Meath GAA discussion thread

Obrieski

Fair play Cavan King! Enjoy the celebrations!

Obrieski

My take on the game last night, needed 24 hours.

Firstly, thanks to the lads. As always, a huge amount of work and dedication gone in and it’s no shame to be beaten by the best team ever. However, we still need to analyse.

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Simply not good / strong enough in the important areas. The worst thing that could have happened was the relative talking up we were getting. Even Pat Spillane beforehand on RTÉ.

We just don’t seem to cover ground as powerfully as the likes of Dublin. They swat us off at their ease while running. All this strength and conditioning talk, it was men against boys.

Kick outs were abysmal, but we know this and have known this for some time. How is there no plan in place for this - it has become the most important part of the game. Backs nowhere near tight enough and no plan. First goal real example. Kick out down the middle, uncontested catch and 10 seconds later it’s a goal. O’Callaghan caught the ball within nobody with 20 yards of him!

Colm Nally has great training drills he puts on Twitter but I’d prefer us to develop some actual tactics for playing the game and in certain situations. Nearly every kick out of ours that went any way long was 3 vs 1 in favour of Dublin. Where were our players? The Dublin high press was hardly an insane surprise! The game plan we have require huge amounts of energy and when we win a turnover, it is far too laboured getting up the pitch.

Free taking and shooting in pressure games is a worry. 2 relatively easy frees in first half were put wide, and at least 3 dropped short. Same as last year. Sucks the life out of a team. Now Dublin are incredibly hard working and no team has an easy chance against them but if you’re telling me that training drills aren’t done when there is 5 forwards vs 8/9 defenders then we are wasting our time also.

Look, overall a disappointing end but we all knew it was ending at this stage anyway. The Kildare 2nd half was hugely enjoyable and I was delighted we beat them!

Huge focus now on the league next year and hopefully start winning some games again.

vapor trails

Obrieski wrote: »

Fair play Cavan King! Enjoy the celebrations!

I second this!

rpurfield

vapor trails wrote: »

I second this!

I'll third it, today's two games restored a bit of faith in football for me.

Cavan_King

rpurfield wrote: »

I'll third it, today's two games restored a bit of faith in football for me.

Thanks lads. Got some calls off the Meath half of the family today who were all delighted for us. Great will from Meath in general towards us.

Saw a good stat from the Kells PRO online - Cavan started with as many North Meath men today as Meath did last night!

RoyalCelt

I don't get the talk about this massive gap between the top 5 and everybody else. There's not.

Dublin are miles ahead of everybody. Who knows who is second best but the gap between 2nd and 3rd is tiny and the gap remains tiny between the next 2 and the next 2 and so on. If Dublin didn't exist you'd have an incredible championship. Maybe even more competitive then the hurling.

But dublin do exist and we've seen the rot that set into leinster as a result of them dominating. I hope I'm wrong but I believe Dublin walk the 6 and then they'll walk the 7 in about 9 months time.

Apart from Cluxton I don't think they've many old players starting and anybody who's off the pace will be long replaced by a younger player before an opposition team can take advantage of them.

Cluxton obviously the hardest player to replace for Dublin but honestly he could prob do another 4 or 5 years. He could retire with more leinsters then meath as a county have won. Regardless you could give us Cluxton and dublin our keeper and we'd still lose by 20 points so I don't see it being a problem for them.

I'm just very jealous we are located where we are. At this stage we should try and move to connaught or ulster like galway/antrim did in the hurling many years ago. Ulster makes the most Geographically but Connaught have too few numbers so they need more anyway. Wastmeath and Longford should come with us while we're at it.

Hammer Archer

Fair play to you Cavan King. From very early on in the game yesterday, it was clear that Cavan had so much more about them than last year's final. Would have been a travesty had ye lost.

Very jealous of the celebrations we saw from Tipp and Cavan yesterday. It shows that the provincials still have some life in them outside of Leinster. Compare the reactions at full time yesterday to those of Dublin on Saturday. It was their 10th Leinster in a row. The only other two GAA provinces that have seen 10-in-a-rows were the Connacht and Ulster hurling championships, and they've been disbanded due to the lack of competitiveness. Wouldn't be surprised to see Leinster football go the same way.

The weekend shows the complete gulf in class between #1 everyone else. With the year that's in it, there was talk of Kerry or Donegal putting it up to Dublin. But never in a million years would Dublin have lost to Cork or Cavan (no disrespect intended) the way Kerry and Donegal did. At the very worst, Dublin would play poorly for 40 or 50 minutes before blitzing them in 5 or 10 minutes to put the game to bed. Cork were 3 down with 15 to go last year only to concede 3-4 and lose by 13. Mayo were 2 up at half time in the semi final. 15 minutes into the second half, they were 10 down. All Dublin need these days is a 15 minute performance and it's game over. No one can live with them.

mattser

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Fair play to you Cavan King. From very early on in the game yesterday, it was clear that Cavan had so much more about them than last year's final. Would have been a travesty had ye lost.

Very jealous of the celebrations we saw from Tipp and Cavan yesterday. It shows that the provincials still have some life in them outside of Leinster. Compare the reactions at full time yesterday to those of Dublin on Saturday. It was their 10th Leinster in a row. The only other two GAA provinces that have seen 10-in-a-rows were the Connacht and Ulster hurling championships, and they've been disbanded due to the lack of competitiveness. Wouldn't be surprised to see Leinster football go the same way.

The weekend shows the complete gulf in class between #1 everyone else. With the year that's in it, there was talk of Kerry or Donegal putting it up to Dublin. But never in a million years would Dublin have lost to Cork or Cavan (no disrespect intended) the way Kerry and Donegal did. At the very worst, Dublin would play poorly for 40 or 50 minutes before blitzing them in 5 or 10 minutes to put the game to bed. Cork were 3 down with 15 to go last year only to concede 3-4 and lose by 13. Mayo were 2 up at half time in the semi final. 15 minutes into the second half, they were 10 down. All Dublin need these days is a 15 minute performance and it's game over. No one can live with them.

Cluxton can drive a a ball 40 metres and pick out a man with no opposition within 10 metres. Game over.

rpurfield

mattser wrote: »

Cluxton can drive a a ball 40 metres and pick out a man with no opposition within 10 metres. Game over.

It's the movement that creates that too that is serious. I'd love to see the Rock goal from behind one of the goals because I don't believe its simple bad marking that created O'Callaghan's space and the resulting overlap

Cavan_King

RoyalCelt wrote: »

I'm just very jealous we are located where we are. At this stage we should try and move to connaught or ulster like galway/antrim did in the hurling many years ago. Ulster makes the most Geographically but Connaught have too few numbers so they need more anyway. Wastmeath and Longford should come with us while we're at it.

I found this interesting. I spent the last decade wishing Cavan was in Leinster - my opinion being we’d at least be getting a run and be making Leinster finals every year rather than having to face one of Monaghan, Tyrone or Donegal in the first round each year!

Whilst Dublin are phenomenal, I don’t believe changing the provinces would solve anything for Meath. Over the last decade, there have been teams in every province operating above Meath’s level, sometimes 2/3 teams.

People on here are talking about Meath beating Dublin at minor level in the past year or two. Success doesn’t follow through that quickly unfortunately.

Four of the Cavan players that started on Saturday were in the Cavan minor team that won Ulster in 2011 (2 more on the subs bench). They then had U21 success in 12,13 and 14 - to follow up the 2011 U21 success where a now 30 year old Gearoid McKiernan was captain.

These lads are then backed up by a number of players from our 2017 minor team that lost the semi final to a David Clifford inspired Kerry.

So you’re looking at players from 4/5 different successful underage teams, a few veterans that stuck at it and then the odd few from other years.

As the We Are Cavan podcast put it last night, yesterday’s success has been ten years in the making.

mickrourke

Cavan_King wrote: »

Saw a good stat from the Kells PRO online - Cavan started with as many North Meath men today as Meath did last night!

I don't get it, Can you tell me what it means?

Cavan_King

mickrourke wrote: »

I don't get it, Can you tell me what it means?

Oisin Kiernan that plays for Cavan is from the Brigids club in Meath originally. He transferred to Castlerahan in Ballyjamesduff & then Mattie McGleenan called him into the Cavan team. I believe he had played junior for Meath at some stage.

Therefore the Kells PRO was having a dig re North Meath being ignored by the county management stating that Cavan started as many North Meath men as Meath did - 1.

rpurfield

Cavan_King wrote: »

Oisin Kiernan that plays for Cavan is from the Brigids club in Meath originally. He transferred to Castlerahan in Ballyjamesduff & then Mattie McGleenan called him into the Cavan team. I believe he had played junior for Meath at some stage.

Therefore the Kells PRO was having a dig re North Meath being ignored by the county management stating that Cavan started as many North Meath men as Meath did - 1.

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

Cavan_King

rpurfield wrote: »

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

I wouldn't be sure on how many of the Meath starters were from North Meath. I know Jordan Morris is Nobber (it was brought up on We Are Cavan podcast his father played for Kigscourt and apparently they had approached him previously). What other players were North Meath on the starting team?

To be honest, we get the same crap in Cavan re lads that should be on the panel. As you say, some people don't realise that the slog of intercounty football isn't for all. Cavan trained 26 days out of 30 last November. The club game is serious enough for some lads at this stage.

dobman88

rpurfield wrote: »

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

Lads not wanting to go in to the county set up is one of the main reasons imo. I was lucky enough to get some media work for Meath championship matches during lockdown and youd get chatting to players and officers at games. Spoke to 2 players who said themselves that they dont see the point in committing the time only to take a hammering like Meath got last week. It wouldnt do a lads confidence any good. Speaking to club officers and PROs, they all had a story about lads getting a call and refusing, now I'd take them with a pinch of salt as its 2nd hand info but there is definitely some lads refusing call ups for their own reasons and tbf, its hard to blame them.

rpurfield

dobman88 wrote: »

Lads not wanting to go in to the county set up is one of the main reasons imo. I was lucky enough to get some media work for Meath championship matches during lockdown and youd get chatting to players and officers at games. Spoke to 2 players who said themselves that they dont see the point in committing the time only to take a hammering like Meath got last week. It wouldnt do a lads confidence any good. Speaking to club officers and PROs, they all had a story about lads getting a call and refusing, now I'd take them with a pinch of salt as its 2nd hand info but there is definitely some lads refusing call ups for their own reasons and tbf, its hard to blame them.

Exactly. Some of them have a really good chance of club silverwear with the added bonus of it not taking over their life. I don't blame lads at all.

RoyalCelt

rpurfield wrote: »

Exactly. Some of them have a really good chance of club silverwear with the added bonus of it not taking over their life. I don't blame lads at all.

I'm fairly certain most Kells players are refusing call ups so they can prioritise their club. Can't blame them either as they could actually win the club championship but have zero chance beating dublin in Leinster.

On the hurling an Jack Fagan who's lining out for Waterford in the hurling semi. Was he head and shoulders above the rest of the panel or were there others who played to his level?

Obrieski

Looking forward (as looking back is killing me still!), I assume Andy Mc will still be at the reins next year?
Haven't heard anything to the contrary on that front. He's been in the job since 2016.

Personally, I would like him to stay (don't know the man but his passion for the job cannot be questioned).
However, I would like to see some tactician come in alongside him who can read the game and work on tactics.

I still feel that tactically we were naive (if anyone listens to Second Captains Podcast, Andy Moran and Oisin McConville explained it quite well I felt). On Dublin kickouts, we pushed up man to man in our forwards - which I would agree with, but kept zonally in our defence which allowed Fenton make a decoy run and expose huge space for Con O'C to do his catch and driving run for the first goal which was the major killer. Obviously then, for our kick outs there was no plan at all it seemed.

Small adjustments like that and working on an actual style of play rather than this manic approach we seem to have are key going forward.
A lot of our play seems off the cuff and hugely reliant on poor Cillian O'Sullivan just being a battering ram. I would prefer us to have a style of play that is effective and everyone buys into and knows and use that as a basis point.

curioser

And now if you hear somebody asking "is McEntee up to the job?" you can't be sure if they are talking football or politics!

(Maybe wrong thread/topic)

Cavan_King

RoyalCelt wrote: »

I'm fairly certain most Kells players are refusing call ups so they can prioritise their club. Can't blame them either as they could actually win the club championship but have zero chance beating dublin in Leinster.?

I’ve only heard of one of the Reillys refusing a call up because he is playing soccer in Italy.

Other than that, Mattimoe has been in there for O’Byrne Cups and other periods and never featured. Beano Hanlon said he was tried and dropped and he’s 31 or 32 now.

Other than that, I don’t see who from Kells would be worth a call up.

Hammer Archer

Hurlers end up with no points in the Joe McDonagh Cup again after getting comprehensively beaten by Antrim. Would I be correct in saying that we haven't gotten a single point in the competition since we beat Kerry in Navan in our first game?

Ladies footballers are through to the All Ireland Intermediate Football final after easily beating Clare. They'll play Westmeath or Roscommon in the final.

CrabRevolution

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Hurlers end up with no points in the Joe McDonagh Cup again after getting comprehensively beaten by Antrim. Would I be correct in saying that we haven't gotten a single point in the competition since we beat Kerry in Navan in our first game?

Ladies footballers are through to the All Ireland Intermediate Football final after easily beating Clare. They'll play Westmeath or Roscommon in the final.

Unfortunately yes. We've improved a lot vs. teams like Kildare Armagh and Mayo, but we've hit a bit of a ceiling and haven't made any headway against the next tier of teams.

I posted the stats at the beginning of the J McD, but just updating them now it's a bit grim. Since beating Kerry in 2017 we've played 20 games against the next tier of teams* across the league and championship. We've lost every single game, by an average of 8.4 points. If you want to include the Walsh and Kehoe cups it's possibly worse; we beat Antrim by a point in 2017, but have managed 2 draws and 4 losses in the years since with the losses being on average by 15 points. These competitions are generally disregarded, but Antrim beat us by 17 points in Navan today, beat us by 25 points up in Antrim in the league and beat us by 16 points in Navan in the Kehoe cup earlier this season. It's difficult to say the Kehoe cup result was an aberration.

Easy to say we just need more top level games but we really don't seem any closer than we were 2 or 3 years ago. Next year Down and Kildare will be up with us so relegation is extremely unlikely, but would beating Down and Kildare and losing to the other 3 teams be an improvement? Until I see any sort of underage improvement I don't think we'll be doing much more than treading water at the level we're at. We might eventually turn the odd narrow loss into a narrow win, but there's little long term to be excited about.

*I regard this tier to be Kerry, Carlow, Laois, Westmeath, Antrim and Offaly.

RoyalCelt

Meath man Jack Fagan helps Waterford beat Kilkenny today and will now play in the final. Will be cheering them on. Any meath man ever won Liam before?

Stacksofwacks

RoyalCelt wrote: »

Meath man Jack Fagan helps Waterford beat Kilkenny today and will now play in the final. Will be cheering them on. Any meath man ever won Liam before?

I doubt a Meath man has ever won an AI hurling medal, tis hard enough for us Waterfordians to win one! Fair play to him he is a savage in the air and capable hurler too, has been brilliant the last 2 games. Hopefully he brings that medal back to Meath

conor05

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Unfortunately yes. We've improved a lot vs. teams like Kildare Armagh and Mayo, but we've hit a bit of a ceiling and haven't made any headway against the next tier of teams.

I posted the stats at the beginning of the J McD, but just updating them now it's a bit grim. Since beating Kerry in 2017 we've played 20 games against the next tier of teams* across the league and championship. We've lost every single game, by an average of 8.4 points. If you want to include the Walsh and Kehoe cups it's possibly worse; we beat Antrim by a point in 2017, but have managed 2 draws and 4 losses in the years since with the losses being on average by 15 points. These competitions are generally disregarded, but Antrim beat us by 17 points in Navan today, beat us by 25 points up in Antrim in the league and beat us by 16 points in Navan in the Kehoe cup earlier this season. It's difficult to say the Kehoe cup result was an aberration.

Easy to say we just need more top level games but we really don't seem any closer than we were 2 or 3 years ago. Next year Down and Kildare will be up with us so relegation is extremely unlikely, but would beating Down and Kildare and losing to the other 3 teams be an improvement? Until I see any sort of underage improvement I don't think we'll be doing much more than treading water at the level we're at. We might eventually turn the odd narrow loss into a narrow win, but there's little long term to be excited about.

*I regard this tier to be Kerry, Carlow, Laois, Westmeath, Antrim and Offaly.

How in the last 3 years have Kerry really kicked on to a higher level and Meath havn't?

Obviously Kerry are surrounded by very strong hurling counties so possibly have access to better coaches etc but we should striving to get to that level as we would have a similar amount if not more hurling clubs than Kerry

rpurfield

It's tough on the hurlers alright. It seems in hurling making a sustained jump into a higher grade is very hard. If you look at Laois, Carlow etc getting up to be competitive in Liam McCarthy is a big jump too. The lads were close against Westmeath and Carlow though.

Hammer Archer

https://v.redd.it/j27396xmr7261
Someone messing with Colm on the stream on Saturday :pac:

jimd2

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

I doubt a Meath man has ever won an AI hurling medal, tis hard enough for us Waterfordians to win one! Fair play to him he is a savage in the air and capable hurler too, has been brilliant the last 2 games. Hopefully he brings that medal back to Meath

I am not sure whether most Meath people really care whether Jack Fagan brings an all-ireland medal back to Meath.

Meath people that don't support GAA wont know or care.

Many Meath supporters are mostly football supporters and wont care either.

The hurling supporters will have huge respect for what he has achieved but will be more focused on the county hurlers and how they can get to the next level. The only relevance Jack has in all of this is that it demonstrates that Meath hurlers can go to the next level. I sincerely hope that he is not an example in a negative way and that it encourages any more good hurlers coming through to do the same.

Huge work is being done underage and I would hope that Jack's success does not indirectly impact on that as we can ill afford to lose players of his calibre - its been hard enough to compete as it is.

Regarding the final, I am 100% neutral - as a Meathman Jack Fagan playing wont influence my preference either way.

awaywithyou

Disappointing to read such comments and i very much doubt that outside of hurling people in Meath... the Meath people wont care... id be pretty sure that many Meath GAA folk will tune in to see how Jack will get on.. He is one of yere own.. comes from a very nice family in Rathmolyon... Best of luck to him...

jimd2

awaywithyou wrote: »

Disappointing to read such comments and i very much doubt that outside of hurling people in Meath... the Meath people wont care... id be pretty sure that many Meath GAA folk will tune in to see how Jack will get on.. He is one of yere own.. comes from a very nice family in Rathmolyon... Best of luck to him...

Well, that's the reality and I am not sure if Jack cares a whit whether Meath people are interested in the outcome. But, truth be known a very low percentage of Meath people were particularly interested in the recent Joe McDonagh games and I am sure most of the team come from nice families.

So why would they be more interested in one player who is from Meath - they will keep a side interest of course and probably more will support Waterford in the final because of Jack and maybe more so as Waterford haven't won the All Ireland in many years.

And talking about interest in GAA, the interest in the Meath football team has also waned a lot in the last 10 years or so. It used to be nearly an identity of Meath people and those not into sport or GAA followed the team at least on TV and loads of flags out. That has waned a lot also and the majority of people in Meath were not overtly interested in the Leinster final.
That's just my take on it.