Brian

likely we will have a lot of injuries within the squad too..

McGill they will know for sure next week,but he was not responding well to treatment,

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 05/11/2015 14:07:38    1804665

Going through that list, how many will we be missing in the that we would have reasonably expected to be a starter?

Conor Gillespie - long term injury, didnt expect him to be available.
Adam Flanagan - not certain if he would be a starter yet though would be a loss to panel
Cian O'Sullivan - long term injury, didnt expect him to be available.
Mark O'Sullivan - squad player really, not 1st team
now Conor McGill - I expect him to be back for league

Kevin Reilly - expected retirement
Stephen Bray - expected retirement
David Bray - expected retirement & off the pace last year
Mickey Burke - not retiring


Brian Menton - definitely a loss
Shane O'Rourke - not surprised but still a loss
Jamie Queeney - not surprised really, not a major loss
Damian Carroll - definitely a loss

So the only significant losses over what we expected to have in my mind are Menton, O'Rourke and Carroll. Others will be missed and Gillespie will be very hard to replace of course. I dont want to understate it but talk of a dozen or so players is a bit itt in my mind.
I would hope that the management will identify and develop players. Hopefully McCabe will bring a bit of nous to the setup missing in previous years and that the strength and conditioning programme will kick in.

Still hoping to be competitive in division 2 of league and take it from there.

oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 05/11/2015 14:44:02    1804684

Micky Burke is 29 lads, can we stop putting him down as a senior citizen. He'll be part of the panel in 2015/16.

The panel are back training along with the "trialists" since last week, bar the Ratoath lads and lads who are still involved with their clubs.

RedMeath12 (Meath) - Posts: 117 - 05/11/2015 14:49:11    1804687

Oldsam

I think we have lost a lot of midfield options though.At present we only really have Rooney..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 05/11/2015 16:34:01    1804724

Ziggy - We don't necessarily have to look for a tall high-fielder to play midfield. The day of the big slow midfielder fetching balls out of the sky is gone. Why not try a smaller more dynamic midfielder to play alongside Rooney. Tormey has played midfield and has the engine for it (although he was terrible against Westmeath last year). Donnacha Tobin could be tried at midfield. Why not try something different than the standard 2 big men.

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 05/11/2015 17:55:27    1804753

an fearbeag

No I agree 100% with you,but even so we lack those options.Do we take Tobin out of the backline were we are weak enough as it is? Tormey cannot play midfield imo,but we may have little choice..Talk about Cian O'Brien but we don't know how good he really is yet.Plus you need options from the bench to freshen up midfield.Look what happened when we took Rooney off against Westmeath last year.Flanagan is injured,but imo he is not good enough..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 05/11/2015 19:26:34    1804792

Ziggy - I'd take him out of corner back anyway. He isn't even particularly good there. If he isn't going to play as a wing half back (and we have a few options there), then why not try him at midfield.

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 05/11/2015 20:50:48    1804825

Absolutely,he should be wing back.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 06/11/2015 11:36:15    1804904

Damian Carroll has not fully retired, he has ruled out playing this coming year, but may return in future if there was a change.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 08/11/2015 16:48:55    1805348

By my reckoning there are 8 players from the 2014 Leinster final not going to be involved next year. That's basically a whole new team required. Considering the numbers retiring/not playing next year for whatever reasons recently, it's hard to be anyway optimistic about our chances for promotion to Div 1 or getting any sort of an extended run in the championship.

moylagh (Meath) - Posts: 484 - 09/11/2015 16:43:55    1805679

moylagh

You have to be realistic,our squad will be simply too young,inexperienced and lack alot of physic..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 09/11/2015 21:11:33    1805773

This might explain some of the reasons why players are taking a rest
'Mike McGurn, who coached the Irish Rugby team from 2005-2007 and the All Blacks in 2008-2009, is currently working with the Queen's Sigerson team. He told me: "Joe, put it this way. Most inter-county teams have a bigger training load than the All Blacks." McGurn, in common with his colleagues, points out that there is no comparable sport in the world with a training-v-game ratio like ours. The average ratio in inter-county football is 12-14 sessions per game. Compare that to professional soccer, basketball or American football, where the ratio is a maximum of four or five sessions per game. Mental'.

Maybe this should be on a new tread- it is a very interesting Joe Brolly article and worth reading for anyone involved in our games

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 10/11/2015 10:23:20    1805831

browncows,

good article that but my question would be 12-14 sessions over a two week span(normal gap in championship proper) between games is overkill provided 3-4 of those sessions are recovery based. the problem is amplified when the players are duel players or are involved with colleges early in the year.

I think an interesting stat would be to compare the number of cruciate and hamstring injuries suffered by teams who have played two or more qualifiers against the teams who have come through the championship proper. I bet if this info was pulled from the last say 3 years, the teams that consistently go through the qualys(such as meath)have a far higher injury count due to not having the right recovery time/methods in place.

Irish_downunder (Meath) - Posts: 631 - 10/11/2015 10:49:09    1805841

So anymore rumours of who is going to get a look in.?

Anyone know of any challenges coming up.??

RedMeath12 (Meath) - Posts: 117 - 16/11/2015 13:36:59    1807574

I think Bobby O'Brien is a serious option at 11 now..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 17/11/2015 11:58:02    1807867

Ziggy, you'll get a telling off re "another Ratoath player"..
If he's good enough couldn't care less if he plays with NOM, Ratoath, St Pauls or whoever else, so long as they do a job for the team

brian (Meath) - Posts: 1954 - 17/11/2015 13:36:40    1807925

Brian

He will be in the panel for sure and has a good chance of starting imvho

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 17/11/2015 14:07:33    1807941

If he kicks scores I couldn't care less.

Just hope he doesn't lose the head and do something stupid.

RedMeath12 (Meath) - Posts: 117 - 17/11/2015 15:25:56    1807978

RedMeath12

He hasn't lost the head this year so far,so..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 17/11/2015 16:01:03    1807995

I know this isn't going to sound good, but I wouldn't really mind a couple of players on the panel who are liable to lose the head from time to time. At least it shows a bit of aggression or passion which could hopefully be channelled into something positive. Like Diarmuid Connolly for Dublin. Always liable to do something stupid, but when the head is right he is a brilliant asset. The last player we had who you would in any way call aggressive was Peadar Byrne. Martin McHugh was right when he said that Meath have gone soft in recent years. We have too many nice footballers who you couldn't imagine throwing a dig at a lad who needed it, or launching into a skirmish if the situation called for it. When Westmeath came back at us in the second half this year, it was calling out for a few players to cause some aggro and disrupt their rhythm. Instead we stood back and let them play. No way the Meath teams of the past would have done that. No way Tyrone, or Dublin, or even Kerry would do it now.
I don't think Bobby O'Brien is that sort of player either, but we do need a couple of lads with a bit more aggression to them.

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 17/11/2015 17:52:47    1808031