League 2021

Big Jim

Big Jim

Well-Known Member
niall1980 said:
They were missing more than Murphy. But then we were missing a couple too.
On the lockouts, while outfield need to do better, the keepers kick outs aren’t good enough. It’s def an area that needs working on. Still
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Yeah I get ya and don't mean he's all they have missing, but certainly their biggest profile. Others would be less important if I can say that without sounding as if I'm belittling their importance. That's certainly not the intention.

Honestly can't agree on the kick outs, but absolutely respect your opinion. I'm just tired of the same, almost exact thing being said about keeper after keeper. People with short memories will have forgotten about the day that Hearty dropped the ball into the net in Ballybofey when we were two up and it was Donegal's last kick of the game. Mistakes get made, but my point would be, count the number of wides over say 20 games. Compare that over the same 20 games to the number of times a keeper misses his mark (also remembering that the player the ball is aimed at didn't take the possession properly and the keeper was blamed) and I could be fairly sure that proportionally, the keeper makes fewer mistakes than scoring players.

Definitely it should be continuously worked on, but the keeper shouldn't be continually denigrated, at least not in my opinion. I can understand the frustrations of many here though, that lead to the criticism. Sad, but that's how we see things.
 
M

M18

Active Member
Probably with shortened leagues would be more fair that bottom 2 teams play playoffs against top 2 teams from division below
 
Armagh_paul

Armagh_paul

Well-Known Member
Big Jim said:
Yeah I get ya and don't mean he's all they have missing, but certainly their biggest profile. Others would be less important if I can say that without sounding as if I'm belittling their importance. That's certainly not the intention.

Honestly can't agree on the kick outs, but absolutely respect your opinion. I'm just tired of the same, almost exact thing being said about keeper after keeper. People with short memories will have forgotten about the day that Hearty dropped the ball into the net in Ballybofey when we were two up and it was Donegal's last kick of the game. Mistakes get made, but my point would be, count the number of wides over say 20 games. Compare that over the same 20 games to the number of times a keeper misses his mark (also remembering that the player the ball is aimed at didn't take the possession properly and the keeper was blamed) and I could be fairly sure that proportionally, the keeper makes fewer mistakes than scoring players.

Definitely it should be continuously worked on, but the keeper shouldn't be continually denigrated, at least not in my opinion. I can understand the frustrations of many here though, that lead to the criticism. Sad, but that's how we see things.
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Hughes might be the nicest guy you could meet and when he is criticised on the forum (at least from my perspective) it isn't personal and it is only about how he plays and yes, other players do influence the decisions he has to make regarding kick-outs. However, he is going to be criticised for the mistakes he makes and that is part of it and if he improves then good on him if he doesn't then expected there to be discussions about his performance. There is going to be another day like yesterday but it is going to be in an All Ireland Semi or an Ulster final and these decisions will cost us. If it is 1 point then ok it happens but I think yesterday kick-outs cost us 5-6 points - last 10 minutes I was fuming but there was an occasion he kicked the ball straight to a Donegal player who didn't have an Armagh player near him. Nobody on here wants him to fail as a goalkeeper but if he doesn't do his job, or can't do it then he shouldn't be on the pitch. This isn't his first season and it isn't the first time he has made mistakes - and it won't be his last either. It isn't about past goalkeepers either - people need to call it as they see it. I am wondering what is his shot stop/goal ratio now.

I don't know if he reads the game at all by himself, if he is instructed from the side-line or what but kick outs cost us points yesterday and it was on a day where we were firing on all cylinders, everyone was putting the effort in - even Hughes. I will concede that on some of those occasions he was left with no choice because all the players were in midfield. However, we were getting cleaned out in MF and there was complete lack of intelligent play or game management at that point and it felt like groundhog day where the kick-outs were caught by Donegal they scored and repeat about 4 or 5 times. Was it because we were tired? I don't know but we could afford to work the ball up the field slowly from short kick-out, slow the game down and run the time down.

I don't ever remember seeing Hughes communicate with other players, admittedly, I do not see him for the whole match or what he does. If anyone on that pitch is able to see what is going on - it is him. He has no pressure on him unless there is a direct attack on goal. If the defenders are out of position he should be screaming at them to get back. If they aren't allowing him to vary his kick out he should be screaming at the other players to give him more options. I think there was a point where James Morgan was shouting at him for the ball but he decided to hoof it up the field - can't remember what the result was of that kick.
 
P

POINTMAN

Well-Known Member
M18 said:
Probably with shortened leagues would be more fair that bottom 2 teams play playoffs against top 2 teams from division below
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They wanted to give every team 4 games - 3 league plus a promotion or relegation play off game - but to not have 'finals' is ridiculous.
 
PatMustard

PatMustard

Well-Known Member
Ard Mhacha 13 said:
My heart bleeds for them....... :rolleyes:
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I’d say it does :D

But we could have been in Tyrone’s position. Travelling all the way to Killarney. The whole point of geographical split in the NFL was to prevent overnight stays/long journeys, reduce time spent on a bus etc, to reduce spread of infection. So why now a week or two later, is it ok for a team to travel that far?

Surely a neutral venue made perfect sense? You have to wonder who makes these decisions.
 
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