Meath GAA discussion thread

Great win for the U20 hurlers yesterday as well, beating Antrim by 2-21 to 1-17. They'll be at home to Carlow on Saturday in Kilmessan for a chance to reach the Tier 1 group stages with Dublin, Laois and Offaly.

Minor footballers' first championship game is tomorrow against Louth in Skryne at 7:30. Other teams in our group are Laois and Kildare, so a very tough group by the looks of it. Group winner goes straight into the semi finals, runner-up goes into the quarter finals while third place plays in the preliminary quarter final against the winners of the group containing Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow and Kilkenny.

U20 footballers' face off against Carlow in Dr. Cullen Park on Wednesday. The other teams in the group are Laois and Longford with the group winners going straight into the semi finals and runners-up going on to the quarter finals.

Comfortable win for the U20s against Carlow, who were very poor. Some great goals scored, second one in particular. Long kickout brilliantly fielded in midfield. Long ball directly into Cian Commons who fielded on the run on the 14m line and finished past the keeper.

Laois at home next where a win would almost certainly guarantee progression into the knockouts. If we win that, it'll be a shootout away to Longford to determine who goes straight into the semi finals. Longford won the 2024 Leinster minor championship and comfortably beat Laois last night.

Just you, I think. Brennan has made most of his free kick attempts this season. Today was a blip in a game with an unpredictable, swirling wind.

Great to get the win simply for a bit of silverware. Need to put that behind us and focus on Leinster. Again, mixed the good with the bad today. Midfield drifted in and out. Absolutely dominant for a time, then cleaned out of it. Some brilliant attacking play and then some painfully ponderous stuff. Banty was excellent when he came on and Cork couldn't handle him. Though some of our balls into our full forwards were baffling. High balls way over their heads instead of low balls in front of them. Defence, as has always been the case, was worrying. Both goals were the result of a defender losing his man meaning other players had to try to cover.

Great to finish the job and get some silverware after securing promotion. Have to say, while the atmosphere has been dead in the home games in Croke Park, it was an excellent idea to have them there. 4 games and 4 wins and we're used to winning there come the summer (though the atmosphere will be a bit livlier if we do get games there).

Ladies survived in division 1 by the skin of their teeth with a draw against Armagh!

By coincidence, now both the men's and ladies' footballers will be the only Leinster teams in Division 1 in 2027.

U20 hurlers also had an excellent 14 point win against Carlow in the Leinster championship which means we move onto phase 2 of the Leinster championship. We're in the group stage with Dublin, Offaly and Laois.

I know the wind in Croke Park can be a bit swirling, but Sunday seemed especially unpredictable. At one point I noticed the flags on the Hill and the sideline flags blowing in complete opposite directions. Presumably that had a big impact not only on Brennan's frees, but also on the kickouts which both sides messed up on a number of times.

Was surprised that we took the two-pointed free attempt after Conlon scored a one-pointer in the second half. Don't think I've ever seen a team take a free when advantage was played and a point was scored. I know it didn't matter in the end, but could have been a very costly decision.