I have to say lads, Meath were bad the other night. However, they played one of the in form teams in the country who are flying it at the minute. Give or take 2 or 3 lads to come in, cannot see the team making a significant improvement. Meath do not have what it takes thats the harsh reality. That said, Banty has been let down big time by his players in my opinion. Take Reilly, Gilsenan and possibly Menton out of it, the rest are not performing to their capabilities. Not Bantys biggest fan, but nobody can disagree with the fact that the players are not performing.

tackleberry (Meath) - Posts: 324 - 26/03/2012 11:28:40    1137249

1.GALLAGHER 2.HARRINGTON 3.REILLY 4.KING 5.MCINARNEY 6.MENTON 7.LENIHAN 8.MEADE 9.SHANE OROURKE 10.KENNY 11.BRAY 12.REILLY 13.GILSENAN 14.FARRELL 15.WARD A few points I would like to make about the team that should be picked come summer time.. 1.We need to have experience in the back 6 and with this side i have picked i know this provides it. 2.Menton and Reilly provide and good spine with Lenihan and McInarney told to carry the ball forward with pace,burst through midfield and deliver ball 3King and Harrington are experienced players and are big strong men this is what we need in the full back line 4.In midfeild Meade to stay at midfield and try to win ball and try to keep it simple.SOR can roam forward and play the natural football he is capable of. 5.Stephen Bray to play the playmaker role coming back to midfield to win ball and run at there defence and also trying to pick out our full forwards 6.Kenny and Reilly to work there socks off in defence as well as attack these 2 guys are our first form of defence 7.Lastly just give good controlled ball into the 3 guys inside these guys are very natural footballers and well able to score

grahamc9897 (Meath) - Posts: 1174 - 26/03/2012 13:23:48    1137363

Ok lads and lasses (welcome joeblogs10) nice to have a female point of view for change.

Anyway we are looking at probable defeat against louth and that is fact. Number 2 I really am lost for words on the team with exception of bringing in dalton and starting carroll we seem to have the best players on team and that is so disheartening to say when you think of performance to date. I've excluded sor as still out I think. But that's it look at saturday night and that is 90% team for championship. Frightening.

Why oh why do they appear so tired is it too much training or lack of it?

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 26/03/2012 14:42:49    1137453

They look a yard off the pace closing down. It might be training, we don't know how Cahill's input has affected training and when the squad might hit peak fitness but the other possibility is that players are jaded and they just might not be interested in putting the effort in for the current management.

Ollie99 (Meath) - Posts: 442 - 26/03/2012 15:07:17    1137496

Never fear Royal dunne - I am here.
Blocked from posting on Meath forum for a few weeks but it looks like the cccc have reinstated me.
The fact the game is in two weeks time will have a bearing because if it was this Sunday I would be confident of a Louth win but teams alway seem to react different to a slight break.
So instead of being confident, I am now very confident.
Louth 1- 14
Meath 0- 12
Monaghan have less than 10% chance of beating Tyrone.
Westmeath have 30 - 40% chance of beating Derry.
Yez need to hope for a Derry win or is bye bye time.

georgelee (Louth) - Posts: 523 - 26/03/2012 21:46:03    1137873

Good man george lee. Glad to see you well, I was beginning to worry.
I know you secretly wish you were from meath so been blocked from our forum would have been hard on you


Anyway I actually agree with you for once the two week break will suit meath better

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 27/03/2012 08:40:02    1137900

Well the last break done us no good at all, lets hope this one has the opposite effect.

Cant see us losing to Louth tho. We've regressed a bit in recent weeks but we are not as bad as some of the doom merchants on here would like to make out either.

Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6342 - 27/03/2012 10:20:41    1137964

This will be a cracker. There will only be a kick of a ball in it.. When was the last time Louth beat us on home turf? Or did they ever beat Meath at Pairc Tailteann.

They have impressed me this season. Last year they were severly lacking scoring forwards, relying on one or two but now they have half forwards and inside forwards that are well capable of taking their points. You only have to look at the big scores they have been working up over the past few weeks.

However, it has been their defense that is their ultimate downfall. On the upside, their backlines have more holes than swiss cheese.

We will need to take every opportunity to win this game. I suggest starting Cian Ward for the frees. He's our best man to kick a place ball and if he gets a few early ones its bread and butter for him. A confidence player.

We're now approaching April and two months to this date we will begin our Leinster campaign versus Wicklow. We cant afford to be making vast changes at this stage so win-lose or draw Sunday week we have to stick with the manager and players.

gaelicgab (USA) - Posts: 878 - 27/03/2012 14:48:17    1138227

When was the last time Dublin beat Kerry in an AI final before 2011.

Stats change all the time.

squidword (Louth) - Posts: 2897 - 27/03/2012 15:03:15    1138243

why didnt banty face the media at weekend?

curnew (Wicklow) - Posts: 449 - 27/03/2012 15:14:18    1138259

squidword
County: Louth
Posts: 2670

1138243
When was the last time Dublin beat Kerry in an AI final before 2011.

Stats change all the time.

Agree with you on this one Squid, Anyone who thinks that Meath will NOT loose to Louth were NOT up in Omagh last Sat night.

Apart from the many things wrong within our county , We have no scoring forwards at the minute, and were in huge trouble (in the longterm and short term).

NAIL_BAR (Meath) - Posts: 457 - 27/03/2012 15:50:17    1138299

gaelicgab i think last time louth beat meath in navan was late eighties by a point in the league

auldson (Louth) - Posts: 143 - 27/03/2012 17:09:40    1138377

Georgelee stick to the politics oh wait stick with RTÉ, oh wait just stick with the Louth forum.

An_Oifigeach (Meath) - Posts: 220 - 27/03/2012 17:39:35    1138397

Meath will do whats needed and beat our neighbours... hopefully by a square ball thrown in the net in injury time to win by a point!!!...

sob (Meath) - Posts: 492 - 27/03/2012 17:59:17    1138416

I hope squid and george stay off the pitch.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 27/03/2012 18:01:50    1138420

It'll be tight...we lost two games (kildara +gallaimh) at the final whistle, but louth drew WELL with two that beat us (gallaimh agus doire)..squeaky bums on seats time, our much heralded meath forwards need to step up now. as louth forwards have way outscored our boys. Its in meath genes that we often leave it to the last.

But....consider another fact..Graham Reilly is game rusty playing for meath..why? He is getting no game time at St.colmcilles, and people here think he's number one forward? Hope we see the proof soon..why he gets no games in colmcilles is for a cilles man to answer.

RoyalSt.Pat (Meath) - Posts: 333 - 27/03/2012 21:11:42    1138580

RoyalSt.Pat.
Some ACL div 2 game time would do no harm, to him or our league hopes.

seamusmac (Meath) - Posts: 379 - 27/03/2012 21:35:05    1138609

As bad as meath are playing at the moment they will still cruise by louth there is no way in hell louth will beat meath in navan no chance. If the game were in louth i would be slightly worried. The meath fans saying louth are will meath are dillusional

sam1996 (Meath) - Posts: 436 - 28/03/2012 10:21:19    1138679

Seems to be an awful lot of doom and gloom on here, understandable on the back of the defeat to Tyrone but I'm wondering what the reality is.

Been to all the Louth league games and Tyrone and Kildare are head and shoulders above the rest (haven't seen Meath yet so can't comment). Looking at your results, you had a good win against Monaghan (who can be erratic in fairness), a massive win in Westmeath, were narrowly beaten by a good Kildare side and then lost out again by the narrowest of margins in Salthill. Looking at this string of results together, they surely aren't that disastrous?

I take it the negativity comes from the ensuing games. Was at the U21 semi-final in Navan and got speaking to a steward there who reckoned that the display against Derry was 'clueless and spineless' (his words, not mine).

Then you have the Tyrone game. Caught some of this on the auld Boyneside radio and was described as another clueless display. What I would say is that Tyrone are not a Div 2 team - they look a class outfit and are capable of beating anyone up in Omagh. Obviously only registering 5 points is a massive cause for concern.

Looking at the league table, you have one team dominating. But for their slow start, Kildare would be up their with them. Galway have done very well to leave themselves with a chance of promotion but after that you have the other 5 teams divided by just one point. Does this not reflect the reality of the situation, i.e. Meath are probably around the same level as Derry and Monaghan? I'd argue that Louth and Westmeath are slightly below that level currently but both are in with a chance of staying up.

Is the doom and gloom down to the current league position of the team? Is it down to the recent performances? How was the feeling after the first couple of games and then again after the next couple? Are this Meath side better than perhaps their last two performances would suggest?

Not trying to be smart here but is the reality simply not that there are a few counties now who are operating nearly as a professional set-up when it comes to training etc. After that you have another group of counties (Meath, Monaghan, Derry etc.) who simply aren't at the level for whatever reason. Spoke to others about this before but when you see Dublin out training in the wee small hours of the morning, it's very hard for managers to sell this idea to other counties when the reality is that they have no realistic chance of winning an All-Ireland. Traditionally, Meath have been at this level but would appear to have slipped back. Do you think this is a management issue or are the players simply not there?

In any case, I'd not be overly confident going to Navan as Meath always seem to be able to raise their game against Louth. I've seem Louth teams take on Meath before when the suggestion was that Meath were there for the taking but invariably, it never turned out that way. Louth are scoring plenty but also conceding plenty and I'd worry we'll see a game decided like the one in Breffni, i.e. by a few Meath goals.

If nothing else, it's bound to be a good day out and is probably as close as you can get to a Championship game this time of year. Let's hope the bitterness of the last few years was buried in Breffni and we can enjoy a good game of football on the day.

paulocon (Louth) - Posts: 164 - 28/03/2012 10:21:48    1138680

the meath fans who are saying louth will beat meath are dillusional...there was a typo in my last message

sam1996 (Meath) - Posts: 436 - 28/03/2012 10:27:32    1138685