Lads...I was at the game and just moments before Bray was taken off he was on the ground stretching out his calf's and quads. Maybe he was injured and that's why he came off? ?

HonestView (Meath) - Posts: 38 - 11/07/2015 19:29:35    1751531

So ends the season.

I have to say that has been the worst I have experienced in recent history (2001 Qualifiers onward)

A 4 point win over Wicklow
A humiliating collapse and first defeat to Westmeath in a Leinster semi final
Crash out of the Qualifier against another northern team.

Wicklow and Meath were the last two teams to play first championship game in 2015. And season is over in first full weeked in July.

I'm hoping this is a watershed moment and drastic measures are implemented. Yes the squad needs time to develop (my only agreement with O Dowd) but his tactics and game management has made Meath a laughing stock.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 757 - 11/07/2015 19:51:57    1751541

Well that was a long trip for another predictable disappointment, once again we got outscored in the second half and Tyrone pushed on while we faded somewhat (not as badly as against Westmeath obviously). They seemed to win most if the ball around the middle after the break and looked dangerous in attack, while we looked ponderous going forward, anyway it's a long wait till January and who knows what the set up will be by then.

I am expecting to see MOD leave but this won't be the answer to all our prayers, there's still a worrying lack if talent in the county, it's incredibly frustrating at this stage, what the hell is going on?

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 11/07/2015 20:04:45    1751546

I'm hearing Bray had to come off, I too saw him on the ground in front of the stand stretching and being attended too, let's not all find sticks to beat management with for long spells of that game we defended like tigers and there was real effort on show today, for me it wasn't a penalty but look if you open your mouth as a Meath man on any decision you get 2010 thrown in your face with venom so really what's the point. We had chances and that has been the issue this year, we created enough chances to be promoted and enough chances to be in a Leinster Final and enough chances to win today but our conversion rate has been awful, how many league games had we wides in double figures, how many wides in that first half against Westmeath where we should have been 15 or 16 up at half time, again today even playing into the mouths of about 13 Tyrone players we created enough to win and as I said before today our defence was fantastic at times. Whether MOD stays or not is probably not going to be his call although I heard him on RTE saying he would be reluctant to leave this group behind, I have no faith in the club delegates in this county voting for anything right as there is always an agenda, always an axe to grind and many would rather see their personal beliefs or satisfaction justified over what's good for the county. If MOD does stay then back room additions would be needed, we need to harness that type of tigerish in your face defending that I saw today, that fight, that aggression we need more off that and we need it from February on. I firmly believe being in Division 1 would bring this squad on a ton and that must be a priority, Division 2 next year is no more difficult than any year and I wouldn't fear the influx of northern teams to the division, none of them are any great shakes and to be perfectly honest we shouldn't give a toss about them, we will have as much chance of promotion as this year but one way or another out management set up for next year needs to be sorted ASAP, no waiting till September or October when club championships are near an end we must begin preparing for 2016 within weeks that's the work we must do because we do have a squad I believe that can be successful I've seen enough of them to believe that so let's get it sorted out lets get down to work lets get using this big new facility in Dunganny and roll on the O'Byrne Cup till I freeze the balls of myself smoking fags in the stand of Pairc Tailteann looking forward to better days which will come. An Mhi abu

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 11/07/2015 20:07:52    1751548

Richieq

Good post.

I'm expecting mod to be there for the 2017 championship. Agree on a couple of additions to the backroom. Moyles hopefully.

Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6344 - 11/07/2015 20:43:03    1751566

Lads 3 yearss in and mod finally did what most on here were calling for but to little to late joey coming on when game needed to b won is last nail in mods coffin , not joeys fault just a young fella willing to play for his county , shot selection again a problem we had enough chances to win , but like some others are saying on here talent may not be there if we had one player of sean cavanaghs class we would have won good luck to tyrone and westmeath dont expect ethier to trouble the big guns and the fact that they both beat us tells you how far we have fallen , I think in fairness to this management team and d last one the net has been spread far and wide looking for players with sor gillespy and a fully fit kevin reilly e wallace and newman we could have done better we dont have the squad to deal with any of these players let alone all of them missing queeney could have been an option with 5 mins left is he still on d panel and what happened sor is he gone or will we ever see him and gillespy back in d green and gold

matthematx (Meath) - Posts: 177 - 11/07/2015 21:22:09    1751587

Poor stuff today from both sides taught Meath would not score in 1st half but going in ahead was a bit of a shock but maybe not much as Tyrone were just as bad or maybe worse as they kicked some wides.
Rooney and Tobin stood out for me and really gave all they had, our forwards en bloc were very disappointing, but McMahon playing as a back in the 2nd half was bewildering.
It was clear both Bray and McMahon where suffering from tiredness or cramp or injury when they where subbed and very clear Kevin Reilly is still far from being fit. By his appearance after the Final Whistle I doubt we will ever see him in a Meath jersey again.
McEntee did play midfield from start to when he was subbed, Taut he was left on Peter Harte too long as Harte was very good when it counted

Meath need a free taker once again that cost us a bit, Peno was debatable some refs would not give it some would at the end of the day we probably would have expected it if it was on our side so I have no issuse there. It was a great move that ended with Wallace shot going wide another day it would have went in no blame should go on anyone there.
They where probably a little better at the end of the day not much though but as said already Meath tackling was as good as I ever saw.
I hope Mick and the boys stay on.

As a note this was the team that started. McHugh, Keoghan, McGill, Dalton, Harnan, Tobin, Menton, McEntee, Rooney, Reilly, Bray, Tormey, Wallace, Newman, McMahon

glenny (Meath) - Posts: 1108 - 11/07/2015 21:26:26    1751595

Richieq -it is easy to defend when you get everybody behind the ball and forget to attack. Moyles is good at writing but I'm not sure what else he could bring to the table- what has he managed???. Adding to the panel would be equally as important as adding to backroom team.

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 11/07/2015 21:26:50    1751597

Honestly I thought it was a decent performance from Meath today. We for the second year in a row failed to break down a mass defence. We also adopted Kerry's tactic last year against Donegal whereby we mirrored Tyrone's mass defence and as it did cause a horrible spectacle, it worked and allowed us to stay in the game. We at times had 14 men behind the ball. The second half was where the game opened up to a slight degree. Rooney started to tire in the centre and he was our target for every kick out and we Tyrone started dominating. They got a ridiculous penalty and we were forced to go man to man at the back. But Tyrone are arguably one of the top teams in the country at seeing out a game and thats what they done. They dominated possession and Niall Morgan their keeper slowed the game down at every kick out

PoppinPoints (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 11/07/2015 21:30:59    1751603

New management needed. Another year another predictable defeat. next year the league needs to be treated as our championship. Division 1 football is how we improve and if we fail next year to go up then it will be at least 2018 before we get to division 1.

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 11/07/2015 21:34:09    1751609

For anyone to say Meath Football has not improved in 3 years really lads think about it, jog the memory's lads 3 years ago Meath where a real shambles losing to Laois with Banty making Meath look like a ridiculous unorganised bunch. Ok Meath are not where Meath people want or wish them to be but Meath are well ahead of where they where when the Banty Show Rolled out

numberedjerseys (USA) - Posts: 348 - 11/07/2015 21:38:27    1751611

Just home from Omagh.Cant criticise any of the players,they all give everything they had for the cause. We did set up more defensivly today and defended brilliantly for most of the game.Tobin and Keogan outstanding in particular. One of the best games ive seen Biggy play for meath he stood up and showed leadership at important times in the match kicking 3 exceptional points. Didnt have a great view of what exactly happened with the penalty incident but the tyrone player did seem to take a lot of steps, however my issue was with the free awarded that led to the penalty incident from which i was right beside, tormey clearly won the ball without touching the tyrone player and the ref awarded them the free and that was the game changer. Honestly believe meath would of won the game if the penalty incident didnt happen. But sure thats it gone now!! Still plenty of poisitives to take from that performance today gong into next year, but a lot to learn from as well.

royalfollower (Meath) - Posts: 77 - 11/07/2015 21:38:31    1751612

Jinxie
County: Meath
Posts: 5902

1751471
A lot of over the the top stuff lads. There were a few very fine margins there today. Defence was very good. Good system, Good discipline shown. Take a very very soft penalty and a few frees out and Tyrone only scored 6 points from play, at home. Although there was a lapse for the point Peter harte got which we weren't switched on for.

Losing eamon Wallace so early didn't help but though lenihan done very well. We had missed three frees, kicked another two sides, dropped another into the keepers hands and hand a goal chance well saved, ALL before we got a single score. That's huge in a game that finished with 11 scores each.

Lads calling for management to go despite a decent performance in a game where the elements and ref played very much into tyrones hands.

Give mod 2 more years and then see where we are. He's building a very young squad and there was plenty to take from today's game.

100% correct Jinxie. Quite frustrating to read all the negative posts after seeing the team put in a massive effort. The majority of posters here probably didn't even travel to Omagh.

Just to address a few points made by others. Bray ran himself into the ground as did everyone else in a green jersey. He made so many runs back which wouldn't normally have been made but that was just the nature of today's game. I'd say he just got cramp and had to be withdrawn. The Joey Wallace bashing is ridiculous and I've said this before but haters will persist I suppose. He somehow came out with the ball from a scrap involving four or five players when no one including myself expected him to. He was at the end of a goal chance and did well to even get a shot away such was the lack of space in front of goal.

I thought we set up very well even though it took us a while to come to terms with Tyrone's style of play. The penalty was obviously key because Tyrone didn't look capable of outscoring us with points and couldn't seem to break down our outstanding defence. Newman missed a couple of frees early on but worked extremely hard and his goal chance was very much his own work. Just unfortunate that it was on his left foot and he didn't make great contact with the ball. Otherwise, I thought we were quite economical with our scoring opportunities. I'm not even going to single out individual performances because every player left everything on the pitch and that was extremely satisfying. It must be said however that Lenihan didn't look at all out of place which is encouraging heading into next year. While a lot of old-school supporters will say this was a dour contest, I thought it was fascinating and found it quite enjoyable, the result aside of course!

Like you said Jinxie, I hope Micko is given another 2 years and with one or two additions to his backroom team, Moyles seems a popular choice, we can look forward to 2016 with optimism. The problem here is that a lot of clubs would have an agenda against himself and the county board. Ultimately 2015 has proved to be a disappointment, but I for one am very proud of the team's efforts today.

MarkMyWords (Meath) - Posts: 498 - 11/07/2015 21:44:25    1751617

numberedjerseys

Competitive sport is a results business, Banty certainly didn't do much to bring us along but going by results this is our worst championship since 2008, so I can't see how we're well ahead now compared to when Banty left, in fact we've actually gone back.

I don't know what Meath football needs at this stage, complete overhaul comes to mind but we just can't seem to dig ourselves out of the hole we sank into way back in 2001 and for a county our size, with all the club's and playing population that's deplorable.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 11/07/2015 21:48:27    1751622

McHugh was right , not about Meath football going soft but rather there supporters going soft, were any of you at the game? It was horrendous.
We are applauding getting beat by the worst Tyrone team in 2 decades, we are delighted with moral victories, and all this after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Westmeath (first ever) not to mention the scraping by Wicklow or the fact we failed to get promotion out of the easiest div 2 in years, yeah plenty of positives, cop on.
Worst season since 08 at least then management did the honourable thing

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 11/07/2015 22:04:14    1751643

royaldunne
County: Meath
Posts: 7830

1751643 McHugh was right , not about Meath football going soft but rather there supporters going soft, were any of you at the game? It was horrendous.
We are applauding getting beat by the worst Tyrone team in 2 decades, we are delighted with moral victories, and all this after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Westmeath (first ever) not to mention the scraping by Wicklow or the fact we failed to get promotion out of the easiest div 2 in years, yeah plenty of positives, cop on.
Worst season since 08 at least then management did the honourable thing

Hang on a minute now RD, to answer your first question yes I was at the game and secondly I am not applauding getting beaten nor am I delighted with moral victories, I never have been nor will be so you can scrap that notion. But what I am is a realist and I call it as I see it so its not me that needs to cop on but a few others around here could open their eyes and see the crap thats been going on in our county particuarlty since 2010, and realise that restoring our county to glory is a damn hard task. There is no such thing as an easy Division 2 no matter what you might think, we have been battling around various incarnations of Division 2, and indeed Divison 3, since 2005 and there were plenty of those divisions that were lacking in quality but we didnt get up except for 2007 when we did win the bloody thing but thanks to more tampering we never saw Division 1. Ive outlined the reasons as to why we didnt get promoted and I believe they are valid points I make. I dont want second best, I dont want moral victories and Ive been critical of management and players on various occasions this year but I acknowledge the youth, inexperience and work that needs to be done not just physically but mentally on this team. I stand by all I said previously and just because I may have an overall different opinion from you doesnt make me soft nor does it mean I am satisfied with moral victories, in fact the total opposite is true.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 12/07/2015 08:19:26    1751647

royaldunne
County: Meath
Posts: 7830

1751643
McHugh was right , not about Meath football going soft but rather there supporters going soft, were any of you at the game? It was horrendous.
We are applauding getting beat by the worst Tyrone team in 2 decades, we are delighted with moral victories, and all this after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Westmeath (first ever) not to mention the scraping by Wicklow or the fact we failed to get promotion out of the easiest div 2 in years, yeah plenty of positives, cop on.
Worst season since 08 at least then management did the honourable thing


totally agree. lads comin on here saying we defended well, were any of you actually at the match ?? how many times did peter harte breeze past our DEFENDERS as if they wernt there. "AT TIMES" we defended well & sometimes we defended really well, but unfortuneately you have to do it all the time. in the 2nd half i was directly in line with our half forwrds & the amount of ball we gave up was criminal. and when the ball was lost we gave up too easily. biggy scored 3 fantastic points but too often he didnt look interested. great when he gets the ball & goes on a run but as soon as it gets tough loses interest. we've allowed ourselves become soft. our underage structures are a joke. underage managers basically decide what division their team plays in. too many times a team hammers all around them & gets easy medals, thats no good for them or the teams theyre beating. if underage was more competitive young lads would have a bit of fight in them from an early age. martin mchugh wasnt far away & we all took offence to his comments, we as a county should take on board what has been said & ask ourselves has he got a point ?

royal69er (Meath) - Posts: 96 - 12/07/2015 09:09:28    1751656

Overall I was pleased with the effort, playing against a blanket defense system is never pretty. I thought the 2nd half was a great exciting game of football and we easily could have won it with a bit of luck. I do have my gripe with the management setup, the same subs are used all the time and have very little impact, Joey Wallace really should have scored that chance, why not bring O'Rourke if we were needing a goal 5 mins from time. Mickey Newman is just an annoyance to look at ----. Overall I feel a lot better than 2 weeks ago, think it is time for MOD to step away no execuse for that collapse against Westmeath.

AthboyGael (Meath) - Posts: 75 - 12/07/2015 09:34:16    1751663

Graham Geraghty as manager?, are you having a laugh Royaldunne?. ---------

AthboyGael (Meath) - Posts: 75 - 12/07/2015 09:38:58    1751665

Fair enough if mod gets another year but he should be let go if they fail to get promotion in the league. he needs to prepare early for next season and hit the league in championship shape. If we get promoted anything after that is a bonus.

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 12/07/2015 10:16:02    1751674