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I have been following Meath Football for 40 years. When the present management took over my opinion is Meath football was at its lowest since before Sean took over.They took the brave decision to start from scratch & went with a youth policy with a few experienced players to lead them.THe 1st half performance last Sunday was fast direct dynamic & imo one of the best Meath croke park performances in yrs.2nd half was the strangest half of football ive ever seen wat happened i dont know b it mental/fitness/thought it was won no idea(westmth were excellent).Where the plan went wrong this year 4 mgt was the experienced players kreilly, sororke, cgillespi ,mburke,thebrays through mainly injuries & not havin a run of games hav been unable to lead the younger lads-it was evident against leix in the league which wud hav got us to Div 1. We now have a young squad with harnan, wallaces ,rooney ,flanagan ,mcentee all 21 with mcgill, tobin, keogan, menton, biggy ,tormy,mcmahon,newman not much older.There are another 10-15 21 y/os & under on d squad have had a chance or are in development training so imo the present mgt have done a good job building from scratch.We have gud players in most positions WE JUST NEED TO FIND A CHB & if there is one out there we r in busines.Whoever manages meath over the next few years will inherit a serious squad & imo will start in a better position than the present mgt did 3 years ago & i predict Meath will win all irelands in the next 10 years.We were never going to catch up with Dublin in 3 yrs.I hope the county board will convince Dowd to stay- it will be a brave decision but for meath football the right one. Navan4ever (Meath) - Posts: 2 - 01/07/2015 17:34:31 1746139 Link 0 |
Interesting first post and I admire your optimism. You are a correct on a number of matters for sure.O'Dowd took the brave and correct decision to start from scratch when he first came in.I admire him for that,and supported him on that too.However the more time has gone on,it is clear to see that he struggles in the tactical aspect of the game.He has not learnt from last years mistakes,that is for certain.He is a good guy,but he will be gone by the end of the season. ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 01/07/2015 17:46:42 1746144 Link 0 |
Navan 4 ever That all sounds very familiar indeed . Even MOD speak ! Think you can drop that ball. Its flat anyway.But no harm in trying a wind up ! nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1228 - 01/07/2015 17:49:31 1746146 Link 0 |
Alex Ferguson was always one game away from the sack when he started out with man utd..it took him 3 seasons to get it right,When he took charge of Man Utd he sold alot of players and some were top class like Paul McGrath,the things that were said about him in the papers for the first three years at Man Utd you would not write them about a bad Dog! WhyTheLongFace (Meath) - Posts: 878 - 01/07/2015 20:56:12 1746245 Link 0 |
Happen to agree with the above. reylux (Meath) - Posts: 3 - 01/07/2015 21:26:59 1746257 Link 0 |
100% agree. Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6345 - 02/07/2015 11:05:56 1746367 Link 0 |
I agree the the above post. I always believe Meath have the talent. We just have to manage it tight. MOD has done a good job. We are a really young team that need our support not our criticism. Meathmen (Meath) - Posts: 73 - 02/07/2015 11:23:20 1746380 Link 0 |
Jinxie ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 02/07/2015 12:12:20 1746407 Link 0 |
Jinxiee ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 02/07/2015 12:14:47 1746411 Link 0 |
I dont think anyone really believes the problem stems with MOD. He makes mistakes for sure but even if they won last sunday they are still very much a tier 2 football team. In order to become tier 1 they need to look at re-inventing the club game in Meath. The standard of the Meath team is reflective of the clubs in Meath. greenrow (Meath) - Posts: 44 - 02/07/2015 12:28:05 1746420 Link 0 |
greengrow ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 02/07/2015 12:55:57 1746444 Link 0 |
Ziggy Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6345 - 02/07/2015 13:19:55 1746457 Link 0 |
Greenrow Yes it is a very major task to remedy the situation..Primary responsibility for identifying and taking remedial action rests squarely with the COUNTY BOARD. MOD was given a task for a 3 year period.That is now due for review as is normal. I believe the objectives set were not met. No body expected INSTANT SUCCESS. Most people including me would want to see measurable progress.THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED! Agreed the low level of football in Meath is not MOD's fault alone. It would be normal for any new manager to make mistakes of course.It is also reasonable to expect he would learn from mistakes. To me he has not . Several posters have raised the area of lack of a defensive strategy as an example.It is glaringly obvious nothing was done to attend to this since last year. Fitness? mental approach?? teamwork? spirit?. As an ordinary joe i do not know the ins and outs..Perhaps MICKO asked for specific assistance that was not granted etc. i dont know.. I will say i do believe he gave it HIS best shot. He cannot be happy with where we are now. I do believe he will go himself in a dignified way as befits a gentleman like MICKO. I am sure all supporters feel a big thanks is due to Micko.and accept that he alone could not put right the shortcomings in MEATH football build up for 15 years i suggest. nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1228 - 02/07/2015 13:47:33 1746469 Link 0 |
Supporters are not stupid , most of yous clearly believe that yous have the players so if yous think that then yous probably have. Throughout the 90s and 00s , I always believed that Donegal had the footballers. I rememebr people laughing at me when i said in 2010 that we have the players to win Sam. We played lovely free flowing football in the late 00s but always ran short of Armagh and Tyrone : something had to change : MANAGEMENT . Obviously Meath is one of the traditionalists of GAA and id only love it if we had half the Sams as yous however yous need a new appraoch . TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 02/07/2015 17:59:09 1746610 Link 0 |
TheRightStuff ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 02/07/2015 18:12:14 1746616 Link 0 |
Meath played great football in first half because for first 35 min there was only one team competing. Westmeath never showed up they made us look like world beaters, but still during that period got through our midfield and defence with some ease. Listening to a playback on Newstalk, Anthony Moyles and commentator were remarking that Westmeath were surely one of the poorest teams they had seen playing championship football in years. The confidence of the players has been shot to ribbons, Donal Keogan looks a pale shadow of the excellent player we know he is. This constant playing lads in positions they are not comfortable with is no way to manage a team. seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2152 - 02/07/2015 20:23:26 1746673 Link 0 |
Lads, the standard of football played at club level is an indication how good Meath football is- average to poor McGiolla (Cavan) - Posts: 42 - 02/07/2015 20:27:01 1746678 Link 0 |
Pi**Ed me off to see Kerry win last year. Would have put fitzmaurice on par with mod in terms of developing new squad etc bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1792 - 02/07/2015 20:29:55 1746680 Link 0 |
Lads -I hope we beat Tyrone a lot will depend on how quickly we can recover from last sunday plus they will raise their game playing against us so I think they are worthy favourites.I dont think either team will win sam this year but If you were to ask me which of them has the best chance to win it in the next 10 years I would say Meath.Over the last 3 years imo menton,biggy,donal,tobin have really improved & shud be our leaders going forward with gillespie shane & bray.i dont think kevin has anything left to give- nobody has given more to the meath cause a brilliant servant over the last 10 years.Paddy is potentially the best goalkeeper we have ever had,he was v disappointing last sunday but i think he will learn the most from the game& be a far better player for it.mcgill is a great find carroll& newman are still huge prospects & all 3 will only get better but why i am so optimistic is the potential in the younger fellas from mcentee in the backs to 2 big midfield lads,harnan,wallaces, mcmahon ,power,dalton.they crumbled on sunday but i have seem glimpses all year from everyone of them in 1 game or anothe that they have the ability & class to become serious players.add to that list osullivan moynalvy,sheridan/tobin simonstown kieran lenihan is flying in skryne,o coilan from omahonys,landy from pats,obrienfrom ratoath,lenihan &jones from dunboyne to name a few.all forward type players i know -we really need to find a nononsense strong rugged tough defender. Navan4ever (Meath) - Posts: 2 - 02/07/2015 20:59:16 1746707 Link 0 |
Navan4ever seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2152 - 02/07/2015 21:22:01 1746727 Link 0 |