All Ireland senior football final 2012 Donegal v Mayo

[deiseach]

I've had to choke back a tear looking at that image. Beautiful, just beautiful

[Orior]

great picture

a great moment for the McHughs. And the greatest forehead since yer boy out of Ant and Dec lurking in the background

Not to mention the eyelashes of the other.

D'oh! I just did.

[Declan]

Great pic

[Syferus]

I'd be scared too if Jimmy came to my cot with a sharp metal object.

[Shamrock Shore]

Agree with Hardy et al that it's time to get rid of "TAW AWHAS URRIM" when all you do is thank every living person in the county.

Congrats Donegal - it seems like only yesterday when I travelled up to Ballybofey to see Longford play Donegal in the Qualifiers. Longford had to travel as, due to some ranking system known only to some mentalist, they were deemed the 'stronger' side.

[J70]

Thought the ref was trying to keep Mayo in it, some poor decisions/decisions not given and so on.

I think that comment is horse manure and it was frustrating to listen to 2 ex-Donegal players coming out with the same bull when interviewed last night on the Sunday Game along with Jim McG alluding to it.
If i was from Donegal i'd spend far more being thankful for the free out that was given when Cillian O'Connor was fouled ultimately leading to the 2nd goal and a 4 point turn-around than moaning about what they perceive as a couple of hard calls against them.

Christ, if they had lost there would have been some moaning if they're moaning about it when the won.

As a neutral I felt Mayo were doing fairly well out of the referee throughout the match however I missed the free out leading to he goal and that point may be well made.

Felt the same as you, and while the one before the goal looked a free (have not seen a slowmo replay however), he gave one down that end against one of the McGees later in the first half  under a dropping ball, that didn't look a free and resulted in an easy point (again, no replay though). But no big deal. Haven't seen to many complaints from Mayo, nor should there be any from us.  The ref gets one look. We all gain or suffer on a given day. Donegal have been on the receiving end of plenty. And Mayo's bigger issue should be witj the defender who let the ball slip away to McFadden.

[spuds]

Thought the ref was trying to keep Mayo in it, some poor decisions/decisions not given and so on.

I think that comment is horse manure and it was frustrating to listen to 2 ex-Donegal players coming out with the same bull when interviewed last night on the Sunday Game along with Jim McG alluding to it.
If i was from Donegal i'd spend far more being thankful for the free out that was given when Cillian O'Connor was fouled ultimately leading to the 2nd goal and a 4 point turn-around than moaning about what they perceive as a couple of hard calls against them.

Christ, if they had lost there would have been some moaning if they're moaning about it when the won.

As a neutral I felt Mayo were doing fairly well out of the referee throughout the match however I missed the free out leading to he goal and that point may be well made.

Not being neutral but thought referee was throwing yellows out at Mayo players and not Donegal, there was comments before match of Mayo's cynical fouling in previous games whereas I felt Donegal were probably the greater culprits yesterday but did not get punished with yellow cards.
The other gripe I had was when Mayo were awarded frees on numerous occasions the ball was brought forward by Deegan he insisted on carrying the ball forward himself negating further the chance of taking a quick free. Surely systematic slowing down of free taking should be punished, bringing the ball forward 10 yards, or whatever the distance, and still outside the scoring range is of minimal advantage.

All that being said, the better team won yesterday. They had the greater scoring threat, they did better than I expected with Neil Gallagher in the middle and Lacey had Dillon in his pocket. We fought manfully till the end, turning over a lot of Donegal possession but the Donegal defense stood firm and with Dillon and McLaughlin to a lesser extent quietened we were always going to struggle creatively.
Fair play to Horan and his management team, they have brought Mayo football forward to the modern era. We are a few forwards short of being the finished article. Hard to believe it now with the defeat so raw but we are a work in progress.

[AZOffaly]

Well done Donegal, great to see the excitement and that photo of McHugh with his Da is what it's all about. Hard luck Mayo, they seemed to be very nervous in the first 10 - 15 minutes, but let no one say they folded or choked. That was a determined, prideful effort, and they have as good a chance as anybody next year.

[sammymaguire]

Best and most deserving team won Sam this year. Fair play Donegal.

[ross4life]

O Shea and O'Connor are 20 & 21 and can play better than they showed yesterday. There is at least half a dozen more years at the top for them. Their minors have been pretty good for the last few years without winning an all Ireland of course. Mayos minors should have been in the all Ireland this year too giving the Dubs a much better challenge than that mediocre Meath outfit.

Of course they also have players like Moran and Mortimer that could return. Horan seems to be the man to get them to take the final step in the next year or two but knowing Mayo they will probably find a way to mess it up.

Kerry and Tyrone seem to be gone and the main contenders in the next 3 or 4 years seem to be Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Mayo.

Mortimer's inter county days are over Andy Moran will be 29 next year while Alan Dillon will be 30 how many years has those two key players left? if Mayo keep the same team their average age next year will be 25 young enough to challenge for at least 5 years but it's still more scoring forwards that they need the most.

The best forward of their 2006 AI winning team was Aidan Kilcoyne i'm not sure if he's available to return? having watched Mayo's underage scene closely they have some good footballers coming through good defenders,midfielders though i didn't see any stand out forwards tbh.

It's hard to know what will happen next year remember Down got to 2010 final only losing by a point many thought they would return & would be foolish to rule out Tyrone or Kerry for example Kerry won the 2008 U21 AI. Finally a lot teams are doing good work at underage level it would be to great to see a break through from one of those teams especially our own crop.

[ToWinJustOnce_Mayo4Sam]

Watched game again this morning ..... I have no idea why these donegal posters are going on about the referee being soft on Mayo...
(the supporter at the game the very same ... wanted a yellow card for every foul committed by a mayo player!!!)

There were three fouls called on mayo (all pointed) which were marginal.
i)  Last free before half-time was harsh.
ii) Foul called on mayo player when Murphy met with a fair shoulder and
iii) finally McFadden dived to earn his free into the 2nd half.

Not to mention deegan's worst decision In not awarding a free to O'Connor which led to Donegal 2nd Goal.


Final Note, the whistling, cat calling & booing a disgrace by a sizable portion of the Donegal crowd.


I wonder will Brolly (or anybody else) mention the time wasting and feigning injury late into the 2nd Half. Each time there was a foul, the donegal players were holding there faces even though contact was being made to their face.

[moysider]

Driving home yesterday I remarked to the others that this was my seventh time returning from a senior AI final without winning a single one. Same as themselves. A desolate statistic. They also agreed that none really expected to win going up and the journey was done out of a sense of hope - and lets face it, duty.  Having to be there in case the great day finally arrived. The stuff on the streets before the game was great - the fans and the buzz. Felt very little emotion during the game ( the fight has been well and truly knocked out of me by events in the past) apart from despair. As usual I was expecting some kind of calamity and it wasn t long coming. Groundhog Day meets deja vu all over again! Couldn t see us win the game after the second goal. An hour is a long time to watch a team fight might and main just to save face. The way Donegal play a 7 point lead is impossible and it turned out to be the case. Like 06 I sat through an hour of a final thinking we couldn t win.

I cant see our fortunes change either if I m honest. Not just about us. Any county that ever plays us in a final will see us as a great opportunity - they will be empowered and brimful of confidence playing a team that nobody can lose to. Really we have an awful lagacy left to future teams. If Dub were the opposition yesterday I dont think Donegal would have got that start because I believe they would have appraoched the start more cautiously and settled in. But there was no fear of Mayo. There was no need because without Andy our ff line is toothless and they knew how easily they coped with likes of Varley in the past.

Horan is taking a bit of a pasting but I m not so sure. I d certainly prefer to be losing an AI than the shite we had to endure during the Johnno era - both of them!

The match-up on Murphy was the correct one I thought. Cafferkey couldn t handle him in the league and Keane did well on him underage. I don t think Caff would have done any better for the goal but management have to take the blame for allowing Murphy to be isolated one on one with his marker inside.

Meanwhile at the other end we were playing with a flat 3 man ff line. Waste of time and resources with the players we have. I ve always maintained that we wouldn t be able to afford the luxury of a 3 man ff line - especially whan they are unable to pull their weight. We needed players deeper yesterday. If Varley was selected to kick frees from the right it was shallow reasoning.

A few things have surprised me lately tbh.

When we were leaking scores against Dublin we stayed 1 on 1 with them and got no covering defender/s back. Also down the stretch v Dublin we struggled to handle O Gara and high ball. This handed McGuinness a winning template and I m sure he cant believe we fell for the Murphy trick so readily. Before the goal another ball went in where it was obvious that he had the beating of his man and there was going to be trouble. Because of the surplus forwards we had on the pitch we were not fluid enough to get a player back to double up on Murphy in time.

I m surprised we didn t use the running game more instead of kicking possession away all the time. I d have started Feeney instead of an inside forward and attacked with width. This would have got likes of Dillon into the game. We needed Higgins as an attacking force but he was confined to defending. Donegal would have loved that. Overall I think we made it too easy for them. Notice how Donegal made sure that Lacey and McBrearty( with the second McGee marking as well) were in the game as attacking forces - limiting the influence of Kevin Mac and Dillon as welll.

For some reason management got very conservative as the summer progressed. I don t think this is being wise after the event. We had this debate in June and I remember at the time saying that what we were doing would not be good enough to compensate for the lack of a decent ff line. A back 6 of Keane, Cafferkey, McHale, Boyle, Keegan and Higgins would have been much beter balanced and would have got Higgins into games.

Once Andy got injured though we were damaged goods going forward (would Donegal have won without Murphy?). There s criticism of changes not being made sooner and I can t understand the Feeney thing myself. But our options were limited. In the forwards Freeman hasn t been having much inpact and they obviously didn t trust Regan and who else is there?

Putting Aidan in ff while surrounded by defenders and other forwards alike was just sad while also understandable I suppose. For me that we were reduced to such rawness was the most disappointing part of the performance. Especially when we appeared to be on to something with our running game at the begining of the summer. Wouldn t like to be too critical of management and players however because it wasn t a ' normal' contest after that crazy start. While management could have done better for the first goal the second was one of those things and if O Con was fouled below it was a 4 point turnover.

Ah well. Life goes on.

[snoopdog]

JmcG has worked wonders with donegal. I would say it was a job no one really wanted at the time he took over. But a system wont win an All Ireland if you dont have some great players and donegal have them in abundance, Jim instills the discipline and a system to complement their abilities.
Congrats Donegal your the best in the country, go out and prove it by winning back to back All Irelands.
I only wish Down had a Jim McGuinness

[screenexile]

Watched game again this morning ..... I have no idea why these donegal posters are going on about the referee being soft on Mayo...
(the supporter at the game the very same ... wanted a yellow card for every foul committed by a mayo player!!!)

There were three fouls called on mayo (all pointed) which were marginal.
i)  Last free before half-time was harsh.
ii) Foul called on mayo player when Murphy met with a fair shoulder and
iii) finally McFadden dived to earn his free into the 2nd half.

Not to mention deegan's worst decision In not awarding a free to O'Connor which led to Donegal 2nd Goal.


Final Note, the whistling, cat calling & booing a disgrace by a sizable portion of the Donegal crowd.


I wonder will Brolly (or anybody else) mention the time wasting and feigning injury late into the 2nd Half. Each time there was a foul, the donegal players were holding there faces even though contact was being made to their face.

Jaysus are you having a laugh!! Mayo were at exactly the same thing so neither side should be getting on their high horse about that one.

Personally I thought Deegan was pretty soft on Mayo. I was right beside the McGee O'Connor foul and it wasn't a free in. Yes possibly for Donegals goal O'Connor could possibly have gotten a foul but it was marginal and it wasn't helped by the fact he took a dive at that time! In the first half and parts of the 2nd Mayo hit anything that moved and numerous times that was the man who had just layed the ball off. Lacey got a bad one and that time for McFaddens long free there were 2 Donegal men who got nailed when the ball was gone.

Having said that Donegal have the cynicism down to a tee! It seemed that every time mayo had a free they ran in front of the free taker to slow him up, Deegan then moved it forward which seemed to negate any advantage Mayo had. He needed to card a player the 2nd time this happened and that would soon have stopped it.

Having said that the referee had little or no bearing on the outcome. Mayo will point to missed chances but Donegal missed more. they were the better team and sin é. Hopefully Mayo can come back from it.

[oakleafgael]

Enjoyed yesterdays game although it was far from a classic match, for all the heart Mayo showed to pull it back to 3 points before half time the game was over when the second goal went in.

The non free for Mayo before the second goal was borderline and the forward definitely dived not once but twice looking for it, he was then lucky not to get the line for striking not one but two Donegal backs. Typical umpiring in that McGee got booked as well as the offender and was then on a tightrope for the rest of the game.

Both teams fouled when they could to disrupt the game and Deegan wasn't cute to it all. The difference in the card count was purely down to the type of fouls by the Mayo offenders, a few around the head and frontal tackles, cute but not cute enough. The ref was guilty of trying to bring Mayo back into it and when it was closer the frees where definitely more balanced but its human nature I suppose, McFaddan should have had a penalty with the goal chance but the keeper did very well.

O'Shea is an impressive footballer but the lad clearly isn't fit and the move up front was a waste. One aspect of his play that I will never warm to is his insistence to try and ref the game, nearly as bad as Kieran Donaghy.

I wouldn't be to sore on the Mayo management. Murphy was matched up to Keane to suit when he was played out the field and the plans where up the left when he started on the square, was well marked when further out the field. Higgins would have done no better for the goal IMO as he doesn't have the physical strength to mark Murphy. TBH the goal was made by the quality of the ball in.