Donegal v Tyrone Ulster Championship

[yellowcard]

As an interested neutral I'm fascinated at the prospect of this game. Will it be a tactical battle between the two best coaches in the country whereby perfectly prepared teams do battle over 70 mins with the minimum between them or will it be a boring, negative, cynical, yellow and red card riddled load of shite??

Hopefully the former. Donegal by 2

Probably both. Wouldn't rule out a draw but if pushed I think Donegal might shade it.

[BluestackBoy]

As an interested neutral I'm fascinated at the prospect of this game. Will it be a tactical battle between the two best coaches in the country whereby perfectly prepared teams do battle over 70 mins with the minimum between them or will it be a boring, negative, cynical, yellow and red card riddled load of shite??

Hopefully the former. Donegal by 2

It will be tactical, & cynical but a boring load of shite? I don't think so.

[Fuzzman]

I also am very worried Jimmy will make it three in a row. My reasoning is that having watched last year's match again, I just think Donegal are better at working the asses off to put pressure on the man with the ball. Anywhere inside their own half, they are like hyenas surrounding a player and giving him no room to breathe. Whereas last year we don't do it with the same intensity and I felt we had to work much harder for our scores whereas Donegal, especially in the 2nd half just waited until a  shooting chance arrived and it looked easier for them.

Will they be able to match that this year? Will they be able to grind out those vital scores in the final 15 mins. Are Tyrone fitter than they were last year? I would hope so but at the moment if I'm being 100% honest I think Donegal (with the confidence of having won the AI AND knowing they beat us the last 2 years) will have enough to beat us.
However, the challenge of getting back to that level when you have a medal in yer back pocket is often too much for some 9 months later. Whereas Tyrone feel they MUST been Donegal now otherwise they truly are the new Kings of Ulster.

A lot of pundits in the media have tipped Tyrone and I would say it is mainly based on their league performance but I think nobody really can feel confident which way this will go. In previous years Tyrone have tended to win the first half and Donegal win the second half and finish more strongly. It was only in the last 10 mins that they loosened their stranglehold on the Tyrone attack and we managed to get close to them again.

I think the ref will have a crucial role to play. If he lets it flow like Deegan did last weekend then I think Tyrone will struggle but if he gives frees for any sort of pulling or dragging then I think Morgan will punish them.

As Martin McHugh & Oisin Fr Stone said last year on BBC, it's intriguing tactical battle but for the neutral its a horrible congested game what nobody enjoys watching. People want to see great skill and scores from players like Murphy, McFadden, Stephen O'Neill and Sean Cavanagh but of course this is not allowed to happen cos its win at all costs.

I predict a lot of unhappy neutrals on Sunday evening and a replay in Clones. 

[Whitnail]

U can almost hear Spillane's halftime analysis right now lol.

Big improvement needed from Donegal on the Leauge.
Last year it was Cavan away. This year at home to a resurgent Tyrone . There's a bit of a difference.

Starting players like McLoone and Bradley would need to start hitting scores and going for it. Someone said further back that it's often defenders and Midfielders who end up getting alot of crucial points in these games and it's a good point. Tyrone have been scoring from all sorts of acute angles and dividing out the points in the Leauge. Donegal not so much.

Will be a big shame if McHugh isn't able to play as he adds so much pace to the counterattack. Rory tried his best to cover that type of ground in the latter games in the Leauge but dosn't have the  zip.

Low score affair  plenty of handpassing maybe a red card or two.I'm sure no-one expects anything less.


I'm thinking Jim will stick big Ross Wherrity on at least as a Substitute and use him as a potential target man in the half-forward line. Gives something different.


Hoping Donegal can bring their shooting boots as   they're unlikely to get as close to the Tyrone defence as they'd ideally need in a game of 80% defence oriented football from both counties.

Hard to see many goals.
I'm not sure Tyrone have a target man,as such.  Jim will be look to starve their  fullforward line and cut the diagonal balls to the likes of O'Neill making them handpass the ball up the middle, I'm sure Harte will have his own gameplan too .


It won't be the end for either team whoever loses.
Hope Donegal for one point win or at least a draw.

[BennyHarp]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

[rrhf]

Exactly ye couldn't get a ticket in Tyrone for love nor money.  But from a PR perspective and fair play Donegal where theres a PR game ye'll not be behind.  Round 1 Donegal. 

[BluestackBoy]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

You may be right, but has anyone from the Tyrone County Board come out & said that they haven't sent tickets back? Until they do......

[BennyHarp]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

You may be right, but has anyone from the Tyrone County Board come out & said that they haven't sent tickets back? Until they do......

Have they come out and said they have sent them back? Why should they respond to this? Best to hold your council in these circumstances - ask Paul Grimley!

[Fuzzman]

They should have had a Plan B for these tickets rather than trying to perfect plan A first.

It's a long time since I've been to a match in Ballybofey and I think it was a league match back in the early 90s. I would presume this will be a first for a lot of Tyrone fans so I hope yer prepared for the traffic chaos into the place. Suppose most will go via Strabane or Castlederg and then the N15 unless ye chance one of the back roads.
I heard from an aul timer saying they had to wait for 2 hours to get out of the place one time.

Will be interesting to see how Donegal deal with big Sean this year. He's a hard man to stop (legally) when he's running at ye.

[BluestackBoy]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

You may be right, but has anyone from the Tyrone County Board come out & said that they haven't sent tickets back? Until they do......

Have they come out and said they have sent them back? Why should they respond to this? Best to hold your council in these circumstances - ask Paul Grimley!

Poor old Paul is going to be held up as an example of how not to let information out for years to come!!!

But if Donegal are lying about getting tickets from Tyrone then we should be told. This sort of thing has to be stopped

[Wee Roddy]

Carrickmore definitely haven't enough tickets to meet the demand. People have been told that they are waiting to see if the Ulster Council have an allocation for neutrals who didn't avail of the tickets. Indeed a great PR stunt by Donegal and I too would want them to substantiate this claim about allocations coming from Tyrone.

[BennyHarp]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

You may be right, but has anyone from the Tyrone County Board come out & said that they haven't sent tickets back? Until they do......

Have they come out and said they have sent them back? Why should they respond to this? Best to hold your council in these circumstances - ask Paul Grimley!

Poor old Paul is going to be held up as an example of how not to let information out for years to come!!!

But if Donegal are lying about getting tickets from Tyrone then we should be told. This sort of thing has to be stopped

It's the murky underworld of Ulster GAA.  It's like that advert for the championship a while ago where a lad in American was picking up a dodgy package in a brown envelope which turned out to be All Ireland tickets. Maybe the tickets have been smuggled back across the border to Donegal without the Tyrone county board knowing?

[Whitnail]

Will be interesting to see how Donegal deal with big Sean this year. He's a hard man to stop (legally) when he's running at ye.

Checkpoints at the 45m line and the obligatory custons check at the 30m line should slow him down a bit.
Wouldn't want him smuggling anything round into the penalty box.

[BluestackBoy]

Here's a report from rte on the tickets being sent back. As I said my own club received an extra allocation yesterday
http://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/football/2013/0522/451964-extra-tickets-for-donegal-in-ballybofey/

They are just reporting the same story. All bluff, these are tickets held back and released by the Donegal county board.

You may be right, but has anyone from the Tyrone County Board come out & said that they haven't sent tickets back? Until they do......

Have they come out and said they have sent them back? Why should they respond to this? Best to hold your council in these circumstances - ask Paul Grimley!

Poor old Paul is going to be held up as an example of how not to let information out for years to come!!!

But if Donegal are lying about getting tickets from Tyrone then we should be told. This sort of thing has to be stopped

It's the murky underworld of Ulster GAA.  It's like that advert for the championship a while ago where a lad in American was picking up a dodgy package in a brown envelope which turned out to be All Ireland tickets. Maybe the tickets have been smuggled back across the border to Donegal without the Tyrone county board knowing?

Like the old days Benny when the women used to stuff butter down their drawers crossing the border. No need for tangy dressings in those sandwiches

[armaghniac]

It's the murky underworld of Ulster GAA. 

No matter, when the white elephant state of the art 3 sided stadium is built in Andytown, the likes of this game will be there.