Very poor affair for a final . Simonstown never looked in trouble , orouke is different class
Celebrating must be tempered. Simonstown can now go forward and represent county with pride and distinction.
Best wishes to them.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 29/10/2017 17:26:35    2058979

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 29/10/2017 18:07:18    2058984

Who do Simonstown play now ?

LeitrimRoyal99 (Meath) - Posts: 1458 - 29/10/2017 19:45:26    2059003

Footnote (Meath) - Posts: 66 - 29/10/2017 20:07:31    2059006

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 29/10/2017 20:33:17    2059010

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 29/10/2017 20:39:17    2059011

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 29/10/2017 21:48:28    2059033

Royalblufill (Meath) - Posts: 475 - 30/10/2017 08:02:30    2059052

Barney123 (Meath) - Posts: 676 - 30/10/2017 10:42:24    2059073

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 30/10/2017 12:43:49    2059092

Very poor final.

I believe wides outweighed scores.

Some great fielding and kick passing interplay from Simonstown which did little to mask some woeful shooting.

Summerhill never showed up

Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 757 - 30/10/2017 14:19:17    2059108

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 30/10/2017 16:41:09    2059129

Just picked up on this piece from today's Irish Independent, what an awful shame this is, Shane is certainly showing his loyalty to his club by playing when compromised so much, I tip my hat to the man......

McKeever picked up the official man of the match hard but Shane O'Rourke couldn't have been far from the judges' thoughts.

Afterwards Colm revealed that his son's playing days might be coming to an end as he continues to battle with serious hip trouble.

"He is hampered badly," he said. "He doesn't train much if anything and he is in a lot of pain with his hips and his on anti-inflammatories before and after games in order to play. He'll not play much more. It's a big day for him we might not see him next year if he decides that's enough."

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 30/10/2017 17:02:09    2059133

Barney123 (Meath) - Posts: 676 - 30/10/2017 17:20:18    2059134

Delighted with the win was a poor match but that can happen in finals, thought the ref had a poor game and gave summerhill some very easy frees in the 2nd half. Hard luck to summerhill they didn't perform but they'll be back again.

Northsidegaels (Meath) - Posts: 237 - 31/10/2017 11:14:47    2059248

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 31/10/2017 12:47:04    2059270

I haven't had a chance to watch much senior club football this year, so I went along on Sunday in anticipation of a good game, as the general consensus seemed to be that two decent teams would put on a good show. Boy was I wrong on that. It was an absolutely shockingly poor game pretty much from start to finish. A few thoughts on it:
1. Simonstown played poorly, never got out of second gear, and yet coasted home. Had they any sort of a half decent challenge to them, they would have been easily beaten. Unless they can up the performance by 200%, they won't be going far in the Leinster championship.
2. The reason they didn't need to do much to beat Summerhill was becuase Summerhill seemed intent on beating themselves. Gifted Simonstown a goal, couldn't kick a free all day, wild shooting, countless turnovers of ball, it was as poor a performance in a Senior final as I think I have ever seen.
3. At the semi-final stage, some poster on here was giving out that very few of the players on the Meath Seniors were from the semi-final teams. Judging from the final, I think that poster needs to retract that complaint. There were only two Meath Seniors on view - Conlon and Tobin. Conlon was taken off because he was sick, Tobin was taken off because he was terrible. Of the other players who had been touted as possible Meath players, Dalton, Dardis and Larkin for Summerhill, Mc Grath from Simonstown, none of them looked anywhere close to county standard.
4. I must have been looking at a completely game to the Man of the Match selectors (and to the poster earlier who agreed with the decision) who picked McKeever as MOM. I thought he was very average. Again he didn't stand out to me as a county footballer.
5. Like a lot of others here, I would have had Shane O'Rourke as Man of the Match. Now thats not saying much - he didn't have much opposition. With about 10 minutes to go I actually asked a few lads around me who they would pick as MOM. After a fairly lengthy silence, one lad tentatively ventured "O'Rourke?", and no-one could actually even suggest an alternative.

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 01/11/2017 00:07:09    2059418

6. I was really looking forward to seeing Nash perform, to see if the Aussie training had improved him from the high standard he showed last year. Very disappointed. You could see his obvious athleticism, but he only showed in patches. For most of the game he was farily anonymous. While he would definitely be an asset to the Meath panel if he came back, he would certainly not be the solution to all our midfield problems like some would have me to be.
7. Summerhill showed the folly of playing a short kickout game if you dont have a goalkeeper and defenders who are comfortable playing it. Andy McEntee should take note. They had already tested their luck a little before the inevitable happened and they got caught out. The ironic thing is that they had obviously decided to play a short kick out game as their midfield is not particularly strong, but Simonstowns midfield didn't even play all that well. Summerhill would have been just as well kicking it out long and working to pick up the breaking balls.
8. Simonstown had their tactics right for the Summerhill short kick-outs - push forward onto the full back line and pressurise the goalkepper into making a mistake. He might get it right 9 times out of 10, but if he is constantly under pressure, eventually he will make a mistake. Andy McEntee should also take note. Allowing the oppostion time to play the short kick-out is just conceding easy possession unnecessarily.
9. Contrary to what another poster said, I thought the referee was really poor. He didn't favour either team, and had no bearing on the outcome, but I thought his ability to keep up with play, and his decision making were not of a suitable standard for a county final. Is he really the best we have in the county?
10. Not for the first time, I looked around Pairc Tailteann, and was embarassed at the state of it. I know that it will take time and money to get the new stand etc, but how hard is it to get a scoreboard fixed FFS. It was like something you would see at a bad Junior C match. Also was there something up with the surface - I don't think I have ever seen as many players losing their footing as I did on Sunday.

Did I mention that I didn't enjoy the game!

(the minor game was good though)

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 01/11/2017 00:08:48    2059420

Agree with fearbeag about O'Rourke man of the match. Thought he was head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch.

For a man that can't train and looked in physical pain moving around the pitch his skill set and ability is so far ahead of everyone else in the county it's depressing. Read reports that this could be his last season. Hopefully not.

On Conlon and Tobin I think that's reflective of everyone that played county this year. None stood out when they went back to their clubs, in fact I'd say they were poor. County players should be standing out like SOR did on Sunday. Why is this the case?

begining (UK) - Posts: 300 - 01/11/2017 09:43:49    2059440

Thought neither team played particularly well couple of points :

Shane O'Rouke should have won man of the match, dictated the entire game, involved in so much of all that was good.

Simonstown very well coached and drilled, knew exactly what was coming from Summerhill and after the first 7 or 8 minutes dealt with them very well from a defensive point of view, clearly targeted the kick outs and it was clear from early on that they we an accident to happen. They fouled tactically in the second half cutting out goal chances. Summerhill on the other hand did not have a plan B, did not adopt well to Simonstown going man to man and dropping the sweeper from the get go.

Simonstown bench much stronger, Kilcullen and Seamus Kenny had a major input on their arrival.

See previous comment re Nash, when he moved to Centre Back following Conlons' substitution he completely shut down Barry Dardis but still had a big influence on how Simonstown attacked, he would be a nailed on starter with Meath if available.

Given that we have 3 of the best refs in the country is is frustrating that one of them was not doing the final, no harm to Liam O'Brien but he was not able to keep with the pace of the game, a game of this importance cannot be reffed from between the 2 45s, saying that he had no bearing on the outcome of the game.

The level of shooting by both sides was really poor.

I'm sure both teams would have wanted to play better but Simonstown will not care, the Keegan Cup stays in North Navan for another year. Summerhill will use it as motivation for next year.

longroadback (Meath) - Posts: 325 - 01/11/2017 12:51:54    2059492