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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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enricoh

There's hope for the future though. With a bit of luck yesterday we could have won. ( Also if we pushed up on Tyrone kickouts ) I don't honestly think we have had a bit of luck since Joe scored his try!

Royal Legend

A lot better than last years 1 point loss to Donegal, but still a 1 point loss

We have to take in that Tyrone were missing a few key players, especially Peter Harte and the keeper, instead of their backward passing frees from 45/55 mtrs out, the keeper probably would have hit a couple of them over. plus our keeper made a couple a great saves, notably the one he pushed onto the crossbar. They also had another one or two that just flashed wide.
Biggie was lucky to stay on in extra time, his foul looked to me like a black card.

O'Sullivan had a good game, always a threat, which I would expect, Biggie was not in the game, Eamonn Wallace offered very little when he came on and Joey was headless, made one good run and got a point and then stopped. Backs were not sticky enough, whenever Tyrone ran at us it caused problems, in the second half it was coming from their centre back. We dod not make use of the time we had with an extra man either.

One thing, Tyrone are a good team, but why why why, everytime they are fouled do they have to spend 2/3 minutes lying down, and then the free taker takes another two minutes to kick the free, the only time he sped it up was when they were a point down. I get that they are slowing the clock, but with so much pace in their team, why not keep the tempo up?

Secondly, Tyrone supporters seem to love this killing of the game, plus they showed no class whatsover throughout the game (there is banter and then there is nastiness) or afterwards, one comment behind me was "take your beating", the thing is we will have forgotten this in a couple of weeks, that lot with the chip on their shoulder still moan about 86.

Better team won, can't see them getting anywhere near an AI with that style of play, Mickey Harte's day looks like it is gone.

Less said about the referee the better, Tyrone the better team, in the sense that they could defend and some of ours cannot, they also have better forwards but don't utilize them at all.

Probably saves us from a hammering off of a good team later in the Championship.

Sad to say we are way off the pace with the big boys, need to get playing Division one Football, has to be the priority.

Obrieski

Ah, utter devastation leaving Pairc Tailteann last night.

Not gonna mention any negatives but instead just say how immensely proud I was of the effort shown by the lads yesterday evening.
2 years in a row losing by a point to go out but there was serious fight shown coming back from diversity multiple times and with a bit more luck could be in the draw tomorrow. After their goal in extra time, we went 5 points down and had chances to get an equaliser on a couple of occasions.

However, I think Tyrone's experience and little bit of know-how really helped them across the line and we could learn a thing or two. To complain about them wasting time etc. is a bit rich in that if we were ahead we would have expected the lads to do the same thing. In fact, when we were a point up, and a man up, we should have closed the game out better than we did.

We live and learn though, and hopefully the majority of that team stay together, begin to show more of that fight, a couple of new players unearth themselves over the summer and the panel comes back with more enthusiasm and passion next year.

Cavan_King

People talking about luck on here a lot. In fairness I don't think luck can be mentioned given the number of wides Tyrone had and the number of times they hit the post/crossbar.

I'm not here to start a row though! Fair play to Meath. They really put it up to Tyrone, which I and many other neutrals didn't expect. I fully admit to texting friends from Meath yesterday and using the word ''annihilation'' when giving my match preview.

O'Sullivan Meath's man of the match for me and if they had more like him and Brennan they would have won the game.

It amazes me though that Meath can put up a performance like that when they were so poor in the league and were then able to lose to Longford.

It's a long time now until January for those lads.

rpurfield

Agree with a lot of what was said already, but fitness wise we are still well off. Tyrone had a burst in the first half of extra time where they looked far fitter than our lads, and it's something we need to build up as we looked out on our feet. The management and county board need to move heaven and earth to get the lads who walked away back as well to give us depth. On a final point you have to question the consistency of the squad too, if they showed the type of intensity and heart we seen yesterday down in Longford, then we'd all be sat above in Croker today.

dobman88

rpurfield wrote: »

then we'd all be sat above in Croker today.

And watching Meath getting hammered by 20 points or more. At least yesterday gave ye something to cheer for a while and had a bit of excitement.

rpurfield

dobman88 wrote: »

And watching Meath getting hammered by 20 points or more. At least yesterday gave ye something to cheer for a while and had a bit of excitement.

Lovely and condescending of you. Thanks very much.

dobman88

rpurfield wrote: »

Lovely and condescending of you. Thanks very much.

Not condescending. Realistic. You're welcome.

Hammer Archer

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Ah lads, while i taught the ref was poor to, we cant blame anyone but ourselves, we couldnt see the game out with 1min to go, as for the ref, he also didnt play advantage for tyrone on a couple of occassions when they were in for goals, and they also kicked so many wides, they could have won by about 5 or 6 points inside 70mins, great effort by the players but i really cant have any complaints, just fell short

Indeed. The last play was a definite free but even with a replay, I couldn't tell whether O'Sullivan's was a penalty or not.
Our defence was a shambles at times. As usual Tyrone just walked right through us at times with our lads following the ball.

Awful day for Meath GAA. Hurlers down to the Christy Ring without a whimper too. At least the club championships will be done early

dobman88

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Indeed. The last play was a definite free but even with a replay, I couldn't tell whether O'Sullivan's was a penalty or not.
Our defence was a shambles at times. As usual Tyrone just walked right through us at times with our lads following the ball.

Awful day for Meath GAA. Hurlers down to the Christy Ring without a whimper too. At least the club championships will be done early

Just saw the highlights again on the Sunday game, looked a penalty as it seemed right on the line (which is a penalty I think) but would be nearly impossible to call in real time.

Rock Lesnar

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Indeed. The last play was a definite free but even with a replay, I couldn't tell whether O'Sullivan's was a penalty or not.
Our defence was a shambles at times. As usual Tyrone just walked right through us at times with our lads following the ball.

Awful day for Meath GAA. Hurlers down to the Christy Ring without a whimper too. At least the club championships will be done early

Watched it last night when i got home and the sky lads was showing when tyrone attacked, we had 4 or 5 players around the half back line doing nothing, the tyrone guys seemed to find space between them and either drew frees or kicked points, really showed what most of us knew already, we dont really seem to be suited to that defensive set up.

I wouldnt be to sure about the club scene, i have full confidence in the board to somehow get the final arranged for the october bank hol weekend

Stoner

It's hard to win a penno, but that was a free at the end all day. Terrible decision, regardless of Tyrones wides.

Would have been a great win.

Hammer Archer

One player who I think deserves massive praise after Saturday's game is Ben Brennan. I've genuinely been confused as to what he brings to the team up until now but he was absolutely phenomenal on Saturday. Harsh on him that he hit the post with that late free. It was the only blemish but the free in normal time to go one up showed balls of steel.

So do we think Andy deserves another year? Personally I can't see what changing the manager again would do to benefit the team. Only issue is that he may have burned bridges with a lot of Simonstown players.

Rock Lesnar

Hammer Archer wrote: »

So do we think Andy deserves another year? Personally I can't see what changing the manager again would do to benefit the team. Only issue is that he may have burned bridges with a lot of Simonstown players.

Agreed, but i think we need a new gameplan, we are only regressing with this defensive set up, we have so many players back, and we are still getting cut open, conceding scores and getting beat, so lets be less negative, be more attacking, more adventurous, just have a go, ya never know, we might win more games, get more players coming in and less players leaving.

rpurfield

Anyone catch the highlights after the Dubs match yesterday? Was it my imagination or did O'Rourke go in a bit hard on McEntee for going after the ref? Not saying Andy was right to do it, but I thought O'Rourke milked it a bit.

Felexicon

rpurfield wrote: »

Anyone catch the highlights after the Dubs match yesterday? Was it my imagination or did O'Rourke go in a bit hard on McEntee for going after the ref? Not saying Andy was right to do it, but I thought O'Rourke milked it a bit.

Can't really be "milked" to be fair. It was an absolute disgrace the way he acted.

The Golden Miller

Royal Legend wrote: »

A lot better than last years 1 point loss to Donegal, but still a 1 point loss

We have to take in that Tyrone were missing a few key players, especially Peter Harte and the keeper, instead of their backward passing frees from 45/55 mtrs out, the keeper probably would have hit a couple of them over. plus our keeper made a couple a great saves, notably the one he pushed onto the crossbar. They also had another one or two that just flashed wide.
Biggie was lucky to stay on in extra time, his foul looked to me like a black card.

O'Sullivan had a good game, always a threat, which I would expect, Biggie was not in the game, Eamonn Wallace offered very little when he came on and Joey was headless, made one good run and got a point and then stopped. Backs were not sticky enough, whenever Tyrone ran at us it caused problems, in the second half it was coming from their centre back. We dod not make use of the time we had with an extra man either.

One thing, Tyrone are a good team, but why why why, everytime they are fouled do they have to spend 2/3 minutes lying down, and then the free taker takes another two minutes to kick the free, the only time he sped it up was when they were a point down. I get that they are slowing the clock, but with so much pace in their team, why not keep the tempo up?

Secondly, Tyrone supporters seem to love this killing of the game, plus they showed no class whatsover throughout the game (there is banter and then there is nastiness) or afterwards, one comment behind me was "take your beating", the thing is we will have forgotten this in a couple of weeks, that lot with the chip on their shoulder still moan about 86.

Better team won, can't see them getting anywhere near an AI with that style of play, Mickey Harte's day looks like it is gone.

Less said about the referee the better, Tyrone the better team, in the sense that they could defend and some of ours cannot, they also have better forwards but don't utilize them at all.

Probably saves us from a hammering off of a good team later in the Championship.

Sad to say we are way off the pace with the big boys, need to get playing Division one Football, has to be the priority.

I'm not saying this wasn't the case the other day, but from my experience there is a nastier edge to our own fans when we play Tyrone. I'll never forget the bile from Meath fans around me when we played them in 07, "fcuk off back to the queen", "Orange cnuts" etc, well within the earshot of Tyrone fans and children, which was followed by pretty nasty antagonistic jeering once we beat them. I'd like to say it was just a few bad fans on one particular day, but I've noticed sporadic incidents of this happening the following two times we played them also, and heard it in the pub the other day too

CrabRevolution

I've made the point once or twice here before so won't bore ye with the whole spiel again, but McEntee has been built up too much to not get as long a term as he wants.

Even before MODs term ended there was a bizarre confidence from Meath fans and media about McEntee. It was palpable that many commentators in the county seemed to think McEntee was about to brutally punish the Meath players into suddenly being very good. I found it baffling how there was talk of Division 1 and giving the Dubs a game, based on nothing other than getting a new manager.

Now that McEntees reign has actually gone worse than most would have imagined when he was appointed, the talk is a lot less bullish. At the same time many don't want to look foolish or that they had misplaced their hope, so I can't see any pressure on McEntee to go.

Obrieski

Does anybody actually know if he had a falling out with the Simonstown players, and if they would return next year? Wasn't there still 2 on the panel, it would seem to me if there was a falling out they all would have left?
I know that Tobin and McKeever have gone to the US for the summer, Padraig Harnan is over there too I believe, and there is a new rule in place this year that if you are named on a championship panel, then you cannot go to the US to play football that summer. This has lead to Brendan Murphy from Carlow not committing to championship football as he wanted to played in the USA this summer. I am wondering if McKeever and Tobin are in the same boat, wanted to played in the USA, and so didn't want to play for Meath in championship. An unfortunate, but entirely understandable decision in reality. I'd love to see them back involved next year, in particular McKeever who is a fantastic player.
Also, I would like to see McEntee stay on. A change in manager now would only lead us back to square 1...I can't see a whole lot of potential out there at the moment to be honest. We need to work on developing players and working on a style of play rather than continually sacking off managers

White lighting

Obrieski wrote: »

Does anybody actually know if he had a falling out with the Simonstown players, and if they would return next year? Wasn't there still 2 on the panel, it would seem to me if there was a falling out they all would have left?
I know that Tobin and McKeever have gone to the US for the summer, Padraig Harnan is over there too I believe, and there is a new rule in place this year that if you are named on a championship panel, then you cannot go to the US to play football that summer. This has lead to Brendan Murphy from Carlow not committing to championship football as he wanted to played in the USA this summer. I am wondering if McKeever and Tobin are in the same boat, wanted to played in the USA, and so didn't want to play for Meath in championship. An unfortunate, but entirely understandable decision in reality. I'd love to see them back involved next year, in particular McKeever who is a fantastic player.
Also, I would like to see McEntee stay on. A change in manager now would only lead us back to square 1...I can't see a whole lot of potential out there at the moment to be honest. We need to work on developing players and working on a style of play rather than continually sacking off managers

Not trying to be funny but are Meath not already at square 1. The manager openly stated it was his aim for league promotion this year and were back training before most teams to try achieve that. They failed massively just avoiding relagation on the last day in a poor D2. They lost both championship games. I could be said the team is getting worse the longer the manager is over them as they preformed better last year when he had a less of a stamp on the team. I cant see how or why Meath fans would not be looking for a new manager. Seems the aattitude that oh were no good a new manager wont improve us so lets let Andy bring us down the divisions

White lighting

Obrieski wrote: »

Does anybody actually know if he had a falling out with the Simonstown players, and if they would return next year? Wasn't there still 2 on the panel, it would seem to me if there was a falling out they all would have left?
I know that Tobin and McKeever have gone to the US for the summer, Padraig Harnan is over there too I believe, and there is a new rule in place this year that if you are named on a championship panel, then you cannot go to the US to play football that summer. This has lead to Brendan Murphy from Carlow not committing to championship football as he wanted to played in the USA this summer. I am wondering if McKeever and Tobin are in the same boat, wanted to played in the USA, and so didn't want to play for Meath in championship. An unfortunate, but entirely understandable decision in reality. I'd love to see them back involved next year, in particular McKeever who is a fantastic player.
Also, I would like to see McEntee stay on. A change in manager now would only lead us back to square 1...I can't see a whole lot of potential out there at the moment to be honest. We need to work on developing players and working on a style of play rather than continually sacking off managers

Sonny678

Obrieski wrote:

Does anybody actually know if he had a falling out with the Simonstown players, and if they would return next year? Wasn't there still 2 on the panel, it would seem to me if there was a falling out they all would have left? I know that Tobin and McKeever have gone to the US for the summer, Padraig Harnan is over there too I believe, and there is a new rule in place this year that if you are named on a championship panel, then you cannot go to the US to play football that summer. This has lead to Brendan Murphy from Carlow not committing to championship football as he wanted to played in the USA this summer. I am wondering if McKeever and Tobin are in the same boat, wanted to played in the USA, and so didn't want to play for Meath in championship. An unfortunate, but entirely understandable decision in reality. I'd love to see them back involved next year, in particular McKeever who is a fantastic player. Also, I would like to see McEntee stay on. A change in manager now would only lead us back to square 1...I can't see a whole lot of potential out there at the moment to be honest. We need to work on developing players and working on a style of play rather than continually sacking off managers

There was no falling out. The players wanted to travel. Similar to so many players up and down the country. I think Harnan and Jones r gone for another year so both wouldnt be back til 2020. Harnan for work reasons. Jones USA college course is 2 years.
Rooney left to get fitness sorted out after a year travelling. So he should be back next year also.
So we could see Forde ( back from cruciate), Mckeever, Conlon ( both Simontown players both cousins), Toibin, Rooney, O Coilean could be back next year.
Newman has had injury problems over the years. He might come back also.
Not all might not commit but I can see the return of a few players next year who can only improve things especially in the forwards.

For example, Forde for me is the best modern wing forward we have he can attack and defend. Forde after his cruciate injury wrote up on social media and his injury. And it was pretty obvious from that message he is committed to coming back. An half forward line of Forde Brennan Sullivan has potential .
O Coilean should also be back and he would be another attacking option on the 40.

Mckeever for me is the best finisher in Meath football. Lenihan and Mckeever duo inside could be massive plus. They have only played once together in the full forward line and that was v Down this year where we scored 4-14 . And of that 2-9 or so came from Mckeever and lenihan. Both are 26 27 , both two best inside forwards in Meath. If McKeever can commit next year that will be another plus. Also S Toibin also is a very important impact sub for us. Hopefully we see his return.

Daire Rowe. For me Rowe is the best young forward in the county after Cillian Sullivan. He couldnt commit this year because of college. But he is only 21 so you would expect him to come in to fold soon enough also. Forde Mckeever Coilean Toibin Rowe additions to our forward line next could only be a plus. They might not all commit but if Forde Mckeever and Rowe were all to commit that would be three big additions.
And of course you have potential players from under 20 team which are genuine contenders for under 20 leinster title something we havent been at this grade under 20/21, since 2011. I think a few will step up from that team eg Sean Reilly . And the minors while young at under 17, players like McBride will hopefully be coming forward in next 2 to 3 years.

Hammer Archer

I heard that the Simonstown players weren't happy with the level of work that was being asked of them by McEntee during April (which was meant to be a month dedicated to club football) and McEntee told them to leave if they weren't happy. The decision for Tobin and McKeever to travel to the US came after the falling out.

I'd have to question why heavy fitness training was being done in April.

Sonny678

White lighting wrote:

Not trying to be funny but are Meath not already at square 1. The manager openly stated it was his aim for league promotion this year and were back training before most teams to try achieve that. They failed massively just avoiding relagation on the last day in a poor D2. They lost both championship games. I could be said the team is getting worse the longer the manager is over them as they preformed better last year when he had a less of a stamp on the team. I cant see how or why Meath fans would not be looking for a new manager. Seems the aattitude that oh were no good a new manager wont improve us so lets let Andy bring us down the divisions

I think anyone who thinks McEntee is going to turn around things in 2 years is not being realistic. To turn around a traditional county in the doldrums is slow process which takes years and many ups and downs. It took Boylan Dwyer and McGee 4 to 5 years to turn around Meath kildare and Offaly. It took for Nic English and Jimmy Barry Murphy some bad years and some dreadful results before they turned Tipp and Cork in late 90s.Gilroy had two nightmare seasons with Dubs with record hammering v kerry in 09 and v Meath in 10 and it took until third year for progess. And Kevin Walsh only showed some progress in year 3 with promotion and really turned Galway in his 4th year in charge. I can give another 10 examples of managers having a bad first and second season and progress in year 3 and year 4.

So it takes time. Jimmy McGuiness wrote in Irish Times today he was very impressed with Meath on Saturday. He talked about how Meath cannot keep chopping and changing managers every year. He said they were raw on Sat and that their inexperience let them down. Tyrone r more experienced. McGuiness say Meath r on the right path and with more experience can only get better. I think that is a fair analysis.

What he means is div 1 experience. Meath need promotion to div 1. Again this year people might be surprised to hear we were 1 win away from promotion as if we defeated Cavan we would have been promoted to div 1.

That is the 4th year in 5 seasons we have been 1 win away from promotion to div 1. So we r not faraway. If we could get promotion it div 1 it would be the making of this young team. And if we could stay in div 1 for a few seasons well everyone knows that would bring this team on no end and reaching Super 8 and competiting at that level would then be a genuinely possible.

If we could just get promoted I really do think we will adapt well to div 1. Better then teams like kildare or Cavan. Why? What happened Saturday. I know kildare and Cavan beat us in both years but I think teams like Galway and Meath have no inferior complex when it comes to playing the top teams. Meaths form is incredibly inconsistent and incredibly unpredictable but we used to in the past and still today up our game v the top counties.

In the last year we have lost to Cavan kildare Tipp and longford. Cavan and kildare are not top 8 teams. Neitheir are Tipp and longford. We played 4 top 8 teams in the last year. And had our 4 best performances v top 8 teams. Actually outside Roscommon no team in div 2 3 or 4 has had better performances v top 8 teams then Meath. This is a good sign. I believe if we went up we would adapt to divsion 1 much better then people think. Just look at Saturday. I was not surprised by the performance and because we particularly up over game v Tyrone , I expected us to win.

So in last year Meath performances v top 8 division teams

1 Galway are top 8 team. We defeated them last year and in the last 13 league games only Dublin and Meath have beaten Galway in the league.

2 Tyrone are a top 8 team, would be top 5 team in most rankings. Tyrone are double proviencial titles. Only for a point from Tyrone in the 6th minutes of injury time with the last kick of the game we would have beaten a division 1 team and reigning Ulster champions .

3 Roscommon are a top 8 team and provicial champions. Only for a last second goal from a penalty we would have beaten Roscommon not drew with them in Roscommon

4 Donegal are top 8 team. Donegal will possibly be provicial champions in the coming weeks. Like Tyrone game we went toe to toe with Donegal for 70 mins and Donegal won by point from brilliant point from Paddy McBreaty in injury time.

So yes promotion was not achieved and yes we r out of championship in June. But I never expected us to gain promotion this year or reach Super 8. With such strong performances v top div 1 teams and with the emergence of new players eg Colgan lavin Kennelly Brennan. And the further development of players like Sullivan McGill J McEntee and Flanagan. And the return of Forde and hopefully more returnees eg Mckeever Rooney and new players eg Rowe under 20 players..And As the average age of the panel reachs 24 25 it means many of our players will soon peak. And as Strenght and conditioning will improve and fitness under McEntee . All these above points indicate are grounds to be optimistic. Meath arent as bad as many people think. If they were they wouldnt be able to perform so well v the top 8 teams v Tyrone Galway Donegal and Roscommon .

And with the Meath minors and under 17 beating Dublin 4 times in 4 years in a row in leinster championship and under 20 looking as genuine contenders in leinster after beating kildare last week. Things r on the up. Meath are on the up mark my words.

Sonny678

Hammer Archer wrote:

I heard that the Simonstown players weren't happy with the level of work that was being asked of them by McEntee during April (which was meant to be a month dedicated to club football) and McEntee told them to leave if they weren't happy. The decision for Tobin and McKeever to travel to the US came after the falling out.

Hammer Archer wrote:

I'd have to question why heavy fitness training was being done in April.

Well Gallagher played on Sat and played real. Hes a Simonstown player if there were issues you would think he wouldnt have played. I heard they talked to the management and wanted to travel. Time will tell which story is correct. I would like to see Mckeever back I do think he is the one player that really make a difference from Simontown . I can still see him coming back hes 27. Its eitheir now or never for him.. He has been on the panel twice before once under Dowd and injury hit. And under McEntee this year. We will see in the spring.

rpurfield

Sonny looking at your list of performances there one thing strikes me. We seem to turn up against the better teams but go missing against the so called weaker ones. Fixing that will go a long way to improving the team. I put it down to mentality, take the Dubs as the extreme example, they put the hammer on Longford and Wicklow because they show them the respect of taking the game seriously and putting a good team out. That sort of attitude will do us a world of good.

Also, you're spot on about the minors and U20 teams, but really we need at least one of them to win something this summer. Lads need the experience of success to keep them going and lift them.

Sonny678

rpurfield wrote: »

Sonny looking at your list of performances there one thing strikes me. We seem to turn up against the better teams but go missing against the so called weaker ones. Fixing that will go a long way to improving the team. I put it down to mentality, take the Dubs as the extreme example, they put the hammer on Longford and Wicklow because they show them the respect of taking the game seriously and putting a good team out. That sort of attitude will do us a world of good.

Also, you're spot on about the minors and U20 teams, but really we need at least one of them to win something this summer. Lads need the experience of success to keep them going and lift them.

Rpurfield it is almost bizzare our form. Look at this. Kildare played us last year we lost both games. Kildare played Galway twice last year they lost both games. Yet we defeated Galway. We shouldn't really have beaten Galway if kildare couldnt beat them twice. Its hard to anaylsis such results because they dont make sense in so many ways. But I do think under the idea that we up our game v top teams, it does make sense. Its not always the case, and Dublin are to far ahead for us to compete at the moment. But it is a trait of Meath football that I believe was evident on Saturday.

In terms of Meath football as you said its an atitude. I would go further say its a mentality as evey county has an mentality or a physche. Meaths, if I could sum up Meath football in one line our past sucess or what happened on sat and that is: Meath up their game when they play the top counties, sucessful traditional counties eg In the past that was Dublin kerry Cork Mayo, in the present we are years away from Dublin but we can up our game v Galway Tyrone Donegal.

I think in Meath we rhink we are better then Westmesth Fermanagh Wexford Longford, but we are not. They have knocked us out the championship in the last 15 years. But we see ourselves the same way Galway does, we see ourselves as equals to Dublin kerry Mayo Tyrone etc. We dont have an inferior complex, we r not in awe of these teams. Some counties are beaten before they enter the field v the top teams. We do seem to raise our game v top teams v Galway Tyrone Donegal. In any sport if u can play well.against the top teams the division 1 teams in ur sport that can only be good for any team. And is a very good sign.

But yes the way kerry and Dublin take part teams. Dublin and kerry are better team then us. But also they have always annilated teams in their provience for decades. We dont hammmer div 3 and 4 teams consistently even when we have All Ireland winning teams. We did have big wins v lower opposition, but not as consistent as Dublin or kerry.

Cavan and kildare beat us this year and last. So Tyrone and Galway and Roscomoon and Donegal should beat us by more as they are better teams. Yet we play better against the top teams. I think Cavan and kildare have underage sucess and belief from that . We dont. They dont fear Meath . Meath also if we dont play well we can get badly beaten by a Cavan and a Kildare .We are not good enough to not play well against them. They probaly have more Atleticism which I think we lack but also have a couple of more quality players. However the problem for Cavan and kildsre to overcome is they dont believe they can beat or take the top counties the way a Galway would believe in themselves when they r playing the top teams. Thats one of the reasons Galway adapted better then Cavan or kildare in div 1 .

However we need to get rid of this inconsistency .We need to play like we did v Tyrone, v longford and teams like Tipp kildare Cavan. We need to bring the same intensity.

We r going in the right direction. Losing to Tyrone was a classic example of an inexperienced raw team been beaten by a more experienced team. Tyrone knew how to find the equaliser, they knew how to win extra time. We didnt know how to close out a game. With more experience over a two three year period over 2019 2020 2021, this side of the game will improve and in two years time we will deal better with a game like this. Its a slow learning curve that nearly all teams have to make to get to where they want to be. Saturday was a beginning , a result would have been massive, but the nature of the performance was stamped with old school Meath DNA, never give an inch, skill and bravery and never say die spirit. Its pity that we have to wait another 6 months for more action.

While the results are good at underage, yes we definalty have to turn them into titles. We really should have won 1 of the last 2 minor titles in leinster. We need to see titles soon at under 17 or under 20 if not answers need to be asked. If we can , it would be a massive plus . To see Meath teams competing and now beaten Dublin teams regulary when 5 or 6 years ago at underage Dublin and kildare where wiping the floor with us.To see us competing now is a game changer and leinster underage titles is the next step .

sc86

Sonny678 wrote: »

There was no falling out. The players wanted to travel. Similar to so many players up and down the country. I think Harnan and Jones r gone for another year so both wouldnt be back til 2020. Harnan for work reasons. Jones USA college course is 2 years.
Rooney left to get fitness sorted out after a year travelling. So he should be back next year also.

that information is wrong , plain a simple

Felexicon

sc86 wrote: »

that information is wrong , plain a simple

So what is the correct information?

Is it as simple as the widely talked about falling out over required workload in April.

If that is it I think Andy needs to sit down with the disgruntled players and give assurances that it won't happen next year and they will be left with their club for that period. We don't have the player base to allow such small things have such a big impact.

Hammer Archer

So can someone help me figure out what the point of a team winning their Leinster U20 group was? Meath and Dublin win their respective 4 team groups and their reward is to play each other in the semi final. By the looks of it, we would have been better off losing to Kildare in the group as it would have been an easier path into the Leinster final.

Nonetheless, I think this was the minor team that beat Dublin by 10 and it's in Navan so we really should be winning it. Still, hardly fair on either team.