Meath GAA discussion thread

snowgal

yea a disappointing final tbh. Summerhill deserved the win but agree re the ref, definitely wasnt helping Ratoath

Hammer Archer

I see Jordan Morris helped Kingscourt win the Cavan senior title with 9 points in the final.

Hammer Archer

Wayne Freeman takes over the ladies team having been head coach this year. He's previously managed Louth and Clare to league titles. Anyone know who we're losing from this year's team for 2026?

Hammer Archer

Kilskyre/Moylagh are Intermediate hurling champions and Rathmolyon miss out yet again. Kilskyre/Moylagh had to play the entire second half with 14 men and ended up extending their lead. The Village didn't score a point from play until the 45th minute.

Great to see a promising team from North Meath make senior.

Hoping Ratoath can make up for last weekend's disappointment by winning the hurling. I have a niggly feeling that Kiltale will put up a much bigger fight than people think.

Hammer Archer

Holy god!

Hammer Archer

Ridiculous hurling final. My feelings about Kiltale were right. They were like men possessed in the first half and we were fortunate enough to get the goals to keep us in it having been 7 down. Thought we'd done enough towards the end but was resigned to another gutting loss before Podge O'Hanrahan stepped up with a majestic equaliser.

Replay next Saturday and there are surely a number of players from both sides running on empty having played football and hurling each week for months.

Technophobe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123919754#Comment_123919754

Cracking game of hurling in fairness..Well done to both teams..

Hammer Archer

All but confirmed that we'll be playing next season's home men's football league games in Croke Park with demolition of the stand to start in the coming months.

Hammer Archer

Ratoath with two in a row. Much better conditions than last weekend, but there was a strong breeze. Ratoath were 10 up at half time but Kiltale got a goal back early in the second half (they seemed to have been told to shoot on sight).

Thought it was absolutely brain dead by the Kiltale player who got the red card. Seemed very lucky to avoid a straight red for a late, high hit only for him to commit another bad foul a minute later to get a second yellow.

Looked like Ratoath were going to run away with it after they went 13 up but they just stopped playing and Kiltale got it back to 4 in injury time before Ratoath tagged on two insurance points. Fair play to Kiltale though, they didn't stop fighting til the end. It could have turned into a rout if it was another team.

Hammer Archer

Good weekend for the men's football champions. Summerhill seemed like they were in trouble in the first half against Killoe of Longford, they were 6 down with 5 minutes to go but ended the half only one point behind. They ended up overpowering them in the second half to win by 9. They're up against Athy of Kildare in Newbridge in two weeks time where they'll undoubtedly be massive underdogs.

Kilbride conceded two early goals away to Longford Intermediate champions Ardagh Moydow but had enough to comfortably win by 11 in the end. They've also got Kildare opposition, Sallins, in Navan in two weeks time. Sallins are odds on favourites for the provincial title.

Clann na nGael easily beat Glenmore of Kilkenny by 15 points in the Leinster Junior football championship. They'll travel to Carlow to face the Fighting Cocks (yep) in the quarter final.

Dunshaughlin Royal Gaels were easily beaten by Kilmacud Crokes in the ladies Leinster semi final.

Hammer Archer

Starting off 2026 with a trip to Wicklow in the O'Byrne Cup.

For the second season in a row, we'll have only three home games (in Croke Park) in the League. We'll have Derry, Louth and Tyrone in Croke Park while we're away to Kildare, Cavan, Cork and Offaly.

Hammer Archer

Seán Rafferty, as expected, wins his All Star. No luck for the other Meath nominees.

Hammer Archer

Ratoath through to the Leinster Intermediate semi final, beating Carnew Emmets by 10 in Aughrim. Lusmagh of Offaly await in the semi final.

Rathmolyon the only Meath team to fail to progress past their first provincial game, losing to Amsterdam in the newly created special junior championship. It's a pity that Kilskyre/Moylagh weren't allowed to compete as you'd think they would have had enough to progress.

snowgal

great to see a Meath man on the all stars list again! well done Sean….

cant believe we've a 2nd trip down to Cork again in 2026..

Hammer Archer

Rotten day for our football champions.

Clann na nGael beaten in extra time by Fighting Cocks of Carlow. Kilbride hammered by Sallins. Summerhill managed only one point in the second half and lost by 10 to Athy having been well in the game at half time. Really summed up our senior champions' fortunes in Leinster. 2010 was the last time our senior champions won more than one game in Leinster.

Hammer Archer

Ratoath through to the Leinster club Intermediate hurling final after a 7 point win over Lusmagh of Offaly. The final will be in Navan against Danesfort of Kilkenny. Trim beat Danesfort in the 2022 Leinster championship while Na Fianna's camógs have already beaten them this season. They will be huge favourites though (as Kilkenny sides often are).

The final will possibly be the last game played in Páirc Tailteann before the demolition crews move in.

rpurfield

The old stand has been having more farewells than Elton John at this stage!

Fair play to Ratoath, Meath hurling could do with a lift.

Hammer Archer

Likely to be facing Westmeath in the Leinster quarter final next year (or Longford if they have a shock). Win that and we face Kildare, Laois or Offaly in the semi final. Louth will need to beat the Dubs if they're to win two in a row.

rpurfield

Not a bad draw all in.

Hammer Archer

League fixtures officially released. "Home" football fixtures will be in Croke Park. Home hurling games will be in Trim.

Football

Derry (H) - Sat 24th of January

Cavan (A) - Sun 1st of February

Louth (H) - Sat 14th of February

Cork (A) - Sun 22nd of February

Kildare (A) - Sat 28th of February

Tyrone (H) - Sat 14th of March

Offaly (A) - Sun 22nd of March

Hurling

London (H) - Sat 24th of January

Westmeath (A) - Sun 8th of February

Derry (H) - Sun 22nd of February

Mayo (A) - Sat 28th of February

Laois (A) - Sun 8th of March

Kerry (H) - Sat 21st of March

Hammer Archer

Ratoath beaten by 9 points by Danesfort in the Leinster final. 6 points up with 15 to go but let in a scuttery goal and Danesfort took over from there. Was thinking we'd need at least one goal to stave them off. With Kilkenny teams in a final against Meath teams, just seem to need to absolutely batter them to even narrowly win. If they're anywhere close in the final quarter, they'll just pull away.

Couldn't make it so was listening to LMFM online and it may as well have been a Kilkenny radio station the way Rispin was fawning over the Kilkenny players at times.

CrabRevolution

Reading the Meath notes on the GAA demographics report and one stat that struck me was the number of teams (not clubs) we apparently have. There's 348 football teams at U13 or above apparently, but what surprised me is the claim that we have 312 hurling teams using the same measure.

Now, we've 22 hurling clubs if you include Moylagh and Kilskyre as separate clubs and St. Colmcilles who don't field at adult. If every single one of these clubs fielded individually at every counted age level (U13, U15, Minor, U21) plus 2 teams at adult, that would give us 132 teams. Some bigger clubs field 2 underage teams so that might cancel out the amalgamations, but has anyone any idea who these extra 180 odd hurling teams are….?

Are Meath fiddling the books by including even younger players? How come our football numbers aren't similarly bloated if so…?

It's nothing important in the greater scheme of things, but I'd love to know where they got the figure.

jamesbond2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124050670#Comment_124050670

If it was the same 2 guys that were on the clubber commentary they were roaring and shouting after every ratoath score in the first half like it was the last 5mins of an all Ireland so they did plenty of fawning over there own county men

Hammer Archer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124054992#Comment_124054992

It's a Meath broadcast so that would be a given that there should be a bias. Wouldn't think that KCLR would be waxing lyrical about the likes of Podge O'Hanrahan or Daithí McGowan in the same way.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124054657#Comment_124054657

Not a chance are there 312 separate hurling teams! Are they saying that each team in each separate competition is a separate team (e.g. hurling championship, hurling league and the hurling cups)?

CrabRevolution

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124056272#Comment_124056272

Possibly, but that would put our number of football teams well into the 1000s if measured by the same method.

It must be a typo, otherwise we'd have more hurling teams than every county in Ireland bar Dublin, Cork, Galway, Tipperary and Kilkenny!