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2018 Club Championships

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Replying To Northsidegaels: "Well it's clear to see that kane from simonstown is the best player in meath. How there hasn't been uproar on here over the refusal from management to call him up is beyond belief. Simonstown dismantled skryne with ease some of their football was county standard especially their goals. Ratoath going nowhere they haven't the team to ever win a championship, summerhill to beat ashbourne with the other 50/50" Agree on everything but Simonstowns opening goal was a blunder from Skryne keeper who was under pressure with his kickouts also. He should have claimed the long ball over the top but stopped halfway out and left himself in no mans land Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1467 - 10/09/2018 17:24:41 2140822 Link
Replying To Ratoath Royal: "Well yeah they obviously were! The bookies got 3 of the 4 results wrong at the weekend. Bookies are notoriously bad at predicting local GAA games. You're all over the place. Ratoath are poor, Don/Ash are average. Yet Don/Ash shouldn't be beating Ratoath? That literally makes no sense. Why should an average team never be beating a poor team? If you think experience playing at a higher level for years and getting to senior finals counts for nothing then there really is no point in discussing much with you. I predicted Don/Ash to beat us. They've got the experience and the quality in areas that we don't have and we are proven to struggle against a good defence. Yet you seem to be crowing about it as if you've scored a victory or something." Ok i will break it down for you. Generally speaking the Meath championship is pretty average and our record in Leinster proves this. Dunboyne: under achieve year after year, having secured 3 big transfers a few years back they have not yet made break through. On their day arguably best side in Meath Simonstown: Were superb when making break through in 2016 ( despite no experience) and were average last year but still won it. Saw them yesterday and they were very impressive. Good solid balanced side. Will be toss up berween them and Dunboyne for keegan. Summerhill: had a no show in final last year but hats off to a great rural club who get the best out of what they have. They put trust in their young footballers with 5 of last years minors playing Senior in their first year. Great club who consistently get the best out of their own. Don Ash: Had a superb team going back 7/8 years ago that should have bagged at least a couple of titles. Granted the standard was higher then but they could never get over the line. In recent years they are a shadow of that side and are a very average team. Don't have the conveyor of youth that they had either and will struggle in next few years Gaeil colmcille: Have consistently challenged over past 4 years, 3 semi finals and a quarter final. For what he has Lar Wall has done a fantastic job as they are a great side to watch. Lacking in the physicality stakes a bit. Good team Skryne: like Summerhill a great rural club, always have young lads coming through and for the majority of time are very competitive and seem to be able to sneak a championship every few years. Were well outplayed yesterday but jave had a decent year. Decent solid side St Colmcilles & Ratoath: very similar in that both have benefited from mass influx of outsiders to their areas, both are very strong at underage all the way up, Both are well represented at county level and both flatter to deceive every year. They both struggle against poor opposition regularly and lack any conviction. Given what is available in numbers and facilities the return is poor. Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1467 - 10/09/2018 18:04:15 2140836 Link
Replying To Analyst: "Ok i will break it down for you. Generally speaking the Meath championship is pretty average and our record in Leinster proves this. Dunboyne: under achieve year after year, having secured 3 big transfers a few years back they have not yet made break through. On their day arguably best side in Meath Simonstown: Were superb when making break through in 2016 ( despite no experience) and were average last year but still won it. Saw them yesterday and they were very impressive. Good solid balanced side. Will be toss up berween them and Dunboyne for keegan. Summerhill: had a no show in final last year but hats off to a great rural club who get the best out of what they have. They put trust in their young footballers with 5 of last years minors playing Senior in their first year. Great club who consistently get the best out of their own. Don Ash: Had a superb team going back 7/8 years ago that should have bagged at least a couple of titles. Granted the standard was higher then but they could never get over the line. In recent years they are a shadow of that side and are a very average team. Don't have the conveyor of youth that they had either and will struggle in next few years Gaeil colmcille: Have consistently challenged over past 4 years, 3 semi finals and a quarter final. For what he has Lar Wall has done a fantastic job as they are a great side to watch. Lacking in the physicality stakes a bit. Good team Skryne: like Summerhill a great rural club, always have young lads coming through and for the majority of time are very competitive and seem to be able to sneak a championship every few years. Were well outplayed yesterday but jave had a decent year. Decent solid side St Colmcilles & Ratoath: very similar in that both have benefited from mass influx of outsiders to their areas, both are very strong at underage all the way up, Both are well represented at county level and both flatter to deceive every year. They both struggle against poor opposition regularly and lack any conviction. Given what is available in numbers and facilities the return is poor." Nope. Still making zero sense as to why you feel a poor side (as you described them) should never be beaten by an average side. Though going by your comment about Cilles I get the feeling that you have serious issues with clubs that have had population increases. How dare they put effort into improving their clubs. Least I know what your problem is now and you can be ignored. Enjoy your bitterness. Best of luck Donaghmore/Ashbourne. Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1362 - 10/09/2018 18:49:07 2140845 Link
Replying To Ratoath Royal: "Nope. Still making zero sense as to why you feel a poor side (as you described them) should never be beaten by an average side. Though going by your comment about Cilles I get the feeling that you have serious issues with clubs that have had population increases. How dare they put effort into improving their clubs. Least I know what your problem is now and you can be ignored. Enjoy your bitterness. Best of luck Donaghmore/Ashbourne." No issue here with Dublin influenced clubs at all. If Ashbourne go on to win it then i will have to eat my words, Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1467 - 10/09/2018 20:19:56 2140856 Link
Replying To Analyst: "No issue here with Dublin influenced clubs at all. If Ashbourne go on to win it then i will have to eat my words," Cilles big numbers are from minor down... It will be a couple of years before we see the influence of these players. I think they are a couple of years behind Ratoath and ashbourne..... royaljackeen (Meath) - Posts: 37 - 10/09/2018 20:52:01 2140865 Link
Replying To royaljackeen: "Cilles big numbers are from minor down... It will be a couple of years before we see the influence of these players. I think they are a couple of years behind Ratoath and ashbourne....." Would agree with that. Ashbourne won their minors 2006-08. Ratoath 11 and 12 (17 as well) and Cilles only 2016. Clearly a few years away from the other two in terms of a senior team maturing. On a similar note very well done to the Meath 16's who had 3 Cilles players. David Bell, Conor O'Byrne and James Conlon could be a very dangerous full forward line in years to come LeitrimRoyal99 (Meath) - Posts: 1454 - 11/09/2018 01:28:25 2140914 Link
Replying To oldsam_newsam: "Who are those 3 or 4 starting forwards for Meath that were on display?" Reily Brennan and Conlon royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 11/09/2018 07:39:14 2140920 Link
Replying To Ratoath Royal: "Nope. Still making zero sense as to why you feel a poor side (as you described them) should never be beaten by an average side. Though going by your comment about Cilles I get the feeling that you have serious issues with clubs that have had population increases. How dare they put effort into improving their clubs. Least I know what your problem is now and you can be ignored. Enjoy your bitterness. Best of luck Donaghmore/Ashbourne." Just to add this is the furthest cilles have ever got in senior championship, so that proves they improving. royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 11/09/2018 07:43:05 2140921 Link
Replying To Analyst: "No issue here with Dublin influenced clubs at all. If Ashbourne go on to win it then i will have to eat my words," I believe you. Thousands wouldn't. Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1362 - 11/09/2018 09:47:15 2140932 Link
Going by recent posts here it would appear that there are attempts "to split Meath in two". All the talk is about Donaghmore/Ashbourne, Ratoath and St Colmcilles. They seem to be an group of their own. This is about predictions and like it or not only Donaghmore/Ashbourne survive. Post mortems are permitted to a degree for maybe 24 hours but after that forget it and move on. Going on about minor teams is fine and while a good minor team in a club is better than bad one it does not guarantee success at adult level. The county is littered with Intermediate clubs that had great minor teams in the past e.g. Walterstowm, Dunderry etc. Walterstown did not make it out of their group and Dunderry scored the unbelievable total of 4 points in an hour's football on Sunday evening. Some will point out that both of the above clubs currently do not have Minor Championship winners in their ranks and this may well be true but they had plenty on board when they were relegated from Senior football. On the prediction front, Simonstown are timing their run very well indeed. Dunboyne will trouble them somewhat and have good fighting qualities but it is Simonstown for me. Donaghmore/Ashbourne are not without hope but will have to attack Summerhill with 6 forwards as I think Summerhill's defence leaked too much in the quarter final. As Summerhill is more attack conscious I take them to advance. If above come to pass we have first of all to cast a look back at last year's final. Then Summerhill struggled with kick outs and freetaking and were a long way off the pace. Shane O'Rourke was the dominant player last year and his absence could be crucial this year. This may give Summerhill a chance. However neither are in the final yet, oh how great the unpredictability of sport is!!!!! MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1062 - 11/09/2018 11:14:03 2140959 Link
Dont get the Ratoath and Cilles bashing to be honest, particularly Ratoath, it is as if the club should be ashamed of having 5 or 6 lads selected for the county panel and for the the lads giving 100% dedication to the cause. All of the clubs left in the senior championship have lads involved in the county set up, and all have lads that chose either not to accept their invitation to join the panel or for whatever reason they chose to walk away from it. As far as I know the 2 Simonstown wingbacks McGrath and Kane have never been asked onto the Meath Panel. I think they would be additions but otherwise, Im not sure of the situation with the Summerhill lads, I know that some of them have been involved in various panels for both football and hurling over the years. Dunboyne have 4 or 5 on panel and Jones who couldnt commit due to studying abroad this year. Dun/Ash have a couple in there and a couple more that walked away from it. The last 4 have probably the 4 deepest squads in the county. The Cilles are improving, some of their underage teams are outstanding, but that takes time to translate to adult. The got beat by a team that are always there or thereabouts in the championship. They have a few absolute serious footballers and will get stronger and stronger in the next few years. Ratoath have a fantastic bunch of players in in the 23 to 25 range. They need to get stronger round the middle of the field, no doubt they will. Remember it is not that long ago that they were playing junior football. Like many I expected them to win last weekend, but they lost by 1 pt to a seriously experienced and battle hardened outfit, there is no great shame in that. Both are very well run clubs who are dealing with an explosion in population, while many clubs including my own have the opposite problems, trying to cater for and develop so many young players both male and female presents a whole load of problems. They should not be slated as looking at their underage results they are obviously doing things properly. This should all benefit Meath Gaa going forward. longroadback (Meath) - Posts: 324 - 11/09/2018 11:17:14 2140961 Link
Replying To Analyst: "Ok i will break it down for you. Generally speaking the Meath championship is pretty average and our record in Leinster proves this. Dunboyne: under achieve year after year, having secured 3 big transfers a few years back they have not yet made break through. On their day arguably best side in Meath Simonstown: Were superb when making break through in 2016 ( despite no experience) and were average last year but still won it. Saw them yesterday and they were very impressive. Good solid balanced side. Will be toss up berween them and Dunboyne for keegan. Summerhill: had a no show in final last year but hats off to a great rural club who get the best out of what they have. They put trust in their young footballers with 5 of last years minors playing Senior in their first year. Great club who consistently get the best out of their own. Don Ash: Had a superb team going back 7/8 years ago that should have bagged at least a couple of titles. Granted the standard was higher then but they could never get over the line. In recent years they are a shadow of that side and are a very average team. Don't have the conveyor of youth that they had either and will struggle in next few years Gaeil colmcille: Have consistently challenged over past 4 years, 3 semi finals and a quarter final. For what he has Lar Wall has done a fantastic job as they are a great side to watch. Lacking in the physicality stakes a bit. Good team Skryne: like Summerhill a great rural club, always have young lads coming through and for the majority of time are very competitive and seem to be able to sneak a championship every few years. Were well outplayed yesterday but jave had a decent year. Decent solid side St Colmcilles & Ratoath: very similar in that both have benefited from mass influx of outsiders to their areas, both are very strong at underage all the way up, Both are well represented at county level and both flatter to deceive every year. They both struggle against poor opposition regularly and lack any conviction. Given what is available in numbers and facilities the return is poor." Hold on ye cant be saying that St Colmcilles and Ratoath flatter to deceive every year. Ratoath are going to take a few more years to make use of the population influx from their underage talent. Dont know why or how you can say they are flattering to deceive. Tradition takes time. St Colmcilles actually have only made it to the Senior Championship Quarter final for first time this year. Its only in recent times that they have started producing some top underage teams from their monster schools programme and I think from U16 back they have great underage teams so this will take another 3 to 5 years to see these players into Senior. The Cilles were as basket case of a club up to 8 to 10 years ago. It was a place you went to go to the seaside. But I feel St Colmcilles are going to take stopping in 5 years. So please apply some proper perspective on clubs before slating and knocking them Talking_Sense (Meath) - Posts: 209 - 13/09/2018 11:16:48 2141368 Link
Replying To Talking_Sense: "Hold on ye cant be saying that St Colmcilles and Ratoath flatter to deceive every year. Ratoath are going to take a few more years to make use of the population influx from their underage talent. Dont know why or how you can say they are flattering to deceive. Tradition takes time. St Colmcilles actually have only made it to the Senior Championship Quarter final for first time this year. Its only in recent times that they have started producing some top underage teams from their monster schools programme and I think from U16 back they have great underage teams so this will take another 3 to 5 years to see these players into Senior. The Cilles were as basket case of a club up to 8 to 10 years ago. It was a place you went to go to the seaside. But I feel St Colmcilles are going to take stopping in 5 years. So please apply some proper perspective on clubs before slating and knocking them" Well said - Ratoath only played Senior for the first time in 2016 and Cilles in 2017 having both won Intermediate the previous year. Curraha struggled at Senior this year having won Intermediate in 2017. I'd argue that going into Leinster and getting a decent run at that makes it very hard for the winning intermediate team to perform at Senior the next year. Ratoath have now had 2 clear years at Senior - made 2 quarter finals while Cilles had one clear year and made a quarter final. I think, due to population that both these teams are better placed than Curraha. Cilles won minor in 2016 and Ratoath in 2017 - these lads will take a few years to bed into Senior too. People seem to mix up having players on the county panel with potential! Just because Ratoath and Cilles have decent representation on the county panel, it doesn't automatically transfer to success for the clubs on the pitch. In fact it might make it harder as the county players are not available for much of the year! ASaminthehand (Meath) - Posts: 422 - 13/09/2018 11:55:10 2141380 Link
Replying To ASaminthehand: "Well said - Ratoath only played Senior for the first time in 2016 and Cilles in 2017 having both won Intermediate the previous year. Curraha struggled at Senior this year having won Intermediate in 2017. I'd argue that going into Leinster and getting a decent run at that makes it very hard for the winning intermediate team to perform at Senior the next year. Ratoath have now had 2 clear years at Senior - made 2 quarter finals while Cilles had one clear year and made a quarter final. I think, due to population that both these teams are better placed than Curraha. Cilles won minor in 2016 and Ratoath in 2017 - these lads will take a few years to bed into Senior too. People seem to mix up having players on the county panel with potential! Just because Ratoath and Cilles have decent representation on the county panel, it doesn't automatically transfer to success for the clubs on the pitch. In fact it might make it harder as the county players are not available for much of the year!" Who cares they're both out and as of now irrelevant. Good thing for them they're gone as both would have took hidings against simonstown or dunboyne. This will be proper senior heavyweight football. Game of the year in both 2016 and 2017 Who could bet against it being the same this year Northsidegaels (Meath) - Posts: 237 - 13/09/2018 12:46:12 2141400 Link
Replying To Northsidegaels: "Who cares they're both out and as of now irrelevant. Good thing for them they're gone as both would have took hidings against simonstown or dunboyne. This will be proper senior heavyweight football. Game of the year in both 2016 and 2017 Who could bet against it being the same this year" Absolutely. Should be another cracker. Pity it isnt the final. TakeYourPoints6 (Meath) - Posts: 229 - 13/09/2018 14:46:39 2141457 Link
Replying To Northsidegaels: "Who cares they're both out and as of now irrelevant. Good thing for them they're gone as both would have took hidings against simonstown or dunboyne. This will be proper senior heavyweight football. Game of the year in both 2016 and 2017 Who could bet against it being the same this year" Psychic now are you? Able to determine outcomes of potential matches are you? Your ill informed comments remind me an awful lot of what's been wrong in this county for a while, most supporters want, and should want, to see club football and all clubs improve and thrive for the betterment of the county as a whole, your comments seem to contradict that idea. The progress that Ratoath and Colmcilles have made in recent years is massive, Ratoath senior in both codes with the hurlers still with a semi final to play and a fair amount of underage success, it's not that long since our trade was being plyed in the junior grade of both codes and now both are established senior sides, Ratoath's day will come as will Colmcilles of that I have little doubt but revelling in their failure at quarter final stage points to a selfish and self centred approach and a lack of willingness to see the old order of Meath football change, it has to change or as a county we will remain static for years and the players that clubs like Ratoath and Colmcilles and other well populated areas will provide to the county in years to come when that new population are embedded as Meath people, will be very important. We will always have good players produced from all over the county but the population increases in the east and south and the players derived from those areas will be crucial, I would suggest that should be bore in mind before putting the boot in....... Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 13/09/2018 23:27:34 2141586 Link
End of an era for Blackhall gaels last night, over achieved massively for 10 years or so for a rural club, from 2001 to 2011 won SFC, A league div1, B league div 1, u21 championship and were always around at the business end of things. they'll never come close to that again..... southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 885 - 14/09/2018 07:04:04 2141595 Link
Yes sad to see Blackhall Gaels drop down from Senior. They had a fantastic team between 2001 and 2010 with the likes of Anthony Moyles, Barry Moyles, Mark Crampon, Nigel, Paul and Alan Nestor, Tadgh Brosnan, Donnacha Tobin, George Beirne along with a few other excellent players, who were all big physical and skillful operators. The spirit in the club seems a bit low at the moment hopefully they can win a Intermediate championship in a few years but I wouldn't bank on it. BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 932 - 14/09/2018 09:16:40 2141620 Link
Replying To southmeathgael: "End of an era for Blackhall gaels last night, over achieved massively for 10 years or so for a rural club, from 2001 to 2011 won SFC, A league div1, B league div 1, u21 championship and were always around at the business end of things. they'll never come close to that again....." Yes reckon you right. Club made the decision in 1993/94 to junior two middling junior teams and went on to win IFC in 1998 beating ironically Pats I think and few years later won a Keegan cup. Their 2nd team played at junior B at the time do standard in the club was high proving the amalgamation was a good decision. Played in a junior C final which went to a replay and I think again Pats beat them. I would think underage is struggling and to win an IFC in next year or two could be likely (maybe the come up against Pats again) but after that it looks bottom of ifc most likely Brownepat (Meath) - Posts: 532 - 14/09/2018 11:44:03 2141661 Link
RichieQ one of the few real analysts here. But a laugh to read ridiculous comments from Royaldunne, Northsidegael, and other bitter pills whose clubs are on their last legs and are jealous of emerging talent Ashrules (Dublin) - Posts: 518 - 14/09/2018 12:02:23 2141664 Link