All Ireland senior football final 2012 Donegal v Mayo

[Syferus]

Donegal were well worth their win for being more economical with their chances. Goes without saying that a crazy opening to the game killed it for Mayo, but they looked the better footballing team for long spells after that. Donegal's famed third quarter never materialised, and it was actually the last 10 minutes that won the game for them in the end. If Mayo had have had Andy Moran on the field there really could have been an upset - a team can't find an all-Ireland without their star player.

McGuinness' tactics, commitment and inspiration throughout the season were absolutely fantastic, but his stunt at the end was outrageous there. Every journalist in the room should have followed Declan Bogue out.

What happened mucker??

Kicked Declan Bogue out of the post-match presser. Awful behaviour.

is it but? mcguinness is adamant bogue made stuff up to sell copy. as manager he has a responsibility to protect his players. journalists have a responsibility also, cant have it both ways. take your oil

He didn't though. And why kick Cassidy out?

Cassidy must be feeling sore today. His crime was breaking Jim's omerta. None of the details were particularly groundbreaking or insightful.

That's the thing. It was quite mundane. Cross Jimmy and you're going down and anyone belonging to you.

Correct Shane.

In any other job the manager would have gone for his treatment of Cassidy. 

Cassidy only said what everyone else knew.

Back home after the game and very disappointed in the poor effort by Mayo.  They were so nervous and mentally ill prepared that all of their ball handling skills were very poor.  When they came to terms with their nerves thay could hold their own.  Management of Mayo may have come some way but has a long way to go to prepare a team for a final particularly a Mayo team with such a weight of expectation on such occasions.

BTW Donegal supporters were pathetic with their booing and jeering of the Mayo freetakers.

Main danger for other teams is that Donegal build an aurora of being unbeatable, they are still a team playing one or two up front and everyone in defence.  A better referee would have given Donegal a bit of bother with many more yellow cards.

Anyone notice that Lacey was a lot quieter when he shipped a heavy tackle shoulder to shoulder but no ball present.  Too many have stood off him all year and last year and made him look better than he is.

So much of the sport is confidence. Most of the dedicated inter-county players can kick trick shots and field balls for fun in training when the glare is off them. Sometimes you do see players standing off 'stars' and letting them run at them with abandon.

Make no mistake, though, Lacey is still probably the best true half-back in the game right now, Emmet Bolton is the only one could realistically be ranked above him.

[ONeill]

We could pussy-foot around Mayo's performance and say 'well they left no stone unturned' etc but that start was unforgivable for a county with so many final defeats in the last 23 years.

[Syferus]

We could pussy-foot around Mayo's performance and say 'well they left no stone unturned' etc but that start was unforgivable for a county with so many final defeats in the last 23 years.

It was as simple as matching up Higgins with Murphy to have stopped Donegal from doing what they did. Higgins is perhaps the best man-marker in the game right now, he is a seriously under-rated player and deserves an All-Star for his efforts this year. Keane did well on McFadden for most of the game too which makes Horan's decision all the more bizarre. We were talking here about it before the game and we were sure Cafferkey or Higgins would be on Murphy and not Keane, who didn't seem a good match-up with Murphy's sheer power and size, nevermind being the greenest of the back line. Any mistakes on Murphy likely meant goals and so it was perhaps the most essential match-up for Mayo.

[J70]

Donegal were well worth their win for being more economical with their chances. Goes without saying that a crazy opening to the game killed it for Mayo, but they looked the better footballing team for long spells after that. Donegal's famed third quarter never materialised, and it was actually the last 10 minutes that won the game for them in the end. If Mayo had have had Andy Moran on the field there really could have been an upset - a team can't find an all-Ireland without their star player.

McGuinness' tactics, commitment and inspiration throughout the season were absolutely fantastic, but his stunt at the end was outrageous there. Every journalist in the room should have followed Declan Bogue out.

What happened mucker??

Kicked Declan Bogue out of the post-match presser. Awful behaviour.

is it but? mcguinness is adamant bogue made stuff up to sell copy. as manager he has a responsibility to protect his players. journalists have a responsibility also, cant have it both ways. take your oil

He didn't though. And why kick Cassidy out?

Cassidy must be feeling sore today. His crime was breaking Jim's omerta. None of the details were particularly groundbreaking or insightful.

That's the thing. It was quite mundane. Cross Jimmy and you're going down and anyone belonging to you.

Correct Shane.

In any other job the manager would have gone for his treatment of Cassidy. 

Cassidy only said what everyone else knew.

Back home after the game and very disappointed in the poor effort by Mayo.  They were so nervous and mentally ill prepared that all of their ball handling skills were very poor.  When they came to terms with their nerves thay could hold their own.  Management of Mayo may have come some way but has a long way to go to prepare a team for a final particularly a Mayo team with such a weight of expectation on such occasions.

BTW Donegal supporters were pathetic with their booing and jeering of the Mayo freetakers.

Main danger for other teams is that Donegal build an aurora of being unbeatable, they are still a team playing one or two up front and everyone in defence.  A better referee would have given Donegal a bit of bother with many more yellow cards.

Anyone notice that Lacey was a lot quieter when he shipped a heavy tackle shoulder to shoulder but no ball present.  Too many have stood off him all year and last year and made him look better than he is.

Lacey was hit late, with a shoulder to the chest, after he released the ball. It happened early in the game and the Mayo player was correctly booked.

He'd a good game, but like the rest of the team, he gave a couple of bad balls away in the face of the ferocious Mayo defending ( and I mean "ferocious" in the sense of the effort they put in).

[Farrandeelin]

Congrats Donegal. If it was anyone else ye were playing I'd be delighted ye won. I'll post up some postmatch thoughts tomorrow.

[J70]

Still buzzing after that, but f**k that was a hard match to enjoy. We never really looked in danger, but we never looked comfortable either. Toughest match of the year by far for Donegal, which I mean with no disrespect to Tyrone. Mayo's effort and defending was amazing, and a few of the points they got were top drawer (although it was pleasing from our point of view that they had to kick those kinds of scores). If we hadn't had the blistering start, who knows how it would have gone, but champions have players like Murphy and McFadden to deliver for them when it matters. That was a seriously impressive second quarter from Mayo, again, today, although I felt that we would improve in the second half once McGuinness went to work at half time, and we in fact did. Wasn't a great performance from us, and we got a bit ragged in the second quarter in the face of the Mayo tackling and closing down, but the players definitely lifted it and I think we were deserving winners. Usual suspects all played well, even if the odd pass went astray, but Murphy was head and shoulders the best player out there today.

Very hard luck to Mayo, although I would think their performance from the 15 minute mark onward would be some consolation to them and their support. Nothing is ever certain, but you would have to fancy Mayo to challenge over the next couple of years though, at least if, like ourselves, they can maintain the near-professional levels of fitness and application.

[Chimley]

Congratulations to Donegal on a very professional display that was too much for us in the end. In some ways, this is a harder loss than any of our previous defeats. Another awful start is nothing new to us and although we did claw our way back into this game, you never really felt we were going to win.
We lost Andy Moran after we had put three goals past Down where he had set up two of them. We never had the umpires reaching for a green flag since. I don't know if his presence would have made any material difference yesterday but he would surely have helped our cause.

I am not as confident as some others (including neutrals) that Mayo will be back again after this defeat. Losing finals has become ingrained, and I feel that yesterday may be worse than most. We were not too far off the required standard but couldn't get over the line against a team without any final experience. The mental damage may be worse than not being able to live with Kerry in their pomp.

[Declan]

Congrats to Donegal. Well deserving winners. Mayo really never recovered from the early goals but really tried hard to get back into it. Thought it was a very cynical game myself , lots of pulling ,dragging etc but even allowing for that an enjoyable spectacle.


   

[catchandkick]

I would agree Chimley.

McStay was talking about Mayo being a year behind Donegal in their development, not sure this is true, time will tell.

Donegal have two top class forwards to Mayo's none which elevates them a level above Mayo.

Would it be unfair to compare Mayo 2012 to Down 2010?

Also-

Is Christy Toye not a cut above Bradley or McLoone? Thought he looked a big game player yesterday, which I have never felt about McLoone, or Bradley, who looks a full forward butchered into a half forward role

What does Jimmy McG do for a living ? Just curious, have not seen it mentioned anywhere

Dublin 2011/Donegal 2012 have a lot of similarities . Two top class forwards ( the Brogans, Murphy/McFadden), other four forwards acting as worker bees helping backs and midfield, a good system which every player knows and a phenomenal level of fitness.

By the same logic, a county like Derry ( the Bradleys), Longford ( Bardens & another guy who plays with Kilmacud whose name escapes me right now, Kavanagh ?) or Roscommon ( Donie Shine & Senan Kilbride) could apply the Donegal/Dublin 12-0-2 + well practiced system + maniacal training to achieve success.

You can do all the analysis you like on yesterday's game but it boiled down to:

Top Class Forwards Donegal 2 Top Class Forwards Mayo 0

[Chimley]

We could pussy-foot around Mayo's performance and say 'well they left no stone unturned' etc but that start was unforgivable for a county with so many final defeats in the last 23 years.

Even more so when you consider that Murphy had terrorised our defence in the league match earlier in the year and we didn't seem to have a plan in place to cope with the tactic of lumping ball into him.

[Billys Boots]

Congrats to Donegal. Well deserving winners. Mayo really never recovered from the early goals but really tried hard to get back into it. Thought it was a very cynical game myself , lots of pulling ,dragging etc but even allowing for that an enjoyable spectacle.

I kind of switched off mentally after the second goal, as I found it difficult to anticipate Mayo bridging a seven-point gap (or Donegal allowing them to).  I thought it was poor enough fare myself - was looking forward to seeing how Donegal would manage a close game; they haven't really had one this year. 

[Farrandeelin]

Where to start after another final defeat? Well, first off, as I already said congrats to Donegal. They are worthy winners. However, I am putting my Green and Red tinted glasses on now so please don't be too harsh on me.

I also have to agree that the Mayo warm-up did seem kind of laxidasical in comparison to Donegal's. However, I watched Donegal doing the very same warm-up routine against Cork and they seemed to benefit from it that day as well. Even when they were waiting for the anthems and all that stuff they kept running into a ceentre of a circle whereas our lads just simply stood up and waited around.

Then the match got underway. Now fair play to James Horan in getting the buzz back again, but why on Earth he changed which is arguably our most consistent line on the field of play in the prematch matchups is beyond me. Why the hell didn't Cafferkey start on Murphy? Why not leave Kevin Keane on Mc Fadden? And leave things alone back there? I have to say what was more a kind of a shock became more shocking as the game started. First high ball into Murphy, he wins it turns and bang a rasper into the net. f**k it I thought, but there was still 68/69 mins plus injury time left and the lads were 'different' this year. (or so I thought).

As the game ticked on, Mayo had to score next to settle them. I didn't care what or how they got it after the first goal Donegal got. Instead, they kicked two terrible wides. Donegal came down and got a point. I must admit I didn't see Cillian O'Connor being fouled, but my dad was down in that corner and he couldn't believe how Mayo didn't get a free in, which could have brought it to a 3 point game and settled things down. Bang, the result was different. A shot that came back off the post somehow spilled out of one of our defender's hands and Donegal got a second goal. And it was only 11 minutes old!! To be fair you can say what you like about games but all those werre the turning points.

Mayo did come into the game outscoring Donegal 0-7 to 0-3 and they got good scores in the second quarter. I must say McFadden must have taken around two minutes taking that free which put Donegal in the ascendancy by three points at halftime.  And I reckon Donegal were happy with that decision by the ref to allow McFadden to have all the time in the world and halftime came as Mayo were building up a bit of steam. I'd say they were also happy to see McFadden prickacting with the free, stealing a few yards, getting the ref's attention and taking his time to settle once again. Ach sin é.

The second half started with a flurry of bad wides from Mayo. We needed to score one or two of those shots to have any chance of making a game of it in the second half, but it was Donegal who got the first score of the half and it was a four point game straight away. No way back for Mayo I thought, unless we got a goal.  I was looking towards the bench to see if there was any movement early in the second half, but no sign of anything. I'm going to have to be critical of the manager here once again, why on Earth was Richie Feeney kept on reserve until about 15 minutes to go?? Jesus Christ he was arguably Mayo's best outfield player apart from Keith Higgins and the full back line once they swapped positions and the nerves settled!!! He caught some massive abount of breaking ball during his brief stint but that was countered by the fact that the 'tactic' of playing Aiden O'Shea full forward was deployed. I'll say no more about it (despite wanting to). Seamus O'Shea must be a bit miffed with the whole experience of getting around 5 minutes playing time.

Credit to the team for the way they didn't collapse after going 7 points down. But that was the reality of the situation. We lost by 4 points and Donegal (deserving winners though they are) must be thankful after getting those early goals. I too, like J70 took heart in our defending from the 15th minute mark onwards. Donegal players soloing off down the field, running into Mayo players, sometimes getting turned over. Often times, and too often for my liking there was a man (or 3) lining up for Donegal to pop a pass to as well. We also kicked some horrific wides. Varley in particular, missed two very scorable frees.

I must say I was disappointed with McLoughlin yesterday. I thought AOS and Barry Moran had better days. I thought Keegan and Boyle played blinders. Fullback line nerves, wrecklessness whatever you want to call it early on cost us the game as well as the poor shooting. Like Chimley, I'm not so sure about talk of next year. By the sounds of the majority of Mayo fans last night they were very confident and were on about booking buses and the whole shebang. Maybe they were trying to console themselves, but All Ireland finals are hard got to. And when you do get to them, carpe diem. Mayo didn't seize the day yesterday and Donegal did.

13 scores a piece. Goals win games. Our forwards never looked like troubling Durcan in goals yesterday. Someone else alluded to the booing of the Donegal fans taking the frees. What can you do about it? I'm sure there were some Mayo fans booing as well, but if the focus is there you'll silence the boos and they'll become less frequent. Mayo had no real freetaker yesterday. O'Connor did well early on, so why was Varley taking any? I may have rambled on a bit so I'll leave it at that.

[Hound]

Well done Donegal. Very good first and last quarters, not so much in between. Best team in 2012, no doubt. But at the same stage (probably for the first time this summer), they looked beatable on Sunday.

Overall I thought Mayo had more players who played below par. Great opportunity lost for them. But they are a dead cert for the quarters next year, so they should be able to give it a good rattle again.

What does Jimmy McG do for a living ? Just curious, have not seen it mentioned anywhere

Nothing.

Plus I heard that 11 of the Donegal team don't have jobs (perhaps there's a lot of students among that number)

[FermGael]

A small  thing about the pre match routines yesterday.

Donegal(according to the official match day programme) were suppose to be out first yesterday.
I think it was at 3.05.
Anyway Mayo came out first and on time( 3.07), followed nearly straight after by Donegal.

Wee bit of pre game psychology?

Also Donegal were playing with 16 players at times yesterday.
Gallagher was never off the pitch.  He probably ran more than some of the players.

[Hardy]

Donegal were well worth their win for being more economical with their chances. Goes without saying that a crazy opening to the game killed it for Mayo, but they looked the better footballing team for long spells after that. Donegal's famed third quarter never materialised, and it was actually the last 10 minutes that won the game for them in the end. If Mayo had have had Andy Moran on the field there really could have been an upset - a team can't find an all-Ireland without their star player.

McGuinness' tactics, commitment and inspiration throughout the season were absolutely fantastic, but his stunt at the end was outrageous there. Every journalist in the room should have followed Declan Bogue out.

What happened mucker??

Kicked Declan Bogue out of the post-match presser. Awful behaviour.

is it but? mcguinness is adamant bogue made stuff up to sell copy. as manager he has a responsibility to protect his players. journalists have a responsibility also, cant have it both ways. take your oil

He didn't though. And why kick Cassidy out?

Cassidy must be feeling sore today. His crime was breaking Jim's omerta. None of the details were particularly groundbreaking or insightful.

That's the thing. It was quite mundane. Cross Jimmy and you're going down and anyone belonging to you.

Correct Shane.

In any other job the manager would have gone for his treatment of Cassidy. 

Cassidy only said what everyone else knew.

Back home after the game and very disappointed in the poor effort by Mayo.  They were so nervous and mentally ill prepared that all of their ball handling skills were very poor.  When they came to terms with their nerves thay could hold their own.  Management of Mayo may have come some way but has a long way to go to prepare a team for a final particularly a Mayo team with such a weight of expectation on such occasions.

BTW Donegal supporters were pathetic with their booing and jeering of the Mayo freetakers.

Main danger for other teams is that Donegal build an aurora of being unbeatable, they are still a team playing one or two up front and everyone in defence.  A better referee would have given Donegal a bit of bother with many more yellow cards.

Anyone notice that Lacey was a lot quieter when he shipped a heavy tackle shoulder to shoulder but no ball present.  Too many have stood off him all year and last year and made him look better than he is.

No chance. Sure they'd borealis off you.