Meath GAA discussion thread

iDave

Sounds like a convincing win despite all the other issues. Mayo next.

Hammer Archer

Hopefully they can overcome Mayo. Would be fantastic to finally get past the semi final stage this season.

Free meet and greet for the footballers and hurlers in Tayto Park tonight if anyone's interested.
Also, the ladies, juniors and senior footballers are playing Tyrone, Louth and Galway respectively in Ratoath on Sunday afternoon. The ladies' game throws in at midday, the seniors at 2pm and the juniors at 3.30pm.

Obrieski

Really looking forward to the match in Ratoath tomorrow. Not often we get big games, and the county board has seemingly stopped giving us club championship matches in recent years too so be good to see a full Seán Eiffe Park...hopefully the weather stays fine!

Be a good look at the lads back in action for the first time since the end of the league so with a month to the first round we'll really see how the lads are shaping up.

Hibbeler

Good to see Brian Meade back in the squad for the challenge match against Galway. Especially when we have a few players out for the season. I'm also happy to see a few U21s called up and given a run out, McEntee and Flanagan are starting and Bobby O'Brien and Joey Wallace on the bench.

Hammer Archer

Hurlers beat Mayo by a single point thus guaranteeing a home semi final. Also, assuming Kerry win their game it'll mean we can't meet them until the final if we get there.

Hibbeler

Was there any results from the challenge matches in Rathoath today?

Always_Running

Hibbeler wrote: »

Was there any results from the challenge matches in Rathoath today?

Meath 0-17 Galway 0-13

Hammer Archer

Seniors did well in the end as they were behind for a good chunk of the second half. Juniors beat Louth by 1-16 to 1-15 (I think). Ladies drew with Tyrone 1-6 apiece.

Obrieski

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Seniors did well in the end as they were behind for a good chunk of the second half. Juniors beat Louth by 1-16 to 1-15 (I think). Ladies drew with Tyrone 1-6 apiece.

Good win after being 4 down midway through second half and seemingly going nowhere...kicked on towards the end kicking into 'the scoring goals' at the clubhouse end. Biggy scored 6, coulda had 10. He dropped at least 2 into the keeper's hands and a few wides too. Tough for any corner back having to mark him. Although it would be nice if he learned to pass every once and again! Although can't complain too much!

Delighted that the Ratoath lads all did well, biggest cheer was for little Joey kicking that outside of the boot beauty towards the end. Scary to think he's only doing his leaving cert.

I'd expect a much tougher, more championship-like in Skryne on Sunday when Cork come to town

Redsoxfan

Obrieski wrote: »

I'd expect a much tougher, more championship-like in Skryne on Sunday when Cork come to town

What time is that game on at?

Hammer Archer

Redsoxfan wrote: »

What time is that game on at?

2pm.

Great to see three Ratoath lads play plus McGill with the Juniors who I think will be given a chance with the seniors sooner rather than later. Was at Tayto Park on Friday and was very weird seeing lads you've seen grow up from U8s upwards with massive crowds surrounding them signing autographs :pac:
Graham does that with his shots dropping short pretty much every game and it's infuriating.

iDave

Right lets hope for a win in Parnell later. The first of a summer of wins over the bluebottles.

Hammer Archer

Yet another loss to them. Sick of losing to them at every single age level.

dixiefly

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Yet another loss to them. Sick of losing to them at every single age level.

We are getting towards the stage that the whole structure of county football and the dominance and sheer scale of Dublin at football especially needs to be looked at.

Did you know that the big clubs in Dublin have full time Gaelic development officers? These are paid 50% by the GAA and 50% by the clubs themselves.

Of course, it could be argued that much of the GAA income is from Dublin and that this is sour grapes but another dominant year from them must cause questions about the structure of the Leinster championships in football.

iDave

We weren't a million miles off them yesterday. In fact we were in it right to the end.
As with Meath teams in all grades these days we tend to be our own worst enemy. Poor passing, over elaboration and getting isolated.

iDave

Sounds like an abject performance against Cork today. Anyone at it?
Lemlin I presume, he's been to more games than the rest of us put together

Hammer Archer

Wasn't at it, but here's the supposed starting team.

1. P. O'Rourke
2. M. Burke
3. C. Young
4. E. Harrington
5. D. Tobin
6. D. Keogan
7. S. Curran
8. S. O'Rourke
9. A. Flanagan
10. J. McEntee
11. B. O'Brien
12. A. Tormey
13. B. McMahon
14. D. Bray
15. J. Wallace

That's a very experimental team. There's only 4 or 5 players you could say would definitely start in those positions come June. The defence especially looks weak. I'd expect a back three of Keogan, Reilly and Curran against Carlow and (hopefully) beyond which is lightyears ahead of that back three. Up front, the only two I can see as definite starters there are McMahon and Tormey.

Going by reports, it was quite a strong Cork team out so I wouldn't read too much into the result.

Was this the last challenge game before Carlow?

RoyalCelt

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Wasn't at it, but here's the supposed starting team.

1. P. O'Rourke
2. M. Burke
3. C. Young
4. E. Harrington
5. D. Tobin
6. D. Keogan
7. S. Curran
8. S. O'Rourke
9. A. Flanagan
10. J. McEntee
11. B. O'Brien
12. A. Tormey
13. B. McMahon
14. D. Bray
15. J. Wallace

That's a very experimental team. There's only 4 or 5 players you could say would definitely start in those positions come June. The defence especially looks weak. I'd expect a back three of Keogan, Reilly and Curran against Carlow and (hopefully) beyond which is lightyears ahead of that back three. Up front, the only two I can see as definite starters there are McMahon and Tormey.

Going by reports, it was quite a strong Cork team out so I wouldn't read too much into the result.

Was this the last challenge game before Carlow?

Well said. With club championship on this weekend that is not a bad loss. I'm not reading anything into it.

PaddyCar

Not surprised Cork were able to score 3 goals against that Meath back line. On a different note, apparantly its 1995 since Meath have played a home game in Leinster championship. Anyone know if this is true??

RoyalCelt

PaddyCar wrote: »

Not surprised Cork were able to score 3 goals against that Meath back line. On a different note, apparantly its 1995 since Meath have played a home game in Leinster championship. Anyone know if this is true??

Yeah it's true. Meath need to get home and away agreements going ASAP with anyone that they don't currently have with. I think they do with Wicklow it's just they got lucky and that began with them getting the first home game last year. Think we do with Carlow too and the same thing happened. Well we better get them at home next time we draw either of those.

Hammer Archer

PaddyCar wrote: »

Not surprised Cork were able to score 3 goals against that Meath back line. On a different note, apparantly its 1995 since Meath have played a home game in Leinster championship. Anyone know if this is true??

Offaly if I remember correctly. I wasn't at it, but I think it was on here a year or two ago that the same question was asked. I think I remember reading something about biblical rain on the day.
Hopefully with Wicklow in Aughrim last year and Carlow in Dr. C in a month, this means we've a few home/away arrangements in place.

dixiefly wrote: »

We are getting towards the stage that the whole structure of county football and the dominance and sheer scale of Dublin at football especially needs to be looked at.

Did you know that the big clubs in Dublin have full time Gaelic development officers? These are paid 50% by the GAA and 50% by the clubs themselves.

Of course, it could be argued that much of the GAA income is from Dublin and that this is sour grapes but another dominant year from them must cause questions about the structure of the Leinster championships in football.

It does get called out as sour grapes, but I would tend to agree. I know GAA was never really a level playing field to begin with, but to compare one end of the scale to the other is quite an eye opener. Dublin are getting around a million a year with AIG while Leitrim get around €30000 a year from their sponsor. I'd say more than a few Dublin clubs get that for their sponsors.

Again, people will point to the fact that they've been getting quite a bit of money for a while and it's only now that they've started winning, but they've been pouring a lot of this money into underage which is coming to fruition now. And unfortunately, nowadays you can have a whole squad of naturally talented youngsters, but unless you have the money to pump into them, they're not going to make an impact when they reach senior intercounty. Take the extremely talented Tipp minors who won the All Ireland 3 years ago. That group failed to make it out of Munster in this years U21 while Dublin won the All Ireland.

I have to say I'm worried about the future of the football championship if Dublin continue to win everything in front of them. Every now and then they may slip up, but I can honestly see them winning every Leinster championship bar maybe one for the rest of the decade. But the GAA don't seem bothered and are content to bleed as much money from Dublin fans as they can by sticking them in Croke Park for every single championship game.

rpurfield

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Offaly if I remember correctly. I wasn't at it, but I think it was on here a year or two ago that the same question was asked. I think I remember reading something about biblical rain on the day.
Hopefully with Wicklow in Aughrim last year and Carlow in Dr. C in a month, this means we've a few home/away arrangements in place.


It does get called out as sour grapes, but I would tend to agree. I know GAA was never really a level playing field to begin with, but to compare one end of the scale to the other is quite an eye opener. Dublin are getting around a million a year with AIG while Leitrim get around €30000 a year from their sponsor. I'd say more than a few Dublin clubs get that for their sponsors.

Again, people will point to the fact that they've been getting quite a bit of money for a while and it's only now that they've started winning, but they've been pouring a lot of this money into underage which is coming to fruition now. And unfortunately, nowadays you can have a whole squad of naturally talented youngsters, but unless you have the money to pump into them, they're not going to make an impact when they reach senior intercounty. Take the extremely talented Tipp minors who won the All Ireland 3 years ago. That group failed to make it out of Munster in this years U21 while Dublin won the All Ireland.

I have to say I'm worried about the future of the football championship if Dublin continue to win everything in front of them. Every now and then they may slip up, but I can honestly see them winning every Leinster championship bar maybe one for the rest of the decade. But the GAA don't seem bothered and are content to bleed as much money from Dublin fans as they can by sticking them in Croke Park for every single championship game.

On that offaly game yeah it lashed down for about 10 minutes, i was on the terrace and you couldnt see the stand side with the rain. i think two of our lads clashed heads and had to go off during it.

on the dublin thing as far as i can make out a lot of their fans would love a spin down to portlaoise or somewhere for a championship game, the talk of their last one in longford is always nothing but good. surely to god a packed provincal venue and the money itd bring the town would be good for everyone compared to a half full croker

CrabRevolution

Its true that its unfair Dublin always being in Croke Park.

Truth is though that Dublin bring in the money, and lots of it. Dublin's games are always double headers so the price will be €25/30 for an adult Stand, then €15/20 for the terrace, and even on a bad day in the Leinster quarter final, Dublin will bring 25'000 fans.

While it mightnt always be fair, but if I were a Leinster council chief I wouldnt say no to that either.

What's the alternative anyway? Play them at a 15'000 capacity Pairc Tailteann? Drag everyone out to a 25'000 Portlaoise?

RoyalCelt

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Its true that its unfair Dublin always being in Croke Park.

Truth is though that Dublin bring in the money, and lots of it. Dublin's games are always double headers so the price will be €25/30 for an adult Stand, then €15/20 for the terrace, and even on a bad day in the Leinster quarter final, Dublin will bring 25'000 fans.

While it mightnt always be fair, but if I were a Leinster council chief I wouldnt say no to that either.

What's the alternative anyway? Play them at a 15'000 capacity Pairc Tailteann? Drag everyone out to a 25'000 Portlaoise?

If only 25k Dublin fans will turn up in Croker I'd imagine 15k max would go to portlaoise. So yes allow counties with grounds big enough like Wexford/Ofally/Laois have the option of playing the Dubs in their home patch. The Leinster championship is dying a slow death because Dublin have dominated it for 10 years.

What benefit does the small bit of extra cash do for these counties when they have no hope of ever beating the Dubs. A home match packed out against the Dubs would promoted the GAA to young kids in their county than 2-3k fans travelling to see Dublin slaughter them in CP.

CrabRevolution

RoyalCelt wrote: »

If only 25k Dublin fans will turn up in Croker I'd imagine 15k max would go to portlaoise. So yes allow counties with grounds big enough like Wexford/Ofally/Laois have the option of playing the Dubs in their home patch. The Leinster championship is dying a slow death because Dublin have dominated it for 10 years.

What benefit does the small bit of extra cash do for these counties when they have no hope of ever beating the Dubs. A home match packed out against the Dubs would promoted the GAA to young kids in their county than 2-3k fans travelling to see Dublin slaughter them in CP.

Personally I agree, it'd generate a much better image of fair play and an equal footing if games were spread out more. When I look at old results and programmes and see that Dublin played championship matches in Navan and Portlaoise in the 90s, its an almost alien thought, since in my (20 year) lifetime Dublin have nearly always been in Croker.

But while it's easy for us to say "Its not about the money", for the Leinster Council, Dublin footballers are the cash cow which delivers every year, so you can kinda see why they want to maximise what they get from it.

I wish they'd quit the whole "Croke Park is a neutral venue, so no advantage to the Dubs, their home ground is Parnell park" stuff aswell.

iDave

Meath will never play Dublin outside of Croker in Championship. I'm ok with that. CP is the only venue that meets that fixtures capacity requirements.
The likes of Longford, Westmeath, Laois, Wexford, Louth, Carlow etc will still probably lose to Dublin anywhere but as a matter of principle Leinster QFs should be played away from CP. Even on a home & away agreement so the Dubs still get to play in CP for that round occasionally. Its incredibly short sighted of the Leinster Council.

CrabRevolution wrote: »

since in my (20 year) lifetime .

Wow, most of your Meath GAA memories are negative I'd imagine

rpurfield

move the dubs out for leinster quarters unless its against us or kildare and the problems solved. the other thing thats bugging me is we dont play till june 15th and if we win were out again two weeks later to justify croker been opened for a double header. surely to god we couldve played on the 8th and given us the three weeks.

iDave

rpurfield wrote: »

move the dubs out for leinster quarters unless its against us or kildare and the problems solved. the other thing thats bugging me is we dont play till june 15th and if we win were out again two weeks later to justify croker been opened for a double header. surely to god we couldve played on the 8th and given us the three weeks.

Its the second year in a row. Correct me if I'm wrong but are Meath and Carlow football teams the last intercounty teams to get a run out in the championship this year.
Such a bizarre calendar. Mayo play their first match in early May, we get ours in mid June. Leinster play 3 QFs in one day but then leave our one on its own the next week.
Ulster drag their QFs out over 4 weeks.
One of the Connacht finalists will be know before we get to play our QF

CrabRevolution

iDave wrote: »

Wow, most of your Meath GAA memories are negative I'd imagine

I dont remember 96 or 99, remember 2001 though and all the build up to the Galway game.

Other than that, beating the Dubs in 2010 has been the highlight. Bit better on the hurling front, was there when the hurlers won the Nicky Rackard, and our minors winning the All Ireland B in 2011.

I was also there against Louth in the Leinster Final of 2010 when big Joe caught the ball on the 45, soloed through the Louth defence and planted a piledriver into the top right corner from the 21, winning the match and sending those Louth heathens back into the abyss.

(Least thats how I remember it)

pipelaser

CrabRevolution wrote: »

I dont remember 96 or 99, remember 2001 though and all the build up to the Galway game.

Other than that, beating the Dubs in 2010 has been the highlight. Bit better on the hurling front, was there when the hurlers won the Nicky Rackard, and our minors winning the All Ireland B in 2011.

I was also there against Louth in the Leinster Final of 2010 when big Joe caught the ball on the 45, soloed through the Louth defence and planted a piledriver into the top right corner from the 21, winning the match and sending those Louth heathens back into the abyss.

(Least thats how I remember it)

It was a rocket!