Meath GAA discussion thread

mattser

Why are we always chasing bloody games. Even in the good times it was the same with few exceptions.
On the odd occasion when we do blitz the opposition early on, we freeze and let them back into it.

rpurfield

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Think you're being a bit harsh on the Ratoath lads, dixiefly. Agree they weren't great, but in my view, Biggy was the worst player out there today. Offered next to nothing going forward and whenever we lost the ball, he simply stood where he was with his hands on his hips. At least McMahon and Wallace tracked back when we lost possession. He is one of the most infuriating players I've seen in Meath colours.

Simply atrocious today. At times it was worse than the Monaghan performances. Can't think of any player who played any way decent. But the funny thing is, we probably could have gotten something out of it were it not for 3 minutes of madness with 15 minutes to go when we went from 2 points down to 8 points down.

Anyone else think that the pitch itself was an absolute joke today?

At a remove of a nights sleep I agree with what you are saying on the McMahon anyway, I personally thought he wasn't the worse forward on the pitch, to hook him when they did was strange. And I thought Biggy was fairly ineffective myself. The problem with Joey Wallace is he seems somewhat reluctant to take the ball into contact. If he had done yesterday we would've had some frees as we drew plenty when we ran at them.

I thought Mickey Burke was alright yesterday, and McGill struggled initially but seemed to grow into the game as it went. Menton and Tormey were very quiet and we needed an impact off them.

As I said last night my biggest disappointment was that they would have been missing a few players yesterday, and we would have been looking to have a good start which hasn't happened.

dixiefly

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Think you're being a bit harsh on the Ratoath lads, dixiefly. Agree they weren't great, but in my view, Biggy was the worst player out there today. Offered next to nothing going forward and whenever we lost the ball, he simply stood where he was with his hands on his hips. At least McMahon and Wallace tracked back when we lost possession. He is one of the most infuriating players I've seen in Meath colours.

Simply atrocious today. At times it was worse than the Monaghan performances. Can't think of any player who played any way decent. But the funny thing is, we probably could have gotten something out of it were it not for 3 minutes of madness with 15 minutes to go when we went from 2 points down to 8 points down.

Anyone else think that the pitch itself was an absolute joke today?

I dont want to come across as scapegoating particular players and they are all making great efforts to represent the county. McGill is the best option that we have at Full back at the moment as I dont think Mention should be brought back. As an aside, I think that the management need to continue to look at games to identify new players.

Last year I actually thought that McMahon was doing well before his injury and the team should be able to live with one player of his type once he is of sufficient to make that talent pay in scores. McMahon didnt show that yesterday. He is a good footballer but I was a bit disappoined to note that he hasnt bulked up but that's not easy.

Regarding Wallace, I honestly think that he shouldnt be near the team based on the games that I have seen him play. He made a couple of good moves when he came on against Westmeath but nothing else. Meath football would have been far better served and possibly Joey himself if he had been left with the under 21's to develop and it would have benefited the under 21's that have been pitifully neglected within the county. Hopefully Joey will eventually come good for the county.

I re-iterate that our managerment should prioritise playing players with a minimum physical presence, not necessarily big players. It is physical game and Joey seemed to be mostly doing crossfield runs to avoid physical contact. The problem is Mick must have seen this last year and repeated the mistake.

Regarding the pitch, I agree. It's a new prunty pitch I believe.

Rock Lesnar

I dont blame the players, the management set up on paper looks brilliant yet now in the 3rd year i dont see any improvement, i just dont know what the gameplan is.

We hand pass around alot, yet look totally uncomfortable doing it,

We seem to leave 1 man on the full forward line, yet leave him totally isolated because the other forwards seem to drop that deep, they find it hard to support him.

The half backs get the ball, look up and theres no movement ahead of them.

I dont see any other players coming into the team, Reilly and O'Rourke we wont see them til the summer at the latest and thats a big if we see them, Wallace will no doubt be a boost, but after an injury like he had, it'll be a tough ask for him to come back and hit the ground running.

Maybe im a bit harsh but i can only see us doing, probably the same as last year i suppose.

HighKing33

Poor ball handling is an issue, particularly as we seem determined to run the ball. Also, the spine of the team is very young and relatively inexperienced - Rooney and Flanagan in the centre, Keoghan at 6 and McGill at 3. Finally, Mickey Burke is probably not a specialist man marker. His best attribute is his ability to get on breaking ball and drive forward from midfield - he was a key part of McEneany's team, probably the best half-back line we've seen in Meath in some years - left-half back for me.

We've yet to click. Damian Carroll is definitely needed to play quarter-back and pump the ball in to the square. Why else are we isolating our full-forward inside?

dixiefly

It's been pretty quiet on here, probably an indicator of how far Meath football has dropped with the resultant lack of interest.

Team for Saturday: Meath (FL Division 2 v Kildare) – Paddy O'Rourke; Donnacha Tobin, Conor McGill, Mickey Burke; Padraic Harnan, Donal Keogan, Bryan Menton; Harry Rooney, Adam Flanagan; Graham Reilly, Mark O'Sullivan, Andrew Tormey; Joey Wallace, Stephen Bray, Mickey Newman.

Great to see mark O'Sullivan get a run. I am pretty amazed that that is the only change. If I hadnt been there myself and saw MOD there I would have thought that Mick was not in Pearse Park, Galway last weekend.

If I was David Bray and Sean Tobin I would be packing my bags like others have done. Life is too short to be sitting on bench in January / February watching a performance like last Sunday and not being given a chance to do a bit better.

I will still go Saturday as usual. Hoping for the best but fearing the worst.

Hammer Archer

Whatever about Tobin, what did David Bray do to deserve a start? He was average/poor in the O'Byrne Cup and I don't think he would improve on the players already in the team.

Surprised MOD stuck with Joey and dropped Bryan. Hopefully Gillespie will be back soon enough. Saw him warming up before last week's game. Rooney and Flanagan have done OK, but their lack of experience shows at times.

Win tomorrow and we're still in with a shout of promotion with our two most difficult games, in my view, out of the way.

iDave

We wont be as bad as last Sunday. Combination of being at home, derby and pressure should see an improved performance. Will that be enough to win I have no idea. We beat them at a canter in the championship with a lot of injuries and Kildare themselves should themselves unable to close a game out against Down.
Delighted for MOS.
Lets get NFL 2015 on track. COYBIG.

dixiefly

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Whatever about Tobin, what did David Bray do to deserve a start? He was average/poor in the O'Byrne Cup and I don't think he would improve on the players already in the team.

Surprised MOD stuck with Joey and dropped Bryan. Hopefully Gillespie will be back soon enough. Saw him warming up before last week's game. Rooney and Flanagan have done OK, but their lack of experience shows at times.

Win tomorrow and we're still in with a shout of promotion with our two most difficult games, in my view, out of the way.

David Bray is not a world beater but if you check the stats he was top scorer in the o'Byrne Cup and didnt start all the games. He made a few errors but took some fine scores also. I think he would have put Newman's chance away but that's conjecture. Joey definitely more potential in the future but at the moment, for tomorrows game i would have started Tobin or bray ahead of him.

I agree regarding Gillespie, he is really needed in there.

I cant believe that the fullback line is left as is. McGill deserves to continue but Mickey Burke can get badly exposed at corner back. Need Keoghan back in fullback line.

Anyway, lets hope they can do the business.

rpurfield

I'm suprised there is only one change to the team myself now, going on last week Stephen Bray was probably the only forward who you could argue had a decent game.

chrysagon

home advantage to prove a winner, but meath cannot afford to lose,but hopefully not the same rhetoric from MOD about team building if Meath lose.

Hibbeler

Is the game tomorrow on tg4 or setanta?

iDave

Hibbeler wrote: »

Is the game tomorrow on tg4 or setanta?

Setanta

Hibbeler

iDave wrote: »

Setanta

Cheers will have to renew GAAGO now. Hoping for a better performance than last week to be sure. We need a win tomorrow for team confidence if nothing else

Remember we beat Kildare in the championship last year at a canter so will be hoping for a repeat

RoyalCelt

Horrible memories of the last 2 times we played Kildare in navan. 2011 qualifier and 2012 league game. This is another must win game so hopefully the bad run at home to Kildare stops tomorrow night.

On the team. A lot of people giving out. All I'm going to say is this. If our forwards get their shooting boots on we should win. Loads of shocking misses in the last 2 games.

Hibbeler

Delighted to get the win in the end, especially after playing poorly in the first half. Newman and O'Rourke had a bad day with the frees it must be said.

Black card for Graham Reilly early on I though was harsh. Andrew Tormey won man of the match for his second half display, thoroughly deserved in my view. Good to see Eamonn Wallace back playing.

Should hopefully see more improvement as the league goes on

snowgal

Agreed it was a great win to get. Wasn't overly excited by what I saw though. Free taking was dire, really dire. Thought Sean Tobin was useful tonight and ran every blade of the park. Didn't get to see the Reilly incident properly, was the other side, what happened? Yes great to see Walkace back, hopefully we'll build from here.

dixiefly

Hibbeler wrote: »

Delighted to get the win in the end, especially after playing poorly in the first half. Newman and O'Rourke had a bad day with the frees it must be said.

Black card for Graham Reilly early on I though was harsh. Andrew Tormey won man of the match for his second half display, thoroughly deserved in my view. Good to see Eamonn Wallace back playing.

Should hopefully see more improvement as the league goes on

I agree, it was great for the morale of the guys to get the win and to grind it out showed a level of character that was not there in the closing stages of the Galway game.

I would agree with Tormey MOTM but he was closely followed by McGill at full back and the defence in general. They worked their socks off. Keoghan was great though I still would like to see him at corner back and Menton burst forward several crucial times and Dalton made some good interceptions. Power also did well when on for Tobin. Overall full marks to the defence.

Midfield came good once again and for two inexperienced guys they did well. We do need Gillespie back to challenge the better teams if that's not being disrespectful to Kildare.

Up front we are still poor. Tormey and Menton to a lesser extent pulled us across the line by sheer force of will. After that, Stephen Bray worked had and created some chances but is not the player he was in front of goal but is still a cert to start the next day. Newman was poor in the first half again but improved a bit when played on the half forward line in the second half, Reilly was unlucky to get a black card considering some tackles that did receive them (though Tormey was a little lucyk later on).

I am sorry to say this but the Joey Wallace experiment is well and truly over and I would be flabbergasted if he started the next day. David Bray wasnt any better but Sean Tobin probably merits a start next day. Our forwards overall were poor tonight, free taking was as bad as I have ever seen from a Meath team. Two positives towards the end were Mickey Newman scoring a crucial point from play and Eamonn Wallace's introduction, he demonstrated in 2 minutes what we have been missing since his injury. He's not the finished article but, as they say, hope springs eternal.

NufcNavan

I was fully expecting a draw when we went 1 up late on so I was pleasantly surprised. The defense made some good stops when needed. Mickey Burke played well today.

MOTM was Tormey by far. Stephen Bray probably the second best forward but they were all poor apart from AT.

It was disappointing in one sense that we only showed up for one half. Another hallmark of a MO'D Meath team. Cannot pull off a 70 minute performance. We seen how ordinary Kildare were when we tightened up at the back and played with some sort of fluency in attack.

Reilly's black card was deserved. It was stupid. The Kildare no.6 should have gotten a red for a thump off the ball in the 2nd half. Linesman bottled it.

Hammer Archer

What did Reilly do for the black card? Amazed Kildare didn't get at least one, especially when Keogan was dragged down in the second half.

Encouraging performance in the second half. But it was a shocking Kildare team. They resorted to 14 men behind the ball in the first half. If we had a consistent free taker we would have won at a canter.

With regards Joey, he's a corner forward. Don't know why MOD is persisting with bringing him out the field where he's wasted. Not fair on him of all people.

Three weeks to prepare for Roscommon. Win that, and we've a great chance of promotion.

NufcNavan

Reilly checked his man well after the ball was gone. He didn't get him that hard, but it was clearly deliberate and the black card was brought in to stop that sort of sh*t.

Jampip

NufcNavan wrote: »

Reilly checked his man well after the ball was gone. He didn't get him that hard, but it was clearly deliberate and the black card was brought in to stop that sort of sh*t.

Just reading this thread to get views on the game this evening and saw this discussion. The black card at this stage is a joke.

Referees just don't seem to know when to use it and it is rarely utilised until late in games. The inconsistency isn't fair on the players.

Well done to Meath on a good win this evening. This Division is going to be tight.

rpurfield

Delighted with the way we ground that out tonight now, as said above though if we had a free taker we would've won handy. The same below in Galway I thought, bad shooting has crept in. Sean Tobin deserves a start next day, and I was impressed with how Conor McGill played, he seems to be growing into the full back role. The defence really stood up in the second half and bottled up Kildare very well, if we can improve the shooting in the forwards we will be going somewhere.

I thought the difference in the second half was the willingness to push up on the Kildare kick outs and make it hard for them to send them short and use them to run. Kildare were fierce cynical, pulling and dragging everytime we got a run on them, probably in the knowledge we were so patchy at the frees. Menton and Tormey were excellent too, again they got a run, which Galway didn't allow them both to last week and it made a massive difference.

Onwards and upwards to Kiltoom now, it's going to be a tough one, hopefully a few weeks to sort out the wrinkles up front and move on.

NufcNavan

I think the black card is a good idea but referees need to implement it consistently. Kildare should have had at least one black card 2nd half.

iDave

Well what to make of that! Firstly delighted to get our first win under our belts and do it against the noisy neighbours. But my god Meath and kildare are so behind the top teams its scary. Both sides with problems from 1-15.
I was amazed at half time how kildare had a lead. We seemed to dominate in midfield and picked up all the dirty ball. We then ran at their blanket got a free and missed. Rinse and repeat. Game played mostly in their half. They then enjoy a good spell in the second quarter and actually took their chances.
We really came into life in the final quarter where it counted. Free taking accuracy improved slightly and we broke well and got the odd point from play.
A win is a win i suppose but big improvements needed. Tormey MOTM. Reallly thought he took it by the scruff of the neck and made things happen. .

Meath Centre Forward

I also thought the game had draw written all over it coming towards the end but fair play to Meath, it was ugly but they ground it out. I've watched Meath, Galway & Kildare, the top 3 in the betting before the campaign started and they've all been disappointing. Maybe it's a sign of the time of year?

As regards the players, I thought Paddy O'Rourke was very good where goalkeeping was concerned but I think his record from frees was 1 out of 4.

The full-back line started out as Tobin-McGill-Keoghan but it got very crowded towards the end with mass defences on both sides, I think everyone became a full-back or a half-back when we didn't the ball. McGill was good and he's really improving and Keoghan led by example too in the second half.

The half-back line of Burke-Dalton-Menton was strong too. Burke had a good game and Dalton is a good defender but also he uses the ball well when he gets it. Menton was my MOTM just ahead of Tormey because in the first half, he really drove Meath on when we were under a bit of pressure.

The midfield is improving all the time. Rooney had some good catches and he's probably ahead of Flanagan at the moment. But game-time will bring both on especially when they're doing well. The return of Gillespie will also heat up the competition for places.

Reilly will have learned a lesson last night too. It's interesting Meath only had one black card in last year's League. They've had two so far this year. So that has to be a focus now going forward too - no more black cards. Harnan probably wasn't at his best in a new position and I'd worry for him that Dalton has taken his position in the half-back line. Tormey really stepped up in the second half with some excellent point-taking. Even the free he hit was important and it took nerve to put it over the way he were going.

Joey Wallace was poor again. Micko needs to take him out the limelight for a game or two. The two AllStars on the pitch had a great battle with Bray probably shading it. The thing with Bray is his erratic shooting. He does everything else right. He works and tackles, he's always on the move, he's fast and he's a ball winner, and he wins frees but he needs to make sure and put the ball over the bar! He can be frustrating because of that. Newman is very rusty looking and he'd be in danger of losing his place if putting in too many performances like that.

Of the subs, Brian Power done well and Tobin wasn't bad although my concern with him is he's not that quick. David Bray could have done better and it was good to see Eamonn Wallace back. I was surprised Damian Carroll didn't get a run out - he was poor when he fame on against Galway and must be slipping down the pecking order.

The main things Meath that need work are shooting from play and from frees. Also need to cut out the silly handling errors, giving up possession easily can be very costly. Also one other point, Meath got the tactics right last night, the likes of Tormey, Harnan, Rooney, Flanagan and Newman made a huge effort to get back and stand in front of the full-back line and that cut off a lot of options for a pass out the field.

Major improvement needed for the trip to Roscommon who had a good win away from home last night and that'll be another tough one for Meath.

dixiefly

I think we are moving in the right direction number 1 to 9 (with Gillespie due back).

Up front, there needs to be a fair bit of soul searching from management with only Tormey and S. Bray from starters last night guaranteed starting slots (though I do think Biggie is there or thereabouts and fingers crossed for E. Wallace).

Tactics and personnel should be reviewed and fresh faces considered for the championship panel.

Hibbeler

Well in terms of the forwards, shooting definitely needs to be looked at both from play and from frees. I'd hope that some practice in this will be had over the 3 week break before we play Roscommon.

Though hopefully the poor freetaking we saw from Newman and O'Rourke last night will turn out to just be a once off bad day at the office

iDave

Kehoe cup champions

CrabRevolution

iDave wrote: »

Kehoe cup champions

Finally move ahead of Westmeath to top the roll of honour. They have a feeble 7 Kehoe cups, compared to our magnificent 8*

*Well, if you want to get very, very picky, we finally join them at the top. Westmeath are down as having won the Walsh cup in the early 80s. Looks like a great achievement, but at the time the Walsh and Kehoe cups werent run as we know them now. They swapped the trophies each year. So one year Meath, Carlow, Westmeath etc. would compete in the Kehoe cup and Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin would be in the WalshCup. The following year Meath would compete for the Walsh Cup and Kilkenny would compete for the Kehoe Cup. Westmeath effectively won a "Kehoe" Cup.