Meath GAA discussion thread

dobman88 · 22-11-2020 12:41am

EICVD wrote: »

Some of the posts here are hilarious

Out of interest, which ones?

dobman88 · 22-11-2020 12:44am

Cavan_King wrote: »

Very depressing stuff. Hammerings for Roscommon, Armagh and now Meath in recent weeks show just how big the gulf is between the top 5/6 teams and the next batch.

The gulf between Dublin and the next 3 or 4, Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, Tyrone is massive. The gulf from them to the rest is wider again. I include Kerry and Tyrone as they have played Dublin in finals recently.

Meath, clearly the 2nd best team in leinster. 2 finals in a row, hammered Wicklow and beat Kildare well. And they were made look completely useless tonight.

Dublin are a way out on their own. Nobody will come close to them Andy wouldnt be surprised to see them do 10 All Irelands in a row

vapor trails · 22-11-2020 1:17am

dobman88 wrote: »

The gulf between Dublin and the next 3 or 4, Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, Tyrone is massive. The gulf from them to the rest is wider again. I include Kerry and Tyrone as they have played Dublin in finals recently.

Meath, clearly the 2nd best team in leinster. 2 finals in a row, hammered Wicklow and beat Kildare well. And they were made look completely useless tonight.

Dublin are a way out on their own. Nobody will come close to them Andy wouldnt be surprised to see them do 10 All Irelands in a row

The problem with that statement is Dublin has been waltzing Leinster in their Pyjamas for the last decade, but at least in All Ireland Finals and Semi Final's the games been alive at 50 mins+ bar maybe Tyrone in 2018. Mayo and Kerry both took them to a replay, in finals.

dobman88 · 22-11-2020 1:24am

vapor trails wrote: »

The problem with that statement is Dublin has been waltzing Leinster in their Pyjamas for the last decade, but at least in All Ireland Finals and Semi Final's the games been alive at 50 mins+ bar maybe Tyrone in 2018. Mayo and Kerry both took them to a replay, in finals.

I'd take last year with a pinch of salt. We got a draw against 14 men for majority of the game and were lucky to do so in the end. Well beaten in the replay. And knocked out by cork this year shows we arent as good as maybe we like to think.

blowitupref · 22-11-2020 3:30am

Cavan_King wrote: »

Very depressing stuff. Hammerings for Roscommon, Armagh and now Meath in recent weeks show just how big the gulf is between the top 5/6 teams and the next batch.

Roscommon at least only lost by 6 points and beat Mayo the year before. I'd hope Cavan give Donegal a better game than Armagh did afterall they aren't at Dublins level of quality whom are capable of hammering any team.

Cavan_King · 22-11-2020 5:06am

Dickie10 wrote: »

as a meath fan i rarely ever read much into this game, if you analysed it too much any team hockeyed by dublin would pull their inter county team, Meath are going ok, didnt go as well tonite as hoped but cant read much into it. we are really looking to get into that top 5. so need division 1 ffotball again. Lads what happens if dublin hold murphy v donegal and beat them by 15 -16 points? should a conversation start?

Donegal have a lot more than Michael Murphy - Ryan McHugh, McBrearty, Langan, Thompson, Patton, Brennan etc. He was actually poor against Armagh last week and they still beat them by over ten points.

rpurfield · 22-11-2020 12:18pm

Honestly didn't think we'd win that yesterday but certainly thought we would give it a much better go than that. There's no real point in looking at anything in that match. It seemed that once the first goal went in heads went down. Dublin's tackling and speed at it was massively increased from anything the lads experienced this year. In the first half there were probably 3 goal chances created that were good chances against other teams but the speed of the Dublin defence closed them down to quarter chances at best. I honestly think at this stage an element of it is in the head that once we go behind to Dublin that's it.

As to where we go I honestly don't know. If we were in any other province I'd be hopeful of picking up some sort of provincial honours. There's probably four or five teams at the top table, and a group just below which we are in. I'd include Roscommon, Cork, Cavan and probably Armagh, Down and Kildare in it. The jump across seems to be massive. At the minute I'd also agree with Hammer's point about why would you bother if you were a young lad. Sure, barring this year, if you are half decent at football you could even get a free summer across the Atlantic out of it compared to slogging all year to be battered in a Leinster final.

JimmyCorkhill · 22-11-2020 3:24pm

As much of a hammering it was last night and there is a massive gulf between the teams that everybody was aware of pre-game, Meath were really really poor.

Can moan about the gulf in class but the lack of fight & effort was really evident last night and I dont buy for one second that playing against a team that you know will lose to is a reason for a lack of fight & effort.

The handicap was 10 points before the game & the bookies are usually fairly accurate in their pricing..

Royal Legend · 22-11-2020 5:07pm

We have a young team with quite a bit of talent, but we are missing that talent in other areas, would hope some of the talented players will stick it out and in maybe 2, 3 or 4 years for more talent to come through.
Defo need a keeper, i though he was poor and cowardly for both goals last night, he had to come out to dive or put his body in front of Rock's feet on the first one and the second he has to come and take man and ball not swipe at thin air. Apologies if cowardly is too strong a word, not meant to be a personal slur, just not sure what other way to describe it.

Royal Legend · 22-11-2020 5:10pm

I am not feeling well today, even find myself shouting for a Cavan win, God help me 0-4 to 0-2 to Cavan so far.

Obrieski · 22-11-2020 7:40pm

Fair play Cavan King! Enjoy the celebrations!

Obrieski · 22-11-2020 7:54pm

My take on the game last night, needed 24 hours.

Firstly, thanks to the lads. As always, a huge amount of work and dedication gone in and it’s no shame to be beaten by the best team ever. However, we still need to analyse.

Unfortunately, that is where we are. Simply not good / strong enough in the important areas. The worst thing that could have happened was the relative talking up we were getting. Even Pat Spillane beforehand on RTÉ.

We just don’t seem to cover ground as powerfully as the likes of Dublin. They swat us off at their ease while running. All this strength and conditioning talk, it was men against boys.

Kick outs were abysmal, but we know this and have known this for some time. How is there no plan in place for this - it has become the most important part of the game. Backs nowhere near tight enough and no plan. First goal real example. Kick out down the middle, uncontested catch and 10 seconds later it’s a goal. O’Callaghan caught the ball within nobody with 20 yards of him!

Colm Nally has great training drills he puts on Twitter but I’d prefer us to develop some actual tactics for playing the game and in certain situations. Nearly every kick out of ours that went any way long was 3 vs 1 in favour of Dublin. Where were our players? The Dublin high press was hardly an insane surprise! The game plan we have require huge amounts of energy and when we win a turnover, it is far too laboured getting up the pitch.

Free taking and shooting in pressure games is a worry. 2 relatively easy frees in first half were put wide, and at least 3 dropped short. Same as last year. Sucks the life out of a team. Now Dublin are incredibly hard working and no team has an easy chance against them but if you’re telling me that training drills aren’t done when there is 5 forwards vs 8/9 defenders then we are wasting our time also.

Look, overall a disappointing end but we all knew it was ending at this stage anyway. The Kildare 2nd half was hugely enjoyable and I was delighted we beat them!

Huge focus now on the league next year and hopefully start winning some games again.

vapor trails · 22-11-2020 7:56pm

Obrieski wrote: »

Fair play Cavan King! Enjoy the celebrations!

I second this!

rpurfield · 23-11-2020 12:20am

vapor trails wrote: »

I second this!

I'll third it, today's two games restored a bit of faith in football for me.

Cavan_King · 23-11-2020 12:31am

rpurfield wrote: »

I'll third it, today's two games restored a bit of faith in football for me.

Thanks lads. Got some calls off the Meath half of the family today who were all delighted for us. Great will from Meath in general towards us.

Saw a good stat from the Kells PRO online - Cavan started with as many North Meath men today as Meath did last night!

RoyalCelt · 23-11-2020 2:26am

I don't get the talk about this massive gap between the top 5 and everybody else. There's not.

Dublin are miles ahead of everybody. Who knows who is second best but the gap between 2nd and 3rd is tiny and the gap remains tiny between the next 2 and the next 2 and so on. If Dublin didn't exist you'd have an incredible championship. Maybe even more competitive then the hurling.

But dublin do exist and we've seen the rot that set into leinster as a result of them dominating. I hope I'm wrong but I believe Dublin walk the 6 and then they'll walk the 7 in about 9 months time.

Apart from Cluxton I don't think they've many old players starting and anybody who's off the pace will be long replaced by a younger player before an opposition team can take advantage of them.

Cluxton obviously the hardest player to replace for Dublin but honestly he could prob do another 4 or 5 years. He could retire with more leinsters then meath as a county have won. Regardless you could give us Cluxton and dublin our keeper and we'd still lose by 20 points so I don't see it being a problem for them.

I'm just very jealous we are located where we are. At this stage we should try and move to connaught or ulster like galway/antrim did in the hurling many years ago. Ulster makes the most Geographically but Connaught have too few numbers so they need more anyway. Wastmeath and Longford should come with us while we're at it.

Hammer Archer · 23-11-2020 10:02am

Fair play to you Cavan King. From very early on in the game yesterday, it was clear that Cavan had so much more about them than last year's final. Would have been a travesty had ye lost.

Very jealous of the celebrations we saw from Tipp and Cavan yesterday. It shows that the provincials still have some life in them outside of Leinster. Compare the reactions at full time yesterday to those of Dublin on Saturday. It was their 10th Leinster in a row. The only other two GAA provinces that have seen 10-in-a-rows were the Connacht and Ulster hurling championships, and they've been disbanded due to the lack of competitiveness. Wouldn't be surprised to see Leinster football go the same way.

The weekend shows the complete gulf in class between #1 everyone else. With the year that's in it, there was talk of Kerry or Donegal putting it up to Dublin. But never in a million years would Dublin have lost to Cork or Cavan (no disrespect intended) the way Kerry and Donegal did. At the very worst, Dublin would play poorly for 40 or 50 minutes before blitzing them in 5 or 10 minutes to put the game to bed. Cork were 3 down with 15 to go last year only to concede 3-4 and lose by 13. Mayo were 2 up at half time in the semi final. 15 minutes into the second half, they were 10 down. All Dublin need these days is a 15 minute performance and it's game over. No one can live with them.

mattser · 23-11-2020 10:16am

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Fair play to you Cavan King. From very early on in the game yesterday, it was clear that Cavan had so much more about them than last year's final. Would have been a travesty had ye lost.

Very jealous of the celebrations we saw from Tipp and Cavan yesterday. It shows that the provincials still have some life in them outside of Leinster. Compare the reactions at full time yesterday to those of Dublin on Saturday. It was their 10th Leinster in a row. The only other two GAA provinces that have seen 10-in-a-rows were the Connacht and Ulster hurling championships, and they've been disbanded due to the lack of competitiveness. Wouldn't be surprised to see Leinster football go the same way.

The weekend shows the complete gulf in class between #1 everyone else. With the year that's in it, there was talk of Kerry or Donegal putting it up to Dublin. But never in a million years would Dublin have lost to Cork or Cavan (no disrespect intended) the way Kerry and Donegal did. At the very worst, Dublin would play poorly for 40 or 50 minutes before blitzing them in 5 or 10 minutes to put the game to bed. Cork were 3 down with 15 to go last year only to concede 3-4 and lose by 13. Mayo were 2 up at half time in the semi final. 15 minutes into the second half, they were 10 down. All Dublin need these days is a 15 minute performance and it's game over. No one can live with them.

Cluxton can drive a a ball 40 metres and pick out a man with no opposition within 10 metres. Game over.

rpurfield · 23-11-2020 2:31pm

mattser wrote: »

Cluxton can drive a a ball 40 metres and pick out a man with no opposition within 10 metres. Game over.

It's the movement that creates that too that is serious. I'd love to see the Rock goal from behind one of the goals because I don't believe its simple bad marking that created O'Callaghan's space and the resulting overlap

Cavan_King · 23-11-2020 6:58pm

RoyalCelt wrote: »

I'm just very jealous we are located where we are. At this stage we should try and move to connaught or ulster like galway/antrim did in the hurling many years ago. Ulster makes the most Geographically but Connaught have too few numbers so they need more anyway. Wastmeath and Longford should come with us while we're at it.

I found this interesting. I spent the last decade wishing Cavan was in Leinster - my opinion being we’d at least be getting a run and be making Leinster finals every year rather than having to face one of Monaghan, Tyrone or Donegal in the first round each year!

Whilst Dublin are phenomenal, I don’t believe changing the provinces would solve anything for Meath. Over the last decade, there have been teams in every province operating above Meath’s level, sometimes 2/3 teams.

People on here are talking about Meath beating Dublin at minor level in the past year or two. Success doesn’t follow through that quickly unfortunately.

Four of the Cavan players that started on Saturday were in the Cavan minor team that won Ulster in 2011 (2 more on the subs bench). They then had U21 success in 12,13 and 14 - to follow up the 2011 U21 success where a now 30 year old Gearoid McKiernan was captain.

These lads are then backed up by a number of players from our 2017 minor team that lost the semi final to a David Clifford inspired Kerry.

So you’re looking at players from 4/5 different successful underage teams, a few veterans that stuck at it and then the odd few from other years.

As the We Are Cavan podcast put it last night, yesterday’s success has been ten years in the making.

mickrourke · 23-11-2020 10:30pm

Cavan_King wrote: »

Saw a good stat from the Kells PRO online - Cavan started with as many North Meath men today as Meath did last night!

I don't get it, Can you tell me what it means?

Cavan_King · 24-11-2020 8:13pm

mickrourke wrote: »

I don't get it, Can you tell me what it means?

Oisin Kiernan that plays for Cavan is from the Brigids club in Meath originally. He transferred to Castlerahan in Ballyjamesduff & then Mattie McGleenan called him into the Cavan team. I believe he had played junior for Meath at some stage.

Therefore the Kells PRO was having a dig re North Meath being ignored by the county management stating that Cavan started as many North Meath men as Meath did - 1.

rpurfield · 25-11-2020 11:00am

Cavan_King wrote: »

Oisin Kiernan that plays for Cavan is from the Brigids club in Meath originally. He transferred to Castlerahan in Ballyjamesduff & then Mattie McGleenan called him into the Cavan team. I believe he had played junior for Meath at some stage.

Therefore the Kells PRO was having a dig re North Meath being ignored by the county management stating that Cavan started as many North Meath men as Meath did - 1.

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

Cavan_King · 25-11-2020 11:31am

rpurfield wrote: »

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

I wouldn't be sure on how many of the Meath starters were from North Meath. I know Jordan Morris is Nobber (it was brought up on We Are Cavan podcast his father played for Kigscourt and apparently they had approached him previously). What other players were North Meath on the starting team?

To be honest, we get the same crap in Cavan re lads that should be on the panel. As you say, some people don't realise that the slog of intercounty football isn't for all. Cavan trained 26 days out of 30 last November. The club game is serious enough for some lads at this stage.

dobman88 · 25-11-2020 12:29pm

rpurfield wrote: »

I know you're only explaining but I missed where Nobber moved out of North Meath. Rathkenny is borderline too.

This perception in the county that the managers don't go to certain areas has been going on for years and is a load of rubbish. Actually annoys the hell out of me as well. I know for a fact the management team look at games from all over, there isn't a half decent player in the county that they aren't aware of. People also seem to discount the fact that lads might not want to go in. As Hammer posted the other day maybe lads don't want to commit to the slog only to be battered in a Leinster final.

Anyway rant over.

Lads not wanting to go in to the county set up is one of the main reasons imo. I was lucky enough to get some media work for Meath championship matches during lockdown and youd get chatting to players and officers at games. Spoke to 2 players who said themselves that they dont see the point in committing the time only to take a hammering like Meath got last week. It wouldnt do a lads confidence any good. Speaking to club officers and PROs, they all had a story about lads getting a call and refusing, now I'd take them with a pinch of salt as its 2nd hand info but there is definitely some lads refusing call ups for their own reasons and tbf, its hard to blame them.

rpurfield · 25-11-2020 12:33pm

dobman88 wrote: »

Lads not wanting to go in to the county set up is one of the main reasons imo. I was lucky enough to get some media work for Meath championship matches during lockdown and youd get chatting to players and officers at games. Spoke to 2 players who said themselves that they dont see the point in committing the time only to take a hammering like Meath got last week. It wouldnt do a lads confidence any good. Speaking to club officers and PROs, they all had a story about lads getting a call and refusing, now I'd take them with a pinch of salt as its 2nd hand info but there is definitely some lads refusing call ups for their own reasons and tbf, its hard to blame them.

Exactly. Some of them have a really good chance of club silverwear with the added bonus of it not taking over their life. I don't blame lads at all.

RoyalCelt · 25-11-2020 12:53pm

rpurfield wrote: »

Exactly. Some of them have a really good chance of club silverwear with the added bonus of it not taking over their life. I don't blame lads at all.

I'm fairly certain most Kells players are refusing call ups so they can prioritise their club. Can't blame them either as they could actually win the club championship but have zero chance beating dublin in Leinster.

On the hurling an Jack Fagan who's lining out for Waterford in the hurling semi. Was he head and shoulders above the rest of the panel or were there others who played to his level?

Obrieski · 25-11-2020 12:59pm

Looking forward (as looking back is killing me still!), I assume Andy Mc will still be at the reins next year?
Haven't heard anything to the contrary on that front. He's been in the job since 2016.

Personally, I would like him to stay (don't know the man but his passion for the job cannot be questioned).
However, I would like to see some tactician come in alongside him who can read the game and work on tactics.

I still feel that tactically we were naive (if anyone listens to Second Captains Podcast, Andy Moran and Oisin McConville explained it quite well I felt). On Dublin kickouts, we pushed up man to man in our forwards - which I would agree with, but kept zonally in our defence which allowed Fenton make a decoy run and expose huge space for Con O'C to do his catch and driving run for the first goal which was the major killer. Obviously then, for our kick outs there was no plan at all it seemed.

Small adjustments like that and working on an actual style of play rather than this manic approach we seem to have are key going forward.
A lot of our play seems off the cuff and hugely reliant on poor Cillian O'Sullivan just being a battering ram. I would prefer us to have a style of play that is effective and everyone buys into and knows and use that as a basis point.

curioser · 25-11-2020 11:22pm

And now if you hear somebody asking "is McEntee up to the job?" you can't be sure if they are talking football or politics!

(Maybe wrong thread/topic)

Cavan_King · 26-11-2020 12:04am

RoyalCelt wrote: »

I'm fairly certain most Kells players are refusing call ups so they can prioritise their club. Can't blame them either as they could actually win the club championship but have zero chance beating dublin in Leinster.?

I’ve only heard of one of the Reillys refusing a call up because he is playing soccer in Italy.

Other than that, Mattimoe has been in there for O’Byrne Cups and other periods and never featured. Beano Hanlon said he was tried and dropped and he’s 31 or 32 now.

Other than that, I don’t see who from Kells would be worth a call up.

Hammer Archer · 28-11-2020 6:25pm

Hurlers end up with no points in the Joe McDonagh Cup again after getting comprehensively beaten by Antrim. Would I be correct in saying that we haven't gotten a single point in the competition since we beat Kerry in Navan in our first game?

Ladies footballers are through to the All Ireland Intermediate Football final after easily beating Clare. They'll play Westmeath or Roscommon in the final.

CrabRevolution · 28-11-2020 11:54pm

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Hurlers end up with no points in the Joe McDonagh Cup again after getting comprehensively beaten by Antrim. Would I be correct in saying that we haven't gotten a single point in the competition since we beat Kerry in Navan in our first game?

Ladies footballers are through to the All Ireland Intermediate Football final after easily beating Clare. They'll play Westmeath or Roscommon in the final.

Unfortunately yes. We've improved a lot vs. teams like Kildare Armagh and Mayo, but we've hit a bit of a ceiling and haven't made any headway against the next tier of teams.

I posted the stats at the beginning of the J McD, but just updating them now it's a bit grim. Since beating Kerry in 2017 we've played 20 games against the next tier of teams* across the league and championship. We've lost every single game, by an average of 8.4 points. If you want to include the Walsh and Kehoe cups it's possibly worse; we beat Antrim by a point in 2017, but have managed 2 draws and 4 losses in the years since with the losses being on average by 15 points. These competitions are generally disregarded, but Antrim beat us by 17 points in Navan today, beat us by 25 points up in Antrim in the league and beat us by 16 points in Navan in the Kehoe cup earlier this season. It's difficult to say the Kehoe cup result was an aberration.

Easy to say we just need more top level games but we really don't seem any closer than we were 2 or 3 years ago. Next year Down and Kildare will be up with us so relegation is extremely unlikely, but would beating Down and Kildare and losing to the other 3 teams be an improvement? Until I see any sort of underage improvement I don't think we'll be doing much more than treading water at the level we're at. We might eventually turn the odd narrow loss into a narrow win, but there's little long term to be excited about.

*I regard this tier to be Kerry, Carlow, Laois, Westmeath, Antrim and Offaly.

RoyalCelt · 29-11-2020 2:44am

Meath man Jack Fagan helps Waterford beat Kilkenny today and will now play in the final. Will be cheering them on. Any meath man ever won Liam before?

Stacksofwacks · 29-11-2020 3:00am

RoyalCelt wrote: »

Meath man Jack Fagan helps Waterford beat Kilkenny today and will now play in the final. Will be cheering them on. Any meath man ever won Liam before?

I doubt a Meath man has ever won an AI hurling medal, tis hard enough for us Waterfordians to win one! Fair play to him he is a savage in the air and capable hurler too, has been brilliant the last 2 games. Hopefully he brings that medal back to Meath

conor05 · 29-11-2020 4:32pm

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Unfortunately yes. We've improved a lot vs. teams like Kildare Armagh and Mayo, but we've hit a bit of a ceiling and haven't made any headway against the next tier of teams.

I posted the stats at the beginning of the J McD, but just updating them now it's a bit grim. Since beating Kerry in 2017 we've played 20 games against the next tier of teams* across the league and championship. We've lost every single game, by an average of 8.4 points. If you want to include the Walsh and Kehoe cups it's possibly worse; we beat Antrim by a point in 2017, but have managed 2 draws and 4 losses in the years since with the losses being on average by 15 points. These competitions are generally disregarded, but Antrim beat us by 17 points in Navan today, beat us by 25 points up in Antrim in the league and beat us by 16 points in Navan in the Kehoe cup earlier this season. It's difficult to say the Kehoe cup result was an aberration.

Easy to say we just need more top level games but we really don't seem any closer than we were 2 or 3 years ago. Next year Down and Kildare will be up with us so relegation is extremely unlikely, but would beating Down and Kildare and losing to the other 3 teams be an improvement? Until I see any sort of underage improvement I don't think we'll be doing much more than treading water at the level we're at. We might eventually turn the odd narrow loss into a narrow win, but there's little long term to be excited about.

*I regard this tier to be Kerry, Carlow, Laois, Westmeath, Antrim and Offaly.

How in the last 3 years have Kerry really kicked on to a higher level and Meath havn't?

Obviously Kerry are surrounded by very strong hurling counties so possibly have access to better coaches etc but we should striving to get to that level as we would have a similar amount if not more hurling clubs than Kerry

rpurfield · 29-11-2020 6:02pm

It's tough on the hurlers alright. It seems in hurling making a sustained jump into a higher grade is very hard. If you look at Laois, Carlow etc getting up to be competitive in Liam McCarthy is a big jump too. The lads were close against Westmeath and Carlow though.

Hammer Archer · 30-11-2020 8:38pm

https://v.redd.it/j27396xmr7261
Someone messing with Colm on the stream on Saturday :pac:

jimd2 · 01-12-2020 11:05am

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

I doubt a Meath man has ever won an AI hurling medal, tis hard enough for us Waterfordians to win one! Fair play to him he is a savage in the air and capable hurler too, has been brilliant the last 2 games. Hopefully he brings that medal back to Meath

I am not sure whether most Meath people really care whether Jack Fagan brings an all-ireland medal back to Meath.

Meath people that don't support GAA wont know or care.

Many Meath supporters are mostly football supporters and wont care either.

The hurling supporters will have huge respect for what he has achieved but will be more focused on the county hurlers and how they can get to the next level. The only relevance Jack has in all of this is that it demonstrates that Meath hurlers can go to the next level. I sincerely hope that he is not an example in a negative way and that it encourages any more good hurlers coming through to do the same.

Huge work is being done underage and I would hope that Jack's success does not indirectly impact on that as we can ill afford to lose players of his calibre - its been hard enough to compete as it is.

Regarding the final, I am 100% neutral - as a Meathman Jack Fagan playing wont influence my preference either way.

awaywithyou · 01-12-2020 12:34pm

Disappointing to read such comments and i very much doubt that outside of hurling people in Meath... the Meath people wont care... id be pretty sure that many Meath GAA folk will tune in to see how Jack will get on.. He is one of yere own.. comes from a very nice family in Rathmolyon... Best of luck to him...

jimd2 · 01-12-2020 3:33pm

awaywithyou wrote: »

Disappointing to read such comments and i very much doubt that outside of hurling people in Meath... the Meath people wont care... id be pretty sure that many Meath GAA folk will tune in to see how Jack will get on.. He is one of yere own.. comes from a very nice family in Rathmolyon... Best of luck to him...

Well, that's the reality and I am not sure if Jack cares a whit whether Meath people are interested in the outcome. But, truth be known a very low percentage of Meath people were particularly interested in the recent Joe McDonagh games and I am sure most of the team come from nice families.

So why would they be more interested in one player who is from Meath - they will keep a side interest of course and probably more will support Waterford in the final because of Jack and maybe more so as Waterford haven't won the All Ireland in many years.

And talking about interest in GAA, the interest in the Meath football team has also waned a lot in the last 10 years or so. It used to be nearly an identity of Meath people and those not into sport or GAA followed the team at least on TV and loads of flags out. That has waned a lot also and the majority of people in Meath were not overtly interested in the Leinster final.
That's just my take on it.

CrabRevolution · 01-12-2020 5:02pm

awaywithyou wrote: »

Disappointing to read such comments and i very much doubt that outside of hurling people in Meath... the Meath people wont care... id be pretty sure that many Meath GAA folk will tune in to see how Jack will get on.. He is one of yere own.. comes from a very nice family in Rathmolyon... Best of luck to him...

Fair play to him, it's some achievement on a personal level to do what he has done. But the notion that this is good news for Meath hurling or that we should be proud is nonsense.

CrabRevolution · 01-12-2020 9:29pm

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

You seem to be speaking for a lot of Meath people. When Katie Taylor won her Olympic medal I watched it and was quite happy to see her win it as an Irish person even though I'm not from Wicklow. I'm sure there was people who didn't give a toss who live in Bray so it cuts both ways.

That's a nonsense comparison. Katie Taylor wasn't representing Wicklow in the olympics. She represented Ireland through the Olympic Council of Ireland so obviously everyone in Ireland was happy for her. For Irish people she was "our" competitor in that event. Unless you started cheering other nation's boxers you had no alternative. In Meath terms Fagan is not "our" competitor in inter county hurling. We have our own team and our own players.

Like I said, fair play to him on the personal achievement, but I find it a bit desperate and small time for people to say it's something Meath can be proud of.

rpurfield · 08-12-2020 1:56pm

Found this from the County Board PRO interesting in the last couple of days https://twitter.com/MrFlynnMeath/status/1335718797714579460?s=20

Surely doing this sort of thing should be a given. I don't want to turn the thread into a replica of the Leinster Football is Dead or Dublin Dominance ones but surely it is incumbent on the officers of the board to look at what Dublin do well and try to replicate as much as we can within Meath?

Obrieski · 08-12-2020 5:50pm

rpurfield wrote: »

Found this from the County Board PRO interesting in the last couple of days https://twitter.com/MrFlynnMeath/status/1335718797714579460?s=20

Surely doing this sort of thing should be a given. I don't want to turn the thread into a replica of the Leinster Football is Dead or Dublin Dominance ones but surely it is incumbent on the officers of the board to look at what Dublin do well and try to replicate as much as we can within Meath?

Too much effort for the dinosaurs that are in there to even consider. Would result in someone coming in and upsetting the apple cart at county board level. “And sure it wasn’t done 30 years ago so why do it now”.
Unfortunately we all know the types that go to these meetings - great GAA people for Meath over the years but the same faces doing various jobs.

On another note, all the money talk in recent days got me thinking. Any word on this new stadium in Navan, or status update? And more importantly, is it really a worthwhile investment? Seems like more and more a complete waste of money in my opinion when I think of what else the money could be used for? I don’t think a 20,000 seater stadium is of the most urgent or pressing matters we face as a county currently

rpurfield · 08-12-2020 6:40pm

Obrieski wrote: »

Too much effort for the dinosaurs that are in there to even consider. Would result in someone coming in and upsetting the apple cart at county board level. “And sure it wasn’t done 30 years ago so why do it now”.
Unfortunately we all know the types that go to these meetings - great GAA people for Meath over the years but the same faces doing various jobs.

On another note, all the money talk in recent days got me thinking. Any word on this new stadium in Navan, or status update? And more importantly, is it really a worthwhile investment? Seems like more and more a complete waste of money in my opinion when I think of what else the money could be used for? I don’t think a 20,000 seater stadium is of the most urgent or pressing matters we face as a county currently

Haven’t heard much on the new stand. It might not be the most pressing matter but a new stand at a minimum would be nice!

Cavan_King · 09-12-2020 8:18pm

Obrieski wrote: »

On another note, all the money talk in recent days got me thinking. Any word on this new stadium in Navan, or status update? And more importantly, is it really a worthwhile investment? Seems like more and more a complete waste of money in my opinion when I think of what else the money could be used for? I don’t think a 20,000 seater stadium is of the most urgent or pressing matters we face as a county currently

What else do you think the money could be used for? I think having a good county ground is a huge plus. You want somewhere that kids want to play, something to capture their imagination.

And, if nothing else, fook me that stand at Tailteann is freezing. I’ll never forget sitting in it for Meath vs Kildare in the League last year in the snow.

Obrieski · 10-12-2020 11:35am

Cavan_King wrote: »

What else do you think the money could be used for? I think having a good county ground is a huge plus. You want somewhere that kids want to play, something to capture their imagination.

And, if nothing else, fook me that stand at Tailteann is freezing. I’ll never forget sitting in it for Meath vs Kildare in the League last year in the snow.

I would prefer to have kids who grow up wanting to play for a competitive Meath team who are competing at the highest level, like I was when I was a kid, inspired and awed by these men.

I'm not for one second saying we do not need a new stand but if it's snowing I'm not sure a new stadium will be any warmer! I've sat in Croke Park on some miserable freezing days too over the years!!

After all the talk in recent weeks about Dublin and funding etc etc, would it not be more prudent for it to into an overhaul of underage structures...full time coaches, S&C guys, full time person in the county board (CEO style not from a GAA background or club but a proven business person). The Dublin model needs to be looked at and if replicated if we are trying to go anywhere. How do Dublin players transition from minor through to U-20 where they are jumped massively in terms of physique, physicality etc. That takes coaching, facilities and a hugely driven group of individuals.

A 20,000 seater stadium is a fantastic facility...but give me a choice of a nice stadium or being back competing on a national level in 10 years time...and I know where I would prefer the money to be spent in the near future.

RoyalCelt · 10-12-2020 3:46pm

I'd normally agree but Navan is very old and if you leave it another 10/15 years it could call apart. It doesn't matter how much money we spend we probably won't beat Dublin again. And we're already competitive with everyone else. Just forget about Dublin and enjoy the games against counties.

jimd2 · 10-12-2020 4:29pm

It's a real chicken and egg situation.

Without any success it is very difficult to envisage getting the numbers in the gates to pay for the development going forward. I know at home my family have way less interest that I did growing up. This is partly due to the lack of success but not all.

We had great support during the 80's / 90's but that was on the back of great teams and loads of publicity. I always said to myself fair play to other counties like Westmeath, Louth, Wicklow etc that kept up the support without very much success.

Over all, I would say the €6.2 million promised is a lot considering where country is now. A 4,000 seat stand is big - I would say halve it and put in decent lights and get it done.

After this year we may see many more games streamed and the days of needing 4,000 seats will be few and far between.

The money saved may not go to Meath but also they may not need to plough as much county resources into the project.

rpurfield · 10-12-2020 9:39pm

Seán Boylan is going to be named on the U20 management team in Down. Meanwhile we don't have an U20 management team in place at all

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