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Meath GAA discussion thread

Hammer Archer

Well Galway has a thread, Mayo has one, even Cavan has one so why not us?

Two one point defeats in a row means we're back into relegation trouble especially if we lose to Derry next week. Having said that, beat Derry next week and promotion is still a (remote) possibility. Joe Sheridan leaving for the States certainly isn't going to help.
Thought the performance yesterday was easily the worst of the league. Our away form is killing us still.

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whatnext

Syferus wrote: »

You’re the first person I’ve heard complain about a clearly tactical foul in the box. A penalty on every field in Ireland.

We were on top for the first 60 but couldn’t win a kickout for the next ten minutes and that turned a five point lead into a four point deficit. A draw was as about as fair a result as you could get for both teams. At different stages both sides would have happily taken that outcome.

For me it was massive that Meath don’t have a tie-breaker over us. It could make all the difference at the end of the league.

What was the foul?

Rock Lesnar

Just home, disappointed not to win obviously but considering they were a 1st division team last year and pushed mayo in the championship, i'd have taking a draw before the game.

Im still not to optimistic how the year will go, its still the same defensive set up and 2nd half falling apart, when we had the wind behind us, we shouldve used it better, but no, sat back and invited them on.

Syferus

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Just home, disappointed not to win obviously but considering they were a 1st division team last year and pushed mayo in the championship, i'd have taking a draw before the game.

Im still not to optimistic how the year will go, its still the same defensive set up and 2nd half falling apart, when we had the wind behind us, we shouldve used it better, but no, sat back and invited them on.

It was a cross-wind that favoured us and not ye in the second half.

Penalty was a Meath defender pulling a Ros player down as he was about to take a shot on goal.

Rock Lesnar

Syferus wrote: »

It was a cross-wind that favoured us and not ye in the second half.

Penalty was a Meath defender pulling a Ros player down as he was about to take a shot on goal.

What is this about, i said when we had the wind behind us, we should have used it better and i never even mentioned the penalty.

Mauser 308

Guys unfortunately I could not make it yesterday. What was the overall impression of how we performed?
I had low expectations heading into the game, so a point on the road against what looked like a good team last year seems like a point gained to me. Fair enough it would have been great to have won but sounds like the Rossies could have won also. Im more interested in the performance and if there seems to be any signs of improvement.

RockyRory

lookin forward to clare game. does anybody know if there'll be many changes to the team.

Sonny678

A few points

For me Sunday is sign of progress. We wont havent got a result like today in the last few years or would say anytime since Boylan left. What would have happened is Roscommon would have gone ahead and won by 9 or 10 points as there talented young forwarda cut loose. However a couple of things have improved under McEntee.

1 Fitness has definitely improved
2 The old Meath never day die spirit is slowly coming back.

However we are far from the finished product. We are miles behind Dublin and the top teams. We are years behind them. But we are going in the right direction and sundays result is more proof of that. .

Overall I still think its more then likely this year we will be uo and down. We wont see progress til next year and real progress in early 2020s. We are on a learning curve. But today was promising. We were rank outsiders with the bookies and all the pundits and all the tipsters on all the forums where predicting a Rossies 5 or 6 points win. So today was progress of sorts.

Its a pity we didnt hold out. A win v the top team in the division on their home patch would have been a great start. But we need now to beat Clare in Navan. Its a long time since we were undefeated in our first two league matchs. We are usually slow starters. But if we can win v Clare we are in a good position. Clare will be tricky. They have a shrewd manager and their team which in the next few years are going in the right direction and will be a team to look out for. But home wins are so important. Next weeks game will tell a bit more about what kind of progress we have made this year.

This weekends results have shook up the pack. Cork look like continuing the form of recent years. And many peoples tip for promotion Cork could be a wrong one. They have huge talent. The best panel in the division. A top 5 team which could push for an All Ireland in coming years. But they are underachieving . Why John Cleary was not made manager was a big mistake. Cork might not be contenders if the results v Clare and Tipp contiunue. They will still cause a problems. You could see them losing to Clare one week and then beating Roscommon Meath or Down the following week.

Tipp were the real winners with Down this weekend. Tipp have a very good young team. They werent great last year. But I find young teams can be up and down. And I have feeling they will have a strong season this year with possible promotion and super 8 participants. In the last few league teams have had sucessive promotion. Monaghan kildare and Roscommon all went from Division 3 to div 2 to div 1. Tipp could do this also. Real contenders.

Other real contenders are Down. Very few tipping them. But they are a real strong league team. Very hard to beat in Newry. And have been in div 1 longer then any other team in div 2 in recent years. A great start. Real contenders also. My gut feeling is Roscommon Meath Tipp and Down will be the 4 way fight for promotion. Its again a wide open divsion.

One last thing it was good to see Eamon Wallace in good form. He came on in 2013 as 19 year old and had a great season finishing with 1-4 from play v Tyrone in the championship in Croker. He did his cruciate and has been trying to return to form since. Today and this years club championship are signs he is returning to 2013 form.

But the big thing for me was McKeever. We drew that game because him with and his 3 points and he set up the goal after coming from the bench. He has been the best club forward in Meath football by a mile in recnt years but injuries have kept him from the panel. If can continue what he did today and his club form . Himself and lenihan would form a tasty duo in the full forward line. Both are in their mid 20s and both should be hitting peaks now. We rely to.much on lenihan in the full foward line. He was missing today and it showed. If him and Mckeever click and two wallaces McMahon two reillys sullivan toibin can all adds scores this will be massive. We have had light forwards in recent years who couldnt make the ball stick. McKeever and lenihan could be two finishers in the inside line which could be a massive plus.

The real good thing about Sunday wa our three best forwards did not feature in that, Reilly and Sullivan did not play well and lenihan was injured, and we still nearly won. If we can get the best out of Sullivan and maybe look at biggy been an impact sub it would be more additions. Andy has a few selection dilemmas for the next game. Overall a good days work for Meath but this div again is wide open. Promotion and relegation is wide open.

Sonny678

Firstly it was a very exciting game by two of the youngest teams in the country. Roscommon are ahead of Meath in terms development. And achievements. Provicial champions and two years in division 1. Roscommon are ahead of Meath at the moment. But I always expected yesterday to be close. Meath have played Galway 5 times in recent years and only lost once. And Meath had defeated Roscommon in two challenge matchs last year. Both Galway and Roscommon are up and comig teams with lots of potential and teams to watch out for. So always felt the gap wasnt as big as people wanted to believe it was.

In the firsthalf Roscommon where the better team and into the second half this contd. Roscommon have good backs. And they were playing well. At midfield I thought Meath won this battle. Roscommon weakness is probaly midfield. And with Menton/ Flanagan and Rooney on the bench and under the guidance of Gerry McEntee, I think our midfield is improving . We only had 1 midfieder last year in Menton ( Jones showed glimpses of potential but he only play 2 games and Toher is not a midfielder he is a wing forward). This year we have 3 midfielders. In the last 20 minutes Meath took control of midfield. And if you take control of midfield in the last 20 mins of game. You always have a chance of winning. Midfield has been problem area since John Mcdermont retired. We still have issues there. But I think we rimproving in this sector. We still need to improve on breaking ball.

The difference was the Rossies forwards in the first half Meath backs did well. Players like McGill Keoghan Lavin and Conlon are good defenders. And they played well especially McGill. Who has replaced Kevin Reilly without fuss. And has slowly developed into another top class Meath full back. But there is still a few weak links in the Meath defence. We havent got the right mix back there yet . While Rossies have some of the best young forwards in the country. Roscommon have class young forwards. And when the ball went up to the Roscommon forwards the ball sticked and the Roscommon forwards got their scores easier then Meath. Becuase Roscommon have better forwards at the start.
Meath where playing a full forward of three light young half forwards because Lenihan our best inside forward was injured. Sullivan T Reilly and J Wallace couldnt make the ball stick. While the quality young Roscommon back where playing well. That why Roscommon where better in the first half. But still there was only 1 point between the teams at half time.

The last 20 mins some Rossies put it down to Murtagh going off and I have heard Roscommon people saying Roscommon got complacent. However if you look at the evidence, maybe the 1-6 Meath scored was a bit down to Meath upping their game and playing well. Meath had a role in the game changing from a 6 point lead for Roscommon to 4 point lead for Meath. Murtagh was a loss. But to say Roscommon collasped after he went off makes no sense. Firstly Murtagh is a quality young forward with a great future, a probale all star forward.

But Murtagh going off is not going to lead to good Roscommon collasping. Roscommon are not a one man team. They have plenty of good footballers all over the field. Meath had a role to play in the comeback. People always downgrade Meath performances. The fact of the change in the game was based in 4 factors 1 Meath taking control of midfield. Meath looked stronger in midfield 2 Meaths fitness 3 Impact of Meath subs 4 Return of the old Meath spirit.

1 Meath took control at midfield in the last 20 mins. Menton and Flanagan looked a stronger partnership overall then Roscommon with Enda Smith. Who is top class footballer. But probaly is more a top class half forward then a traditional midfielder

2 Meaths fitness has improved under McEntee. We have had a problem with fitness for years. Since Boylan left we have faded badly in games. Under McEntee even in the championship we looked very fit v Louth in June and Donegal in July. Our fitness levels have improved dramatically under McEntee throughout the league and championship.

3 Both teams had strong benchs. The Roscommon bench looked really good on paper but with the exception of Donie Smiths peno the bench made little impact. Im sure that Roscommon will make a big impact in future games. The Meath bench made a huge impact. The Meath bench looked stronger then I have seen in a long time. Even under Boylan we didnt have strong bench. Our bench was Mattie Mcabe in the 80s, Jody Devine in the 90s and Ray Magee in the 00s . And that was it. But McEntee has brought 11 players into Meath who never played before for the county. This has added a depth to the panel I have not seen before.

Conlon came on and he made a big impact. Eamon Wallace who also was a sub who came on, made a big impact with his and his running at Rossies defence with his brother Joey caused problems. But it was Mckeever and Toibin coming of the becnh that changed everything. In thefirst the young light Meath forwards could not make the ball stick. Toibin is strongly built player and is turning into a big impact sub for Meath. He came of the bench to help us draw with Cork last year, and he also came on bench to win the game v Sligo in the championship and he came off the bench in the Roscommon yesterday and against longford two weeks ago and made a big impact in both games.. While McKeever who was making his debut has been the best club forward by a mile in Meath club football in the last few years. He has had injuries. But he is available this year, hes 26 so hes actually one of the older players on the team now. But he made a difference scoring 3 points and setting up the goal. In the first half Meath had no one in the forwards standing up. Our two three best forward two of them where not playin well Sullivan and G Reilly. And D Lenihan was injured. In the last 20 minutes Toibin and Mckeever where making an impact

4 The final reason why Meath came back is a return of the old never say die spirit under MCentee. I will explain this in another separate message below

Sonny678

The final reason for the change in the last 20 mins is something that is giving me postivety for the future. The return of the old Meath spirit. Meath football always has this reputation of a never say die spirit. Under Boylan, Meath where the best team in the final quarter in the country for 20 years. In the final quarter of games, Meaths mental resolve got stronger. And Meath won so many big games and titles in the final 20 mins with this resolve eg 1988 All Ireland v Cork, 1991 4 games v Dublin, and the two All Ireland finals v Mayo in 96 and many many more games. All these games are examples when the oppostion got tired and nervous and Meath grew stronger and showed great nerve and mental strenght. Meath would also make these extraordinary comebacks under Boylan. The never say die spirit of Meath football became legendary. But it was always part of Meaths teams going back to the 40s 50s 60s and 70s. The three games v Louth in the late 40s caught the countries imagination like the 4 games in 91. And Meath showed great will and desire to beat one of the best teams in the country in 47. While the 1970 Leinster final v Offaly is considered not only one of the greatest leinster finals ever, but one of the greatest games ever with the greatest Meath comeback of all time.

But since Boylan left that old Meath spirit has disapppeared. For 13 years since he left, there has been no great comebacks. And Meath teams instead of having a great spirit where now wilting in the second half and half second collaspes where common occurence. Which became almost game after game occurence under O Dowd in his final year. There has been so many games where Meath had poor second halfs since Boylan left eg Wexford 2006 Cork 2007 Wexford 2008 Louth 2010 Kildare 2010 Westmeath 2015 Cavan 2015 Dublin 2016.

However under McEntee this has stopped. Now I know we let a goal in the Roscommon game to draw. But that was down to inexperience. Players dont know how to close out game. Like Dublin did v Mayo last year and kerry did v Mayo in 2015.

But overall not since Boylan have I seen Meath comebacks. While under McEntee ,Meath have finished pretty much every game very strongly, which is soemthing I have not seen in 12 years or more. With the exception of the two kildare games. We are now making comebacks and never giving up and if we have a lead we now bury the oppostion team, something we havent done in years.

For example

In the league we finished very strongly v Derry ,

We finished very strongly v Clare,

We finished very strongly v Fermanagh,

And we finished very strongly v Galway ( we were 5 points at one stage with 15 mins to go and we won the game),

And finished very strongly v Cork ( We were 9 points down with 25 minutes to go and we drew the game, first bona fide great Meath comeback since Boylan retired).

And finally finished strongly v Down, but not enough to win, left it to late

In the championship

We finished very strongly v Louth ( scoring 7 points in a row to finish with 27 points) ,

We finished very strongly v Sligo,

And we finished strongly v Donegal ( But McBreaty and Michael Muprhy brillance won the game for Donegal in injury time)

This years Byrne cup and league , the above thread has contd

We finished very strongly v Carlow, Wicklow and Longford , and in first league game v Roscommon we were 6 points down with 20 mins to go and by injury we went onto draw the match.

So in every Meath game since McEntee took over ( with the exception of the two kildare games), Meath have found that old never say die spiirt in every game. I have not seen that once consitently any year since Boylan left. But also this has been associated with all McEntees teams. At underage leve when he got Meath to the All Ireland minor final in 2011 , there was two great comebacks v a very highly fancied Tyrone team in the quater final and a comeback v Mayo in the semi final.

With Ballyboden, when he won the Dublin senior title. In the quater final, semi final and final ,Ballyboden under McEntee finished all these games very strongly and carved out 1 point wins in the dying minutes. These type of winning performance was also seen in the semi final v Clonmel with another comeback in the dying minutes. I remeber a friend of mine from the Ballyboden club, thought the performances under McEntee where similar to Meaths wins under Boylan in the 80s and 90s.

McEntees key strengh, if you ask anyone who has been managed by him, is his man management skills. But also all his teams at minor inter county level, club level and now at senior county level seem to be very fit, but also have a never say die spirit and fight to the bitter end. This has to be good that Meath have a manger who is steeped in the traditons of Meath football, in that what Sean Boylan used to say to the players " dont look at the clock, just keep playing and never give up". If McEntee can engrain this in this young Meath ( many of which he managed to a minor All Ireland final) a true Meath never say die spirit, then Meath have every chance of being stronger in the coming years and even been a sucessful gaelic football team .

We are are far from the finished artIcile. Still years behind Dublin and the Kerrys. And we still havent got grip to the modern way of defending and attacking with the ball, Our traditonal kick and catch is no longer the sucessful way of playing. The possesion game is the new way to sucess. It will take us while to sort that out. We are still physically light and we can be outmuscled in the tackle. We are very experienced and still havent learned how to close out a game v stronger teams eg Donegal Roscommon. But that will come with experience.

But we do have is good young backs who can defend eg Donal Koeghan, Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Brian Conlon Brian Power and Shane Gallagher . We have a midfield that is no longer being cleaned out, it is more competitive midfield under Gerry McEntees guidance and tutorship. We have some modern young wing forwards eg James McEntee and Alan Forde . And good young forwards like Cillian Sullivan, Padraig McKeever, Donal Lenihan, Bryan McMahon, Joey Wallace , Eamon Wallace, Mark Mcabe, Ben Brennan, Thomas Reilly, Daire Rowe. Along with strongest management team since Boylan left . We do have the basis of proper functioning decent inter county team which in the next few years as these young players reach their mid 20s, I believe they will be more able for divsion 1 football.

(And also some of the young talent coming through at underage in my view is the best we have produced since the 90s. And hopefully in the next few years , we will see the excellent work done at underage level turning into titles and silverware at the new under 17 and under 20 level. When they come on the intercounty scene at the start of the next decade that could be postive addtion to the mix also).

But it will take time. But this return of the old Meath spirit is a very good sign indeed. A never say die spirit is the cornerstone of every sucessful Meath team. Boylans teams always made comeback and never gave up.

(The only time there was not a comeback under Boylan was in the 2001 final. Galway were the better team, but there was no Meath comeback simply because in 10 mins we had the worst run events in a final ever eg Player sent off, Fay deciding to take himself off Joyce unknown to management, Giles missing a peno and Ollie Murphy going off with a asmashed hand. This all happened in 10 mins. Galway would have still have won, but those events led to no Meath fightback .)

in the future ,We will be up and down for a year or two. But we are going in the direction.

Finally simple as this, The road to sucess is simply explained in two sentences. Obtain promtion to division 1 . Stay in divsion 1 . or put it this way

Obtain promtion to division 1 + Stay in divsion 1 = sucess

This will be very difficult, but it is not impossible. I would say we are 24 months away from being good enough for divsion 1.After that anything is possible.

whatnext

http://www.tg4.ie/en/player/home/?pid=5722000822001

First match is Roscommon v Meath

Few adverts to suffer first

King of Spades

Thanks for posting Whatnext. It was a really enjoyable game and have to say I’m feeling more confident and hopefull about this Meath team than I have in a few years. Roll on Sunday in Navan.

Hammer Archer

Planning permission for Pairc Tailteann granted.

Felexicon

Meath (Allianz FL v Clare):Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Donal Keogan, Brían Conlon, Brian Power, Shane McEntee; Bryan Menton, Adam Flanagan; James McEntee, Padraig McKeever, Graham Reilly; Joey Wallace, Cillian O'Sullivan, Sean Tobin.

Subs: David Gallagher, Mickey Burke, Daniel O'Neill, Shane Glynn, Harry Rooney, Eamon Wallace, Ben Brennan, Thomas O'Reilly, Donal Lenihan, Bryan McMahon, Caolach Halligan.

iDave

10 point win away in London for hurlers.
Maximum points from 2 games.

windy shepard henderson

Felexicon wrote: »

Meath (Allianz FL v Clare):Andrew Colgan; Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Donal Keogan, Brían Conlon, Brian Power, Shane McEntee; Bryan Menton, Adam Flanagan; James McEntee, Padraig McKeever, Graham Reilly; Joey Wallace, Cillian O'Sullivan, Sean Tobin.

Subs: David Gallagher, Mickey Burke, Daniel O'Neill, Shane Glynn, Harry Rooney, Eamon Wallace, Ben Brennan, Thomas O'Reilly, Donal Lenihan, Bryan McMahon, Caolach Halligan.

Heading up navan tomorrow how strong or weak is that team for this time of year . Delighted to see no eamon wallace ,Graham Reilly donal lehinan included . I expect ye to win but nowhere near as much as last year

I cant put my finger on whay happened that day ye killed us . But ye are going in the right direction and ye played excellent suff in the last 20 minutes against rosscomon last week bar a stupid challenge ye would have won inthe hyde

Regard mcentee a good manager hopefully this is the year ye go up to division on its important ye do because I reckon 2 tough Ulster teams out of Donegal , Monahan or Tyrone will be relegated from division 1 making next years promotion much harder

mattser

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

Heading up navan tomorrow how strong or weak is that team for this time of year . Delighted to see no eamon wallace ,Graham Reilly donal lehinan included . I expect ye to win but nowhere near as much as last year

I cant put my finger on whay happened that day ye killed us . But ye are going in the right direction and ye played excellent suff in the last 20 minutes against rosscomon last week bar a stupid challenge ye would have won inthe hyde

Regard mcentee a good manager hopefully this is the year ye go up to division on its important ye do because I reckon 2 tough Ulster teams out of Donegal , Monahan or Tyrone will be relegated from division 1 making next years promotion much harder

Fair play windy. Enjoy the game.

windy shepard henderson

mattser wrote: »

Fair play windy. Enjoy the game.

Lets just say I didn't enjoy it......

Two teams going in two very different directions by the looks off things today hopefully ye can kick on and finally gain promotion that brand of football deserves to be division 1 (second half anyway )

iDave

Very difficult first half to stand through but upped it well when it counted.
Next 3 matches Cavan (A) Tipp (A) and Cork (H). Hard to see any bankers in there but in our own hands for now anyway.

Rock Lesnar

Solid performance, 2nd half anyway, i just really wish we could play 1st halves the way we play 2nd halves

NufcNavan

Putting in a complete 70 min performance has been a major problem for Meath for years now.

RockyRory

Good solid win for the Royals. Graham Reilly and Cillian O'Sullivan were very good yesterday. Should beat Cavan handy at the weekend.

iDave

RockyRory wrote: »

Good solid win for the Royals. Graham Reilly and Cillian O'Sullivan were very good yesterday. Should beat Cavan handy at the weekend.

Settle down it'll be far from handy.

Felexicon

RockyRory wrote: »

Good solid win for the Royals. Graham Reilly and Cillian O'Sullivan were very good yesterday. Should beat Cavan handy at the weekend.

iDave wrote: »

Settle down it'll be far from handy.

Don't listen to him Rory. When we dispatch Cavan after 35 minutes we'll roll down to Croker and turn the Dubs over. An Mhi Abu!!!!!!!!!!!

rpurfield

Felexicon wrote: »

Don't listen to him Rory. When we dispatch Cavan after 35 minutes we'll roll down to Croker and turn the Dubs over. An Mhi Abu!!!!!!!!!!!

Might as well just hand over Sam now and save us all the monotony of the inevitable roll to glory.

RockyRory

iDave wrote: »

Settle down it'll be far from handy.

Let’s be honest what have Cavan done over the last 10 years? nothing. We might have been in the doldrums also but we are in a far healthier state football wise.

iDave

RockyRory wrote: »

iDave wrote: »

Settle down it'll be far from handy.

Let’s be honest what have Cavan done over the last 10 years?

Played Division 1.

Felexicon

RockyRory wrote: »

Let’s be honest what have Cavan done over the last 10 years? nothing. We might have been in the doldrums also but we are in a far healthier state football wise.

This is the blind positivity that has been missing from Meath football for too long.

Hammer Archer

Match postponed until tomorrow at 2.

Hammer Archer

Tell ya, we're in big trouble if the game doesn't go ahead tomorrow. Unless we just forfeit the O'Byrne Cup next weekend.

Rock Lesnar

No game today, and not surprised, i was up there yesterday evening and the rain was crazy, not a chance the pitch would recover in time.