it all.

+1 moysider.I thought counihan got away with an awful gameplan,i,d say the majority of corkonians must have been well dissapointed in that effort.

[cuconnacht]

Jeez,great bit a work there,anyone near the reek this mornin,we shouldnt take this lying down,we have to counter

[emmetryan]

Seeing as the Minor Final doesn't have it's own thread it seems best to lob this in here. My tactical take on Sunday's undercard http://action81.com/blog/?p=6194

[BennyHarp]

Sunday will bring Donegal into unfamiliar territory. First AI for all their players and first time this year playing a team who will not be spooked by them. Up to now all the teams Donegal played have become obsessed with how to beat the Donegal system and have been psyched out of it by McGuiness. On Sunday McGuiness will have to think how does he beat us knowing that we won't fall into the trap of setting up our team out of fear of Donegal.

Cork and Kerry both had poorish half back lines (Brosnan was a big loss to Kerry)which made the counter attacking game easier and the Cork midfield did not function. I expect we will at least break even at midfield, will stem the counter attacks well out the field and our forwards will test the Donegal defence with more direct running than they are used to. Our FB has been brilliant all year and I can't see us conceding much more than 9 or 10 scores.  Expect a final score of 2-11 to 1-9 or something like that for us and maybe more as Donegal will leave gaps when they are chasing the game. 

Can only see one result – pity it's Donegal we have to beat as we have much in common but no room for sentiment.

Blindly optimistic is the best way to be during the week leading up to the All Ireland final, Mayo Mick. But to pick holes in Donegal through pointing out weaknesses in the opposition is a pointless exercise as I could pick plenty of holes in Leitrim, Sligo, Down and Dublin. And if your confidence is built around Mayo not being "spooked" by Donegal, therefore Donegal will not know how to handle that -then I'd seriously doubt the foundations on which you base your logic. Also, I think we have all seen Mayo teams get spooked in AI finals before.

Mayo collapsed against Dublin and nearly threw away a 10 point lead in 20 minutes - a similar collapse on Sunday and they are gone. Donegal so far have been superb this season and have systematically broken down every team they have played - i fully expect this to happen on Sunday. But then, it is the All Ireland Final and anything can happen. Lets hope its a great game!

[Declan]

How do the Donegal folks feel about the extra tenner being lobbed onto the tickets?
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/donegal-fans-hit-by-60000-ticket-tax-3233312.html

[tbrick18]

From a neutral point of view, I cant see anything other than a Donegal win here.
Say what you want about the quality of Mayo (who I fancied to beat Dublin) but they wont have met anything like this Donegal side.
The sheer fitness and strength of this team can not be fully understood until you see it first hand. I've never seen a fitter side.
Add to that their game plan, which won't change one bit for Mayo, and the fact that they have some of the best defenders, midfielders and forwards in the country points to this perhaps being a one sided affair.
I have a lot of time for Mayo and Donegal, and would like to see them both win an AI, but I think on this occasion it's Donegal's to lose.

Donegal by 5+.

[RMDrive]

How do the Donegal folks feel about the extra tenner being lobbed onto the tickets?
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/donegal-fans-hit-by-60000-ticket-tax-3233312.html

It's a fiver. And I think it's fair enough. At least they are not demanding €2 from all national school children like other counties 

[Mayo4Sam]

I doubt I'm the only one reading every shred of paper with an article on the match, it'll cost me more than the ticket at this rate.

On the team selection, I think Barrett will be out and Boyle back in and that's that. I wouldn't have Feeney anywhere near the half back line, if he comes on it'll have to be in the HF line as a sweeper.

The Donegal lads that I know are confident but don't want to say flatout that they think they'll win handy. They look at how they've blown teams away between 40-50 mins in every match and how we almost blew a 10 point lead and adding 2 and 2 get a reasonable 4.

Where my hope and optimism lie is that this is our strongest time too, we targeted it against Dublin and blew the lights out for 15 minutes. Fair enough we lost McLoughlin and Keegan and our scramble play at midfield fell to pieces without them but hopefully we'll have them on the-field the next day.

What happens if on 50-55 mins Donegal being used to having a 5-6 point lead at this point, find themselves down? They can't retreat into their ultra defensive formation as they have done against Kerry & Cork? And they can't afford to wait it out and play the slow game, tick-tock lads? For me this is the key to the whole match and it's been both teams biggest strengths, quarter three is where they both done damage.

[Mayo Mick]

What happens if on 50-55 mins Donegal being used to having a 5-6 point lead at this point, find themselves down? They can't retreat into their ultra defensive formation as they have done against Kerry & Cork? And they can't afford to wait it out and play the slow game, tick-tock lads? For me this is the key to the whole match and it's been both teams biggest strengths, quarter three is where they both done damage.

Spot on M4S. So far Donegal have got themselves into a position where they have a 4/5 point lead and they know how to defent that and hit teams on the break - the early lucky goal v Kerry gave them the ideal cushion. My feeling is that we will match them and facing in to the last 10/12 minutes they will not have a cushion. If they have to come out of their shell we have the players to hit them on the counter attack - our performance in the 10 minutes either side of half time v Dublin showed what we can do in a short period. As for the "collapse" v Dublin I would see this as a blessing - players and management will have learned from it. More important we recovered and could have scored a couple of goals in last 5 minutes.

But to pick holes in Donegal through pointing out weaknesses in the opposition is a pointless exercise as I could pick plenty of holes in Leitrim, Sligo, Down and Dublin

Was just pointing out BH that some media hype around Donegal did not take account of opposition weaknesses (including management). On the other hand after our game v Dublin most discussion was around Dublin's failings. Likewise our win v Down was discounted on the basis that Down were very poor.

Looking at our development over the past 2 years I believe there is an edge and a hardness around this Mayo team that has not been there before and that those outside the county will only appreciate on Sunday. Can't see us missing this great chance to bring Sam back.

[Lar Naparka]

Anybody care to speculate about selections?

I believe Horan has a decision to make in the half back line but I expect him to keep it on even keel there with the same again - even though I think we could be walking into a haymaker of our own making there. After the semi, Barrett and Richie would be entitled to wonder a bit but then again it s a 20 (at least) man thing. Hopefully Richie will have recovered anyway and while he s done enough to start I d agree with holding him because he seems to know what is required when introduced.

It appears that McGarrity's comeback attempt has not worked out and he won t be in the reckoning. Fair play to him for putting in the work to try to get there and it must be a huge disappointment. Respect for his efforts in the squad.

Seamie O Sé and Jason Gibbons looked grand against Dubs it has to be said. We can freshen things up there.

Of course I would. Happy to oblige, as always!
Straight off, I can't see JH making any changes in personnel unless they are forced upon him by injuries or dramatic loss of form in training.  You'll recall that he chopped and changed at will during the league but since the championships began, he has stuck with the same lineup as far as possible.
One of my (many, many) problems with Johnno was that he could never decide on what would be his preferred fifteen. Andy, BJP and Trevor were in danger of losing their ammatuer status as travellers as he horsed them about. BJ played in every line on the team and neither the player nor the team benefitted from this musical chairs exercise.
The biggest problem with that approach was that few if any players felt confident of holding their places let alone settling in and developing their play. Naturally, their main concern was to ensure they made the least number of mistakes and began to shirk responsibility.
2010 was my annus horribilis; I never saw worse displays from a Mayo team in the 50 or so years that I've been following my much-beloved county.
JH has learnt from the mistakes of his predecessor and picks the best players to fit into his game plan- whatever that may be.
As a consequence, there are a few on the bench with reasonable grounds to feel aggrieved. Teamwork takes priority over individualism.
Therefore, I expect him to  put out the same fifteen that started against Dublin- if all are declared to play. I expect there will be a few match ups but in the main, Mayo will opt to play their own game and leave it up to Donegal to to match them if they can.

[Mayo4Sam]

U expect Barrett to be in instead of Boyle Lar?

[ballinaman]

Nice article in the times today...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0918/1224324119569.html

[Lar Naparka]

U expect Barrett to be in instead of Boyle Lar?

Not if Boyle is deemed fit enough to play.

[stephenite]

Nice article in the times today...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0918/1224324119569.html

Ya boy ya - the big time.... about time!