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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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HighKing33

Well on top in the first half but we switched off at half time, 3 substitutions at the interval and we let DCU run amok for much of the second half. Poor link up play gifted the college too many easy scores, (apart from Davy Byrne's sublime point) and we should be gratefull we managed to work our way back into the game.

Some positives - Ciaran McConnell looked very comfortable on the ball, solid in defence too. Joey Wallace is a busy little player, makes stuff happen and Seamus Mattimoe could be a real assett coming off the bench. Paddy O'Rourke's kickouts were excellent for the most part.

RoyalCelt

I'm happy with didn't shoot the lights out. Let the players know they need to improve for next week. Early days but still nothing like Meath v Dublin and it's great to play them out of navan.

RoyalCelt

ebbsy wrote: »

Does'nt seem to do much for the smaller counties. They want to take the final out of Croke park ? I went to see Wicklow play twice in the final (and lose twice), but how many of these players would get a chance to play there otherwise ?

They have no interest in promoting the competition. Counties like Meath, Wicklow, Kildare etc punch above their weight in a sport that is given lip service in the respective counties.

At least ye have a handy one in the first round in Leinster.....we are in a bad way.

I don't buy this whole let the players get into croker. big fcuking deal. it's 90% empty. Better playing it in parnell park and having it packed out or fuller.

CrabRevolution

RoyalCelt wrote: »

I don't buy this whole let the players get into croker. big fcuking deal. it's 90% empty. Better playing it in parnell park and having it packed out or fuller.

The players have said they enjoy Croke Park though, they dont care about no one being there. The likes of Meath/Down/Kerry/Kildare hurlers have played dozens and dozens of games in small stadia like Parnell Park/Tullamore/Navan. But they might only get one single chance in their lives to play in Croke Park.

I always find it funny the way this is discussed, the players themselves say "I dont care if Croke Park is empty, I'd rather play there than at a half full stadium". But uninformed people still go "The players will want to play in a smaller, more full stadium" for some reason.

http://hoganstand.com/Down/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=229817

Same with pitch invasions. It was interesting seeing how many random people on the internet were/are saying "If I was an inter county player I'd definitely 100% want pitch invasions, therefore we should allow them". Contrary to the many statements from actual players saying they liked having the pitch to themselves after the final to savour the moment, celebrate with each other, gather their thoughts etc.

Hammer Archer

Another hockeying for the U21s though slightly less embarrassing than the last two weeks (not that that was difficult).

Stephen Bray gets his first start of the year tomorrow. Not really expecting much.

The hurlers play St. Pats Mater Dei in the Kehoe Cup beforehand at 1215.

Hammer Archer

Decent finish to pull a 9 point deficit to all square at the end of normal time. Some very strange refereeing decisions throughout. Seems like the black card rule went out the window today. Rooney, Keogan, Menton and O'Rourke played best for us.

Hurlers won by 7 points in the Kehoe Cup.

westernfrenzy

Just home from it. Thought Flanagan, O'Rourke, Keogan and Tormey were the best players. Biggy and Stephen Bray were terrible.
I thought they were gonna get hockeyed again when they were 9 points down but they done well to come back into it.

homeofhurling

lets not forget this would be Dublins second or some 3rd string Dublin team
they are miles ahead of the pack in leinster and can only see another handy leinster for them this summer when they have their fullhand to play with.

klairondavis

It was hardly a first choice Meath 15 either.

homeofhurling

no thats true, but when you think who Dublin are missing and after last years defeat to Donegal you would have to fancy a big backlash from Dublin this summer. i work with a meathman and he doen't want Meath to get to another leinster final and to be hammer yet again and be the first county to lose 4 leinster in a row whats your opinion on it.

HighKing33

Why oh why do we make life so feckin' hard for ourselves? Schoolboy stuff from Meath at times, we gifted Dublin enough ball to lose by a cricket score yet we almost managed to win the thing in injury time.

Rooney is a monstrous fielder of the ball but along with Wallace and a few more, practically handed the ball over to Dublin numerous times. Dublin looked very much like a Division 1 team, sharp, organised and full of confidence. Yet we nearly beat them! If Micko can get these lads into Division 1 we might have a team in a couple of years.

Lots of encouraging performances, Paddy O'Rourke in particular. Always felt Tobin would make a good corner back so nice to see him shining here.

rpurfield

We really need Division 1 football to harden the lads up. There was one stage in the second half Dublin willingly pulled runners down and took the frees, two of which we missed, to keep the damage to a minimum, that's the bit of a hard edge we missed. Great bit of heart to peg it back level from nine down, but we kicked some awful wides in the first half. I suppose the Dubs missed two one on ones with Paddy too so it evens itself out.

I'm a bit worried about full back too, it was a hard day at the office for McGill today and he doesn't seem to have the presence for an inter county full back. There's no sign of Kevin Reilly getting back so we need to get it sorted.

HighKing33

Would give McGill game time against the likes of Kildare and Galway, yesterday was a step up and Dublin play the game at a much faster pace than Westmeath. Like you said, these lads need to be in Division 1 or they won't develop. Joey Wallace has potential, but he's running into lads twice his size and handing them turnovers. As for his long range point 'efforts'...

If we had cut out the silly stuff, the sloppy ball handling then we would be a real threat. A big problem is that so many of our players are 'runners' - Menton, Keoghan, Rooney, Flanagan, Biggy, Wallace, Tormey will all run the ball once they're in posession. Queeney got one decent ball on the edge of the square and almost made a goal for himself. Newman get's one good ball from Tormey and it's in the net. That's the way football used to be played in Meath. Having Carroll and Harnan operating at midfield would make a difference but we don't seem confident kicking the ball in. I really hope Mick O'Dowd works on the passing game going into the league because it's the only way to open a tight defence in Croke Park.

Hammer Archer

The thing I noticed yesterday was when we had to have a second go at gaining possession in the forwards, we were immediately swallowed up by Dublin defenders. In contrast, if Dublin failed to gather the ball first time in their forwards, they were given ample time to regather it.
Also, the age old problem in our defence is still there. Players seem to just follow the ball while defending leaving 2 or 3 players free. That's how they got their two first half goal chances and it was only Paddy's brilliance that prevented the game being over at half time.

I'd still go with McGill at full back. Honestly, unless we bring Menton back there I don't see many more options. Conor is great at reading the game though I'll admit he doesn't have the strength that Reilly or Menton would have. O'Gara is tough to play against and I've seen much more experienced full backs than McGill struggle on him.
Think it's a bit harsh on Wallace to single him out for long range attempts. Both Brays and Graham Reilly were just as culpable as him yesterday. In fact, Biggy will almost always drop one into the keeper's hands every game.

This season simply has to be the season for promotion to division 1. Without a doubt, next season's division 2 will be a hell of a lot stronger than this season's. I think it'll have to be classed as a failure if we don't finish in the top 2.

HighKing33

Joey Wallace is hardly a long range specialist and when you consider his size I was just baffled that he took this kind of shot on. Don't want to pick on anyone though because he's positive everytime he gets on the ball but it's the naivety that's killing us.

While promotion to Division 1 is definitely achievable this year we need to build a team that can actually stay there. Look at Westmeath, cruised Division 2 only to be unceremoniously sent back there last year. Some of the schoolboy errors yesterday were shocking, gifting Dublin turnovers. We looked a Divsion 4 team at times.

But, we almost won the thing and all four home games in the league are winnable!

dixiefly

I would be generally positive after yesterday's game.Best for me were Paddy, Keoghan, Rooney and Tormey. Keoghan was outstanding and did a huge amount of work. The only issue I had was that, at times in the first half, Dublin got through the middle too easily. I wonder would he be better placed at wing back with Menton in the centre.

Midfield was also a positive and either Rooney or Flanagan would be good options to play alongside Gillespie.

While Wallace is very positive and fast I just think that he is too light. Same goes for Ruari O'Dowd. I believe that you need a certain minimum physique to be able to play inter county at this level and neither are at that level yet. Wallace got plenty of ball and did some good tackling but the end product is not there as he ran into road blocks most of the time. David Bray did not have a great game when he came on yesterday but he played well in revious games and I would start him against Galway.

All in all I think we can look at the League with a reasonable level of positivity.

rpurfield

Hammer Archer wrote: »

The thing I noticed yesterday was when we had to have a second go at gaining possession in the forwards, we were immediately swallowed up by Dublin defenders. In contrast, if Dublin failed to gather the ball first time in their forwards, they were given ample time to regather it.
Also, the age old problem in our defence is still there. Players seem to just follow the ball while defending leaving 2 or 3 players free. That's how they got their two first half goal chances and it was only Paddy's brilliance that prevented the game being over at half time.

I'd still go with McGill at full back. Honestly, unless we bring Menton back there I don't see many more options. Conor is great at reading the game though I'll admit he doesn't have the strength that Reilly or Menton would have. O'Gara is tough to play against and I've seen much more experienced full backs than McGill struggle on him.
Think it's a bit harsh on Wallace to single him out for long range attempts. Both Brays and Graham Reilly were just as culpable as him yesterday. In fact, Biggy will almost always drop one into the keeper's hands every game.

This season simply has to be the season for promotion to division 1. Without a doubt, next season's division 2 will be a hell of a lot stronger than this season's. I think it'll have to be classed as a failure if we don't finish in the top 2.

Agree with you about Menton, he's probably the only other option in the panel at the moment and he's very effective running from half back, so you would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. McGill might just improve to be fair to him, it certainly was a serious test for him on Sunday playing on O'Gara, there's far more experienced full backs that have struggled with him.

I'd also agree about Joey Wallace, I think he's still a bit light for inter county football, particularly against well developed players like Dublin would have. He does have the talent though, if he could bulk up a but and keep the speed he would be lethal, I'd say he's quicker than Eamonn is.

HighKing33

Brian Menton is probably the best full back on the panel but he's been averaging two points from play at wing back so you're dead right, it seems crazy to move him. Plus with so many teams positioning midfielders on the wing, (Dublin and Kildare being obvious examples) you need presence in the air.

I'd love to see Harnan at 6. He has the distribution and the vision that we're lacking there and we could return Keoghan to the full backs. I just think that if we had a centre back who could kick ball it would give us an extra dimension.

iDave

I don't feel quite as positive as others after that. A very weakened Dublin team made light enough work of us until we had close to a championship forward line on the field + Tormey.
Good to see a bit of fight when the chips were down but nonetheless a few warning signs have been raised.

Great atmosphere in the end in the main stand nonetheless, Meath GAA fans to be amongst the best in the country. Lets hope we're rewarded soon and have 2 points in the bag driving back down the M6 on Feb 1.

Meath Centre Forward

One week to go to the start of the League for Meath and I think we should win our opener with Galway. That's an objective prediction - not a biased one ! Seriously though, we are away from home against another side with eyes on promotion but Galway will be missing the Corofin contingent and Paul Conroy last year's captain. Of course Meath have their fair share of injuries too including our captain from last year.

My Meath team would be:
Paddy O'Rourke
Donnacha Tobin - Conor McGill - Mickey Burke
Ciaran McConnell - Donal Keoghan - Bryan Menton
Harry Rooney - Adam Flanagan
Andrew Tormey - Damian Carroll - Graham Reilly
Bryan McMahon - Stephen Bray - Mickey Newman

Decent enough subs bench too: David Bray, Mark O'Sullivan, Davy Dalton, Neil Shortall, Jamie Queeney, Joey Wallace, Padraic Haran, Shane Melia.

Any other opinions? I think we have to open with a win to get momentum going. If we come without a win, it doesn't mean promotion is out of the question but it'd probably start to look unlikely.

Hammer Archer

I think I'd go with Harnan at half back instead of McConnell. Maybe Dalton for Burke too. Is Gillespie back in contention yet? Also what's the deal with Shane O'Rourke?

Apart from that, that's the team I'd go with.

Meath Centre Forward

Micko said after the Dublin game that Eamonn Wallace would be back at the end of February and Conor Gillespie at the end of March.

Kevin Reilly and Shane O'Rourke have no return date set but I'd hoping they'll be ready for the championship.

Hammer Archer

Meath Centre Forward wrote: »

Micko said after the Dublin game that Eamonn Wallace would be back at the end of February and Conor Gillespie at the end of March.

Kevin Reilly and Shane O'Rourke have no return date set but I'd hoping they'll be ready for the championship.

What actually happened to Shane? I must have missed his injury.

Hammer Archer

Hurlers beat Louth 7-18 to 2-8 in the Kehoe Cup.

HighKing33

Is he actually injured or are they just keeping him wrapped in cotton wool? Taking his history into account, I suppose there's no need for him to be involved in pre-season tournaments but he played a big part in the league last year and you would ideally want him there over the coming months.

iDave

Article on Meaths exploits in Australia in the 60s

http://balls.ie/gaa/wondrous-tale-first-ever-international-rules-game/

Hammer Archer

I'm always amazed at how Kilbride managed to produce what was probably the best club team in the country at that time (and probably one of the best ever). I don't think any single Kilbride player since has come anywhere close to the likes of the Quinns.

chrysagon

Walterstown did the same in the 80s... 2 all Ireland club final appearances, when Meath were going bad

paul71

The number of players from that Walterstown team who converted to intercounty was poor enough, Frank O'Sullivan (right name?) was the only one that I recall.

chrysagon

Eamon Barry, neil o sullivan, but yer right, a poor turnout for Meath from walterstown at the time