Scenicparish (Donegal) - Posts: 425 - 16/02/2025 19:36:05    2591415

Brilliant win and some fantastic scores taken again, the goals will come, so great to see the great man back for us again, looks like Michael has serious work done to get himself back to his best, I'd expect nothing less from him, he is an example to anyone in any walk of life, he has all the talent but that's no good without hard work and dedication.
Things are looking good for 2025 but rem this is only the league, what we really need to focus on is winning Sam Maguire again.
We have the men to win it and the right management team now, Is féidir linn Tir Chonaill!

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3085 - 16/02/2025 20:54:15    2591434

Murphy is a legend. Absolutely love the man even as an outsider. Donegal won't be far away. This year will be their best chance under Jim second time around.

TheFlaker (Mayo) - Posts: 8247 - 16/02/2025 21:23:45    2591440

Really impressed with Donegal today although we were very poor. Disappointing from Forker, was at a pivotal time in the game & big Murphy would never have got the space for his scores with Forker tagging him.
Early days, looking forward to crossing swords in bigger games later in the year, good luck with the rest of the league.

sam2024 (Armagh) - Posts: 41 - 16/02/2025 22:15:08    2591450

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1124 - 16/02/2025 22:24:18    2591457

theewelamb (Donegal) - Posts: 3 - 16/02/2025 22:52:51    2591465

Belclare7 (Galway) - Posts: 178 - 17/02/2025 00:04:10    2591471

Commodore (Donegal) - Posts: 1274 - 17/02/2025 08:52:43    2591493

greenfan (Donegal) - Posts: 595 - 17/02/2025 09:15:22    2591500

totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1009 - 17/02/2025 09:45:09    2591509

really stupid stuff from Forker but some of the reaction to it as well has been way OTT. I'm not a huge fan of his over the years but he spoke really well as AI captain after winning it last year, a silly act on his part that had no impact on Murphy at all, that shoulder nonsense whenever a fella comes on acting the big man is something I hate in the game over the years, I remember Kerry going hell for leather at Murphy before the throw-in down in Tralee one year in the league as well, real stupid stuff in my opinion. AOS in Mayo gets the same treatment over the years. Glad Hurson produced the red card without any theatrics on Michael's part, good refereeing in my view.

We played very well in that first half, the goal aside from Armagh where I thought we were a little too passive in the defending. It was a cracker of a finish but there are a lot of bodies back there and nobody was getting a tackle in. The response was excellent though and that's with Farah maybe not being in the best form overall, he missed a few over the day.

Murphy's return brought some roar from the crowd, you'd swear it was the heat of championship and it was all on the line with the atmosphere that came from that and the point he got straight after.

We got wiped out in midfield for large parts of that game, these rules really bringing back the high fielding and especially going down for dirty ball. But we defended extremely well while I also thought Armagh took bad options on and didn't look as sharp fitness wise. They will be a different beast in the summer no doubt.

Great start to the league, I would imagine they will start looking at the training block gearing up for championship now so we might start seeing a few sluggish enough performances as players deal with fatigue and that training.

CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 135 - 17/02/2025 10:12:45    2591525

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1124 - 17/02/2025 11:02:40    2591534

Great performance. Gonna be a huge year. Michael hasnt lost it either but tougher tests lay ahead.

Forkers behaviour was shameful esp for a primary school teacher. Absolutely embarrassing for him.

PeterQ92 (Donegal) - Posts: 126 - 17/02/2025 11:49:51    2591546

I think we'll take the foot off the pedal now and Jim will be careful with key players for the rest of the league, the focus is Derry in April, I can see him getting minutes into all the squad over the coming games and trying out a few different things.

Tirchonaill1 (Donegal) - Posts: 3085 - 17/02/2025 11:50:54    2591547

CCFabu (Donegal) - Posts: 135 - 17/02/2025 12:59:03    2591559

Myself and a colleague were discussing the headbutt incident at lunch earlier. It actually gets more embarrassing the more you watch it. If I was the Armagh player I'd be working from home for the next fortnight.

It got us talking about similar "roughing up" tactics Murphy has had to endure in his career. Think of the McMahons of Tyrone, Keane of Mayo, O'Mahony of Kerry I could go all. All very similar in that they were trying to put the great man off his game and all with the same end result - 0 success.

It's a mark of the man that he never rises to it or let's it put him of his game. He oozes class, we're blessed to have him and I for one am glad as a proud Donegal man that I was reminded of that yesterday.

He really is our greatest ever and I cannot wait for this year to unfold with him involved.

peiledoir20 (Donegal) - Posts: 1124 - 17/02/2025 16:02:52    2591618

shaggykev (Donegal) - Posts: 289 - 17/02/2025 20:30:59    2591665

All the talk of the league final and parallels with derry last year , no one wants to be in league final a week before championship.

Were Donegal not playing Armagh the same Derry beat Dublin???

totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 1009 - 17/02/2025 21:00:55    2591669

Another solid win for yous boys yesterday against the all Ireland champions. Jimmy will have yous primed & ready for a quarter final against ourselves.

Having a Donegal/kilcar wife I manage to get in plenty of Donegal football over the summer months & especially in the senior grade.

Thought a player who might have got some game time at inter county level was Jason Campbell midfielder from kilcar.

A tall rangy player who can get forward to take scores but also has a defensive streak to his game to sniff out any opportunities.

Could be worth a look as I feel that's one area Donegal could be got at.

Bantysbabes123 (Monaghan) - Posts: 32 - 18/02/2025 10:48:38    2591740

dgcrusader (Donegal) - Posts: 61 - 18/02/2025 13:36:54    2591767