Richieq

Fair play for calling it as is. A lot of effort is going into bringing Meath Football off the bottom. The critics here make no sense.Blaming management for not bringing on subs early when subs mentioned were due to injury/tiredness of starters. Should the starters have gotten themselves injured earlier.

Ashrules (Dublin) - Posts: 518 - 16/03/2015 14:20:35    1703393

Richieq my sentiments exactly! No more to be said!

David (Meath) - Posts: 567 - 16/03/2015 14:42:14    1703406

Richieq

Agree with you completely great post

runnerin (Meath) - Posts: 202 - 16/03/2015 15:24:15    1703439

Agreed
It has been a long time since I saw a meath team play with so much energy,pace,power,hunger and good passing as I witnessed on sat in the first half.Yes their will be problems and errors made but that is part of coming together.When you hear people on this post over the last 2 years saying menton is only a full back or not on team that will tell you how much they know.Menton right now looks like a Dublin midfielder or half-back with his power ,strength and pace.The team compared to last year defintly look stronger and faster.Mcgill looks a serious prospect and with a few more to come back I like what im seeing.
Minors played really well on Saturday also
Lets get Wallace,dalton,gillespie and I really believe mark o Sullivan despite a few misses has a lot to offer to this young team
Support and be positive
Think back 4 years ago we were slow,one dimensional,and no hunger.Ok we might have had a few better players but I believe micko and lads are turning the corner

tampa (Meath) - Posts: 54 - 16/03/2015 15:46:19    1703449

Royaldunne and Ziggy, why is Carroll not happy and other players in meath camp

1. There a problem in meath back line ? They let 7 points lead slip
2. There a problem in forwards , 1. Point in 35 minutes
3, manager 20 minutes. He looked at lead slip ,

Lads Time to wake up

Doitmyway1212 (Meath) - Posts: 72 - 16/03/2015 15:59:04    1703461

Doitmyway. I don't know what you quating me on?
Look ill be honest , i think mod is doing ok but he is also making some very basic errors', should we get rid of him ? Absolutely no, is he doing a great job ? Absolutely no. The truth lays somewhere in the middle.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 16/03/2015 17:08:45    1703500

A lot has been written on this forum in the aftermath of the match on Saturday night and generally I do subscribe to the theory that the management team were way too slow in making changes in the second half. It was clear to everyone in attendance that we had totally lost our grip on the game early in the second half but no substitutions were made when a couple of players were really struggling, it actually seemed to me that a tactical decision was made when we went seven points clear to adapt a way more defensive strategy inviting Laois onto us, we certainly have not mastered this defensive game and I would much prefer to see Graham Reilly spend his time in the opposition half than standing in a sweeper position in our backline ! One aspect that really needs to be addressed is long range free taking, Paddy O'Rourke is a magnificent fielder and good shot stopper as well and gives confidence to our defence but he simply does not have consistent accuracy as a free taker, MOD needs to stop this tactic now and hand the responsibility to proven exponents, admittedly Mickey Newman has lost some confidence mainly as a result of injury problems but he has a great range and well able to kick 45s and longer frees, MOD just sort this out and let Paddy continue to work on the kickout !!

Royal_Rover (Meath) - Posts: 72 - 16/03/2015 17:53:01    1703522

DOITMYWAY

What are you on about?

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 18:00:41    1703524

Lads Menton is our most athletic player,he has size,but also pace and power,against Laois he was all over the field.I thought he led by example

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 18:01:27    1703525

Lads, I sat through this match on Saturday night in Pairc Tailteann and its showing me everything that's good and bad in Meath football right now. I'll try to give as honest an assessment as I can. Bare in mind I am fan and want the best for my county, I support the team on a voluntary basis too, but for that support I'm entitled to have an opinion about it.

Firstly we need to realise we're not a top team. We're not top 8 in the country right now and going into division one would be like leading lambs to the slaughter. Whilst it would be good to play at that level and might bring the team on it could also set the team back a couple of years too. Talk of we could beat Mayo, Tyrone, Derry or Monaghan etc is pure bull. We don't have the players to do it right now and when was the last time we beat one of those teams? To stay in Division 1 you'd need to win 3 matches and at present we would not win three matches against any of those teams mentioned or Dublin, Kerry, Donegal or Cork. That's being as honest and realistic as we can be. We could potentially lose all 7 matches.

Secondly the management team are not good enough. For three years as a supporter I've sat through several matches where changes have needed to be made and nothing was done on the sideline. Lets be honest 2 games v Monaghan in Clones, game over after 20 minutes both times, the two leinster finals a corner back being torn assunder (burke v mannion in 13, Harnan v McManamon in 14) no change made and last saturday night we let a 7 point lead slip. Thats inexcusable. We have 6 subs these days, teams make changes after 15/20 minutes if there's something wrong MOD and his team do not make the changes until the damage is done. All too often on Saturday O'Loughlin caught the ball took off straight down the middle unopposed and wasn't stopped, dragged down at the 45 or further out. Take him down, if you get a tick, yellow or black card so be it but don't let an opposing player do the same thing over and over. Ultimately the team is a reflection of their manager, a good person, a hard worker but is lacking that killer instinct because they don't have that bit of devil in them.

Thirdly all this talk of injured players getting back is nonsense. We're claiming Flanagan and Rooney as great players and Menton is doing great at midfield and we want Gillespie too. Who drops out? We want wallace, bray, the o'sullivans reilly tormey, newman… which one of them players works back and takes ball like a paul flynn. Tormey is about the only one (maybe Wallace too) and you need those players in a team. A paul flynn, martin mchugh, donnacha walsh... we don't have one. People need to temper their fantasy team and have some balance.

Fourthly, Free taking needs to be sorted out. Newman is our best free taker and should be persisted with. Paddy needs to stay in goal unless its from 55+ yards. He's no Cluxton and 1 from 3/4 is not worth the wasted time. We'd Laois on the rack in the last 2 minutes. got a free, paddy took 40-50 seconds to get up and take the free. Newman should've taken it, even if it was wide we might have got another shot off or we could've worked a score from 45 yards.

brian (Meath) - Posts: 1954 - 16/03/2015 18:16:30    1703531

Fourthly, Free taking needs to be sorted out. Newman is our best free taker and should be persisted with. Paddy needs to stay in goal unless its from 55+ yards. He's no Cluxton and 1 from 3/4 is not worth the wasted time. We'd Laois on the rack in the last 2 minutes. got a free, paddy took 40-50 seconds to get up and take the free. Newman should've taken it, even if it was wide we might have got another shot off or we could've worked a score from 45 yards.

Fifth. There's still no forward plan All too often in the second half, high ball kicked to newman surrounded by 4/5 laois players and we lose possession, work the ball up. When we were behind we were going forward and the half backs stopped at the half way. while laois had 12 players back. 2 of them needed to push on and make extra men available. we need at least 3 forwards in the opposition 45 at all times but we don't have that. I've said this consistently since last summer.

Lastly, the first half showed there's hope for this team. We played with flow and speed. If we could play like this all of the time (or close to it) we could progress to being a top 8 team. I don't know what happened at half time (were they drugged) but the team were flat.. and in several games they've had these totally flat periods. these are costing us and we need them to be remedy.

brian (Meath) - Posts: 1954 - 16/03/2015 18:16:58    1703532

I agree with all your points Brian..

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 18:35:47    1703541

Brian

I actually think Alan Forde could do the McHugh,Flynn type job,but he decided not to join to the panel under this managament team.

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 18:38:23    1703544

Ziggy Royaldunne , time to wake up lads , look we have. Problems , in back line ,forwards line ,

Doitmyway1212 (Meath) - Posts: 72 - 16/03/2015 18:56:47    1703554

Doitmyway

I don't really get your point though?

Have you an actual point or question?

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 19:05:50    1703557

Brian ok we will take your option of staying in div 2 for another year, two of Monaghan Derry Donegal Tyrone will be in div 2 Next year so we have to play them anyway, then we will also have Armagh and Fermanagh, how is that better? With Galway and who else? Trust me id take relegated from div 1 than div 2. Any day of the week and twice on a Sunday. This is the weakest div 2 in many a year.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 16/03/2015 19:21:44    1703573

Ziggy I know you don't get the point , you have to know abouth the game Alan ford does not play for meath , you say meath back line not bad , 7 point lead slip , not good ,

Forward line 1 point 35 minutes not good ,

Doitmyway1212 (Meath) - Posts: 72 - 16/03/2015 19:21:54    1703574

Laois were very, very poor in first half, made us look a lot better than we are, we missed several scores why? because we are not good enough to take them.Forwards unable to score, backs unable to defend, no midfield and management who seem bemused by the whole thing. Can anyone give me one area where we have improved over last few years?

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2151 - 16/03/2015 20:16:16    1703598

I said some of the players did not perform badly.You cannot just blame the backs for letting a 7 point lead slip..

ziggy320001 (Meath) - Posts: 2432 - 16/03/2015 20:25:46    1703603

Spot on Brian.

I believe we have the players to be top 8.

Disappointed with lack of progress of management team.

Despite the draw which felt like a loss I thought there were some green shoots esp in first half

Ball moved fast, direct and with purpose.

And some of the blocks put in were pure class-body on the line stuff and a faint reminder of glory days.

Team needs to get more streetwise. We should have learned from Tyrone in 2013

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1792 - 16/03/2015 21:42:52    1703647