That Tony McEntee article is really good. Vinny Corey was my MOTM yesterday for the job he did on Murphy - not sure it came across fully on TV. He followed him everywhere and made it very difficult for him to get on the ball.
McEntee touched on Donegal’s runners with the ball and their main players coming on the wrap around to receive the ball from them. Corey was incredibly concentrated and tight to Murphy to consistently disrupt him from taking these passes. He followed him back into the Donegal half back line and right upfield throughout the game and consistently got his hand in, forced Murphy back and made a couple of turnovers too.
Donegal also sent Murphy into full forward on a couple of occasions and targeted him with direct high ball and Corey got a hand in those times too. He also drove forward himself a few times before laying it off and returning immediately to his assignment on Murphy.
Am I the only one who wasn’t overly impressed by Monaghan ?
They fell over the line against a completely out of sorts Donegal, failing to score in the last 20+ minutes.
Very hard for me to see them winning an All Ireland this year. I’d give Tyrone a more than fighting chance of taking them out in the quarter finals, assuming of course that Tyrone beat Sligo, which I expect them to do.
classic mistake of remembering the end of a game. Ya they could have been better, but in the overall context Donegal had about 10-15 mins of dominance. Work was done in the first half.
Joe Brolly ridiculing Martin Carney’s absurd James O’Donoghue MOTM award from the other night while praising Conor McManus. I’m also throwing in a little bit of Judy Murray:
I remember the whole game, Kev. 'Twas only yesterday afternoon.
McManus point on the stroke of half time summed up the game for me. Michael Murphy, with nobody near him, paseed it straight to Darren Hughes. 10 seconds later McManus had the ball over the bar and is tapping Neil McGee’s chest.
Donegal were not tuned in for some reason. Dublin, Mayo or Kerry would have beaten them by double figures yesterday. Yet, they were a gee hair from getting a draw. Worrying for Monaghan going forward imo
[quote=“Bandage, post:2381, topic:19514, full:true”]Cork v Kildare in Thurles on Saturday evening at 6.45pm. Live on Sky Sports 3.
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Nowlan Park would have been a much more appropriate venue for that given the crowd that will turn up but I imagine some people’s heads might have exploded at the sheer surreality (is that a word) of a football match being played there.
Another right tight squeeze for tickets there no doubt.
Bringing those games to Croke Park is mental. Tyrone and Sligo could easily be played in Enniskillen or Cavan and Donegal and Galway could easily be played in Sligo or Leitrim and I’d imagine you would get a higher attendance than at Croke Park.
Cork are ahead of Monaghan & Tyrone in AI terms, to say anything else is to not have any understanding of the game.
You need a number of scoring and class forwards to win an AI. Cork have that and if they get their system more fluid they are a much bigger bigger threat than either of those 2.
By far the most likely outcome is a Dublin-Kerry Final with Mayo slight outsiders. Donegal slightly outside that. Cork outside that. They are the teams with the tools to win it. Nobody else has them. Galway may have in time, Tyrone the same. But I think with Tyrone as soon as the young guys come of age the leaders will be gone.
Cork scored 1-06 on Saturday, they are an overrated outfit with severe mental frailities.
Donegal made an AI final last year with their full forward line contributing very little from play. Monaghan and Tyrone have every bit as good as footballers but they’ve got a much more defined system and a lot more mettle about them. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kildare dump Cork out next week.
I dont see anything special about Cork, they may have the players but they dont have the execution, whilst chasing the game on Saturday evening they didnt score for 24 mins. For a team with so may vaunted forwards this is a ridiculous statistic. Monaghon have a similar statistic from the weekend but i’m willing to give them a pass as they were clinging on…
On what basis are Cork ahead of Monaghan? Monaghan just beat one of the favourites for the AI. Cork just lost quite heavily to another. On the basis of the last few years Monaghan are a better championship team than Cork.
Cork are bringing up the rear of that group with Tyrone.
