Meath GAA discussion thread

Meath's footballing traditions barely exist in the senior team. We run the ball incessently. We no longer kick decent ball first time into the forwards and we can't sustain two halves of good football.

I understand that Mick O'Dowd had to go back to basics but we have no game plan beyond running the ball through the centre and looking for easy scores. If Damien Carroll was on song maybe that would be a different story.

Kickouts need to be addressed. Nothing wrong with Paddy's delivery but our set-up is strange and leaves our midfielders outnumbered when they go to field the ball.

The main positive is that our build-up play has improved hugely and also our defence but untill the issues above are dealt with we will remain a very frustrating team to follow.

Any update on Tormey ... I think he did a cruciate back 4 or 5 years ago but it looked to be a hamstring the way he was hobbling although I could be wrong.

I have to agree with the comments here so far ... remarkable that Meath are still in second place in the table and the 3 teams nearest are the 3 remaining games. That has be to be motivation going into the next 3 weeks.

I actually think Meath played quite well in the first half ... in fact probably the best half of football so far in the League in terms of how we defended and how we moved the ball forward.

The second half was the opposite - after a strong start to the half, we completely went out of it. I know people are blaming different things like tactics, fitness, shooting, management, etc, but i think it's a combination of all and the bottom line is with the players we have, second half performances like that can happen.

A couple of things I would say though, Donnacha Tobin gives the ball away an awful lot. Now in fairness to him towards the end, he was trying to drive Meath forward and he wasn't hiding. The same for Graham Reilly. He did take responsibility but he attempted some very ambitious shots and still wants to go it alone even when players are in better positions. Mark O'Sullivan missed two easy chances as well. There was a game a few years ago - possibly in the Banty era - where he done something very stupid towards the end too. Was it the Kildare qualifier in 2011 in Pairc Tailteann. He is a very classy player as can be seen by the level of comfort he has in possession but he needed to take those chances and he didn't. Adam Flanagan hasn't impressed that much in the last few games either. Positive would be Nicky Judge done well for a player having his first start at the level and Brian Power was better than he was last week. Also thought Mickey Burke done alright for the most part. Munnelly got a few possessions but he couldn't get round Burke bar once maybe.

All in all, very disappointing the way the game ended and lucky to get a draw.

Still think we lack creativity at midfield. Both Keogan and Power are happier defending than attacking. McGill played most of the last game as a half-back and yet offered more threat going forward than of any our backs. Judge is not afraid to pick a pass, deserves to hold his place, hopefully Dalton will get game-time soon.

Menton will run the ball, as will Biggy, likewise Wallace. Mark O'Sullivan is the only man in there who seems to enjoy kicking the football.

Feel we're sorely lacking Dalton, an in-form Carroll, Gillespie aswell has good distribution. Think O'Dowd is playing it safe and looking to pick up points which is fair enough but the running game is seriously pissing me off as a supporter.

Anyway...

Up the Royal!

The most crucial game of the year thus far for Meath and management elects to start David Bray, (who hasn't played competitive game of football since the O'Byrne cup group stage) and Kevin Reilly on the wing. The latter may have been a good option on kickouts but playing against the breeze in the first half he was anonymous, players around him did not trust him enough to pass to. A vital 35 minutes in the 2nd half and on comes Shane O'Rourke, again seriously short of football and we play long ball in which we have never done all year.

What was the logic? 2 points here would have been massive but instead O'Dowd prioritises warming lads up for the championship. Great, hazy summer days and all the Meath folk in Croke Park and the Dubs, etc., etc. except we'll get beaten out the gate because we're one of the worst teams in Division 2.

What was the county board doing appointing someone who had no track record in management worth speaking of. I know that sounds harsh but we have to expect some competence at this level because naivety has got us nowhere. We have some very good footballers at present but we're wasting their time with this kind of nonsense.

Micko has done a lot of good things. If you look back to the Banty days what were the common complaints? Team lacking in strength, explosiveness, power, etc. This has been addressed and is continually improving. The likes of Keoghan, Menton, Harnan, Tobin, Bray and Newman are very athletic. Even young players like McGill, Flanagan and Rooney have had no problem in adapting to the speed of the game or the strength/size of opposition. Another one was the need to try younger players. Micko has been very proactive in searching the county for talent and has used - at a guess - around 80 players - between O'Byrne Cup, League and Championship in his two and a half years. Problem is the new talent is not better than what was previously there.

Also disagree that there's a lack of tactics. It's a common argument to throw at a team when they're losing. There's been an improvement in our defending along with an increased effort in dealing with counter-attacks. There's obvious kick-out tactics and they have been drilled in working the ball out of defence too.

That would be my take on it. Part of the problem is that despite all the hard work Meath have put in under Micko, the same hard work has been going on in counties like Cavan, Galway & Roscommon - counties around our level currently but who have had much more success at u21 level. Remember Micko is picking largely from a group of players who between them won one u21 match between 2008 and 2013.

Problems this year would be the mistake count has gone up. Some players give up possession very cheaply and some use it very naively. Whether the pace of the game is contributing to this, who knows. We have also regressed attacking-wise since last year as far as I can tell. Maybe this is due to the lost of form of Mickey Newman and Damian Carroll, inconsistent free-taking, injuries to players like Bryan McMahon & Andrew Tormey.

That's my assessment of things. I could be wrong. I would not be getting my expectations up but at the same time, I would recognise that we are capable of beating Down and Cavan. Should that happen, I imagine the narrative around O'Dowd and Meath will probably change again until we disappoint in Leinster again.

Have to give the team full credit for the victory but it's hard to know what to make of it, by all accounts it was a scrappy affair.

Very depressing considering a very average Roscommon team are now primed for promotion but at least we're getting the full squad fit for the summer months.

Yeah, it's a shame. Reading the interview with Brian Menton you can see how pleased he was with the defensive performance - that's something that's improved this year, all be it in patches but three years to build a defence seems excessive, especially seeing as it seems to have come at the expense of our forward play. Maybe all the pieces will come together when the summer rolls around but I've given up on wishfull thinking this year.