Been to every league obyrne cup and friendly game this year and many years and will continue keep the faith. Just a bad day in the dragons den against one of the best teams in the land. For the lads who put in all the effort all year keep the chin up we have armagh on 2 weeks in navan and let's see how many fair weather supporters come along. Keep the faith as I have faith in this team some of whom was one of there first time to play senior for there county. Hon the royals. Well gave a better cracking next time around

thebigjoeshow (Meath) - Posts: 63 - 20/07/2014 20:48:32    1622326

Hugely disappointing display today by Meath, real men against boys stuff.

For me, this is going to be the way for the coming years unless more work is done at underage level.
Only when we start winning Minor and Under 21 Leinster championships, will we see Meath competing toe to toe with Dublin in Leinster.

In the past Meath teams did not fear anyone but this could be attributed to having success at underage level.
There's no doubt we do fear Dublin nowadays, hopefully it wont last too long and the underage problems can be corrected.

Royal_Truth (Meath) - Posts: 8 - 20/07/2014 20:48:53    1622328

Bigjoe while I agree with your sentiments mostly.
The armagh game can't be in navan as it has to be neutral venue.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 20/07/2014 20:58:35    1622339

Tobin, K.Reilly, Menton and Keoghan were the only players to play anywhere near their potential. Although playing Keoghan in the corner really leaves us exposed through the middle.

McDonagh, McMahon and Wallace lack the physicality for this level. Shane O'Rourke is not an intercounty midfielder.

Some of our wides were inexcusably poor. General passing and distribution was poor. It all comes down to not being able to cope with Dublins physicality and intensity. One bad result doesn't make us a bad team but realistically we are years behind Dublin, they are a superb team and never really looked under too much pressure.

I've no complaints about the result. However had it been a closer game some of the referees decisions would have been hugely contentious and major talking points, he was extremely poor.

jetser (Meath) - Posts: 83 - 20/07/2014 21:09:39    1622357

Time to watch it all again on Sunday Game, glutton for punishment

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2144 - 20/07/2014 21:09:42    1622358

Seriously, how terrible was Paddy O'Rourke today..

RoyalClass (Meath) - Posts: 789 - 20/07/2014 21:11:42    1622363

Just watched that embarrassing show on TV again (sick to my stomach)
Probably truest statement made today was
(Meath players of old must be reeling)
We were lucky Dublin beat us by a further 10 points
Meath players need to take a serious look at themselves

royalfan1 (Meath) - Posts: 82 - 20/07/2014 21:12:53    1622368

royalfan1
County: Meath
Posts: 73

1622368
Just watched that embarrassing show on TV again (sick to my stomach)
Probably truest statement made today was
(Meath players of old must be reeling)
We were lucky Dublin beat us by a further 10 points
Meath players need to take a serious look at themselves

Bit harsh on the players I think. Its the powers that be need to take a serious look at themselves. Are the proper structures in place to develop players. I know money isn't an issue in Dublin and they have a lot of coaches but what are Meath CC doing?
No Meath player went out to play badly today. I see Reilly getting a bit of stick, he was poor but still tried. He covered a lot of ground and didn't go hiding. I think the tactics were naive but I do have to applaud the team for trying to play football but maybe they needed to play a defense game, try and keep it close and steel it.

Con (Louth) - Posts: 511 - 20/07/2014 21:33:47    1622418

Lads ye gave them far too much space. However I think ye will recover and win the next day.

Kildare30 (Kildare) - Posts: 603 - 20/07/2014 21:37:30    1622425

Tomas O SE thinks we weren't physical enough and getting hard tackles in.. I mean looking at it again,why didn't we give a few belts and give them so much space..

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 20/07/2014 21:49:44    1622447

Today the blame rests with the management. It is Mick O Dowd's job with his selectors to find the best 15 to 30 players in Meath and prepare them physically and mentally for days like today.
If Dalton McDonagh, Joey Wallace and Bryan McMahon are three of the best forwards in Meath football, it just shows how bad club football must be.

Physically Meath looked jaded before half-time and tactically O Dowd made too many changes resulting in many players playing out of position.

Royal_Truth (Meath) - Posts: 8 - 20/07/2014 21:59:56    1622467

Think the problem is very simple really.....This Dublin panel and management are away ahead of us at this point in every respect. Put simply we have about 6 players starting with Kevin Reilly who are at inter county standard at this time. We are not at the races around the middle when the chips are down.

nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1224 - 20/07/2014 22:00:19    1622469

No point knocking the players for everything yesterday..it was a bad day at the office and yes, when 20 points down the towel was long thrown in.

The management tactically got it all wrong..but deck chairs on the titanic is how I see it.

Extremely limited in the forward section with Bray as the only target.

On the other side.. Dublin are incredible and the rest of the country need to see that.

Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 757 - 21/07/2014 09:12:26    1622498

I've written this many times now since the end of last year and it never gets posted...

How in the name of God can management think that Joey Wallace and especially Dalton McDonagh are better footballers and forwards than Cian Ward and Brian Farrell? It was an absolute embarrassment and responsibility lies solely with management.

Wallace and McDonagh are good honest lads and I'm sure they will contribute to Meath football at some stage but Farrell is only 30, Ward is 28. Why were they dropped when they are the two best forwards in Meath (S Bray apart).

Wallace, a talented but very slight and young (only just out of school) was brought on yesterday for Graham Reilly half way through the first half, a brilliant players on his day and one with years of conditioning and strength. This was simply an outrageous decision by the management team. Graham was played totally out of position. What a waste. Its not as if we are brimming with talented forwards to begin with.

It was a shambles from start to finish. For kickouts we just let them run into space and didnt even bother marking them. You'd think that they would at least pull and drag them a bit or at least chase them rather than making it so easy for them to win their kickouts.

And then to cap it all off, we whinged afterwards about a bite. Jaysus lads, Meath footballer, now we've lost our tradition of manliness and never complaining, is at an all time low.

Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1318 - 21/07/2014 09:14:14    1622500

As others have said it was Men V's Boys or Pros V'x Amateurs, whichever way you want to look at it. Most excellent Dublin performance I've seen in a while. Very few of our lads are physically able for this sort of game against a team of that calibre. In hindsight MOD and crew got it all wrong yesterday, last week most people agreed with the selections. Have seen a few comments about Menton good/bad and indifferent. I've seen him play in 6 different positions for Meath. Yesterday he was played differently to previous games this year. Think it's beyond time he's given a position and let settle into it. Please, let's not hear any more about Cian, Joe or anyone else that is not on the panel. Big ask to lift the lads for the next day, but Armagh are very beatable and if the lads can lift themselves I do believe there'll be another day out after that at least! Keep the faith and "Hon the Royal"!

moylagh (Meath) - Posts: 484 - 21/07/2014 10:09:56    1622546

Everything aside. The bite is a low point for me and I mean in way it was handled. We are been portrayed as whingers. Was there a need for mod to rush back into media room?? Would Sean boylan have done that? Follow the protocol whatever that is, but I don't think it involves running to media. Micky is now been castigated left right and center (unfairly IMO) plenty of lessons need to be learned from performance , attitude , training regimes (as what's been done is not working) we have tired in every game this year.
Tactics , match ups etc. But also to and excuse the pun bite your lip and say nothing until you know more.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 21/07/2014 11:21:55    1622649

Have to admit that was a truly shocking performance from Meath yesterday. Never expected them to win but at the very least we expected a bit of a battle and to make life a little more difficult for the Dubs than it has been to date. Apart from the few players mentioned i.e. Keoghan, Tobin, K.Reilly and Bray all others failed to perform. Really think MOD and management team got this all wrong. Tactics were dreadful how you can concede possession from kick-outs and then hope to turn it over from players who have far superior fitness and strenght is extremely naive. No business trying to go toe to toe with this Dublin team we needed to be far more defensively minded to have had any hope. Went in yesterday hoping to see the gap narrowing but came away shocked at how far it has widened. Lot of soul searching to be done this week by all involved.

Greenwood (Meath) - Posts: 210 - 21/07/2014 11:33:07    1622669

moylagh

Agree,Menton is being ruined by constantly changing positions..He was excellent under-age at 6 for Meath,and generally when he plays for the seniors.I have been saying this for years now,he must play at 6 consistently.

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 21/07/2014 13:15:21    1622869

never said anything. about dubs. frankly i dont care its meath that are bad and most teams in country would have beatin us yesterday ,dublin will win sam easy for nextfew years as they are the best team by a mile ,but all the trainning diets planning effort that meath team make all year to see that joke of an effort yesterday its a sad day for meath football that we wer so far off the level needed ,may be we should take a break from football for a year or ten ,now can anyone read the home page im sure its says meath form so take a hike

matthematx (Meath) - Posts: 177 - 21/07/2014 14:53:45    1623006

Crinigan
I really have to agree with what you are saying. I have beeen posting the exaxt same regarding some of our forwards within the panel that dont have the finishing threats at club level let alone inter county. Now personally, I think Mick O Dowd is a top class manager and he has cut and changed the panel almost spot on. I would however have kept either Farrell or Ward as a finisher. James McEntee came on as a forward yesterday? I genuinely believe Na Fianna have better forwards than McDonagh even.
I know people do think that we need to forget the past and move on, and they are correct. But surely on the last two games evidence, we are extremely shy on poachers? So much so that Newman played out the field to balance the forwards.
Again, I must stress that I agree totally with the panel cut, but perhaps one or two need to be recalled and not forgotten about.

tackleberry (Meath) - Posts: 324 - 21/07/2014 15:43:10    1623083