Replying To Furlong1949:  "If Meath did beat Tyrone it would be a massive result for Meath football and leinster football in general Why?

1 If Meath were to beat Tyrone it would Meath biggest win in the championship since the 5 goal hammering of Dublin in 2010 or Mayo in 2009. Meaths best result in this decade and in last 10 years.

2 If Meath were to beat Tyrone it would be one of the best victories for leinster team outide Dublin outside the provience in the championship in nearly two decades.

Why? In this decade only 1 team in leinster besides Dublin have beaten a top division 1 team , a top 5 or 6 team in the country and that was longford beating Monaghan in 2016. Since 2000 only 5 times have leinster teams outside Dublin have beaten top division 1 teams in the championship outside the provience. Those victories v top division 1 teams since 2000 are Westmeath v Mayo in 2001, Meath v kerry in 2001, Meath v Tyrone in 2007, Laois v Tyrone in 2004 and longford v Monaghan in 2016. Thats it. Meath did beat Galway in the championship in 07 and 11 but Galway in 07 and 11 were not a top division 1 team. Meath defeated Mayo in 2009 and longford defeated Mayo in 2010 in the championship but Mayo were in transition and the current Mayo team didnt take off til 2011 2012.

The fact is outside Dublin leinster teams have only beaten top opposition (division 1 top 5 or 6 teams outside leinster ) 5 times in near two decades. A Meath victory v Tyrone would be the fifth victory in 18 years. Tyrone are a top 8 team and in every ranking I have seen in the internet or papers in the last 3 years they have been in the top 4 or 5 teams in the country. They are double Ulster champions,( they r one of the most sucessful Tyrone team ever, only 80s, 90s and 0ss Tyrone teams were more sucessful) so a Meath victory would be significant for Meath football but also a very significant result for leinster football."

Replying To longroadback:  "We will agree to differ, but suggesting that there have been 4 or 5 better than him this year while saying he is great!!! does that mean we have 5 or 6 great players, really?"

Replying To royaldunne:  "The best players for Meath this year imo.
1 , McGill. Don't remember him having one bad game which all the others have.
2. Colgan, came in as a unknown from a gk perspective, has pulled off some magnificent saves, and our kick outs have improved. Hasn't cost us a game yet.
3. Lavin, had a off game or two but has really adapted to position.
4. Reilly, had the off game he tends to have, but when chips were down really stood up, the main reason for us remaining in div 2 , even v longford was huge threat.
5. Keoghan, had a few off games , but is still a class act, his runs upfield really upsets opponents.

For me those are the 5 top so far this year.
But hopefully we will see others as year progresses. (Hopefully)"

Replying To Loyalroyal17:  "God im seriously liking your posts, feeling alot more positive after reading them and this what we need....positivity and belief back in this team. I enjoyed reading your stats and felt fire in me after reading them.
Getting all revved up for this game.

Ive always said we need to be playing the bigger teams to show how good we are, not how bad we are, we always up the anti & playing a division 1 team IMO is what we need to be doing at this stage, if to just prove to people that we are not as bad as the whole country believe we are and i mean the whole country.
Saturday cant come quick enough. HON THE ROYALS!!"

Replying To grahamc9897:  "Will you get a grip !! Playing the bigger teams we can't beat Longford or any decent division 2 team !! When has this team up the anti against a division 1 team under the last 2 managers !!
The answer is never !! This team will lose on Saturday and that's a fact ! Sorry to be negative but that's what will happen ! If im wrong then great"

Replying To grahamc9897:  "Will you get a grip !! Playing the bigger teams we can't beat Longford or any decent division 2 team !! When has this team up the anti against a division 1 team under the last 2 managers !!
The answer is never !! This team will lose on Saturday and that's a fact ! Sorry to be negative but that's what will happen ! If im wrong then great"

Replying To grahamc9897:  "Will you get a grip !! Playing the bigger teams we can't beat Longford or any decent division 2 team !! When has this team up the anti against a division 1 team under the last 2 managers !!
The answer is never !! This team will lose on Saturday and that's a fact ! Sorry to be negative but that's what will happen ! If im wrong then great"

Replying To Loyalroyal17:  "God im seriously liking your posts, feeling alot more positive after reading them and this what we need....positivity and belief back in this team. I enjoyed reading your stats and felt fire in me after reading them.
Getting all revved up for this game.

Ive always said we need to be playing the bigger teams to show how good we are, not how bad we are, we always up the anti & playing a division 1 team IMO is what we need to be doing at this stage, if to just prove to people that we are not as bad as the whole country believe we are and i mean the whole country.
Saturday cant come quick enough. HON THE ROYALS!!"

Replying To Talking_Sense:  "If is a great word. We might give Tyrone a game at the weekend but I feel we are going to get beaten well in the end. We simply dont have enough quality. Young Gallagher is good talent and Keoghan is a fine footballer but the rest at the back are not up to inter county standard, simply not.

Forwards wise Reilly at himself is only player that would get on the Tyrone team. Period. We think we have forwards but we dont. Mickey Burke playing wing forward typifies where Meath football is at.

Our Senior Club football scene backs this up. Last Meath team to make Leinster club final was Scrin back in 2004. An outsider, with a well coached defensive structure will win the Meath Senior Championship. You watch because it wont take much to stop the quality of forwards playing in Meath Senior club football."

Replying To Talking_Sense:  "If is a great word. We might give Tyrone a game at the weekend but I feel we are going to get beaten well in the end. We simply dont have enough quality. Young Gallagher is good talent and Keoghan is a fine footballer but the rest at the back are not up to inter county standard, simply not.

Forwards wise Reilly at himself is only player that would get on the Tyrone team. Period. We think we have forwards but we dont. Mickey Burke playing wing forward typifies where Meath football is at.

Our Senior Club football scene backs this up. Last Meath team to make Leinster club final was Scrin back in 2004. An outsider, with a well coached defensive structure will win the Meath Senior Championship. You watch because it wont take much to stop the quality of forwards playing in Meath Senior club football."

Replying To grahamc9897:  "Will you get a grip !! Playing the bigger teams we can't beat Longford or any decent division 2 team !! When has this team up the anti against a division 1 team under the last 2 managers !!
The answer is never !! This team will lose on Saturday and that's a fact ! Sorry to be negative but that's what will happen ! If im wrong then great"

Replying To Loyalroyal17:  "Glad im not the only one with this frame of mind

I" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.hoganstand.com/Meath/Article/Index/286193"

Replying To Furlong1949:  "Loyalroyal lagrag and Royaldunne or correct we do up our game v top teams in general. Leaving Dublin aside since 2012, 2013 we havent put it up to Dublin. But that was the last time any team in leinster put it up to Dublin.

In the past we always seems to raise our game v the top counties, traditional sucessful counties eg Dublin kerry Mayo Cork Tyrone as we have an excellent record against them all. We dont have the players we once have but we still up our game v the top teams. It doesnt make sense. In that our record is very inconsistent and up and down and very hard to anaylsis. In that we can lose to team in div 3 this year and lose to team like Cavan this year or Down mid table div 2 div 3 last year. And yet we can beat Galway. We couldnt beat kildare twice.Kildare couldnt Galway twice and in two games v Galway we were unbeaten drawn 1 and 1 win in 2016 and 2017. Explain that.

We think we are better then Fermanagh or limerick or Wexford or Westmeath. We arent. They have beaten us all in the last 15 years. But when it comes to the more sucessful counties we see ourselves as equals we dont fear them are not in awe of them , we dont have an inferior complex. We lack belief in many ways , but there is inner belief something Galway footballers have, Down footballers have, Cork hurlers have that can come to surface now again. look at how Galway footballers did well in div 1 not kildare. Yes Galway have good underage talent but so do kildare. Kildare lack the inner belief to take on the kerrys and Dublins and Tyrones. Galway see themselves as equals as a top county. Pyshology has a role to play so much in sport and the GAA.

I feel we do up our games still v top opposition, sucessful counties. And yet we can lose to longford this year who r in div 3 or Westmeath who were in div 3 in 2015 or Armagh in 2014 who were in div 3. It doesnt make sense.. But in a way it does. Anyway here our performances v top teams in last few years that indicate usually out of nowhere we can play well. Not all the time but most of the time we do up our game v top teams.

2013 v Tyrone. Tyrone were a top 8 team. I think they reached All Ireland semi final in 2013. Yet we played very well. And I actually thought we were the better team with Meade and Gillespie at midfield. With ten minutes to go we were playing real well it nip and tuck, both teams level, Tyrone got two soft frees and won by 2 points. An example of upping our game v top team.

2014 we played Donegal in the league in Ballybofey. Donegal 12 months earlier were All Ireland champions and in 2014 would be the All.Ireland finalist and beat Dublin in a famous semi final, Dublins last lose in the championship. Donegal had won all their opening games. i think we lost to Fermanagh in the second game. Open to correction there. But we started with up and down league erformances. No one gave us a chance v McGuiness Donegal in Donegals backyard of Ballybofey. Yet we tore into Donegal from the start went 4 or 5 points and were the better team well into second half. Donegal finished strongly. But only for a throw up ball for wasting time. And Donegal winning free from throw up and Murphy hitting extraordinary point from the free in injury time we would have beaten not drew with 2012 All Ireland champions in their backyard. Another example of upping our game v top counties

2015 v Tyrone in Omagh. Again lost to Westmeath noone gave us a chance v Tyrone who were top 8 team and would reach an All Ireland semi final that year and unluckily lose to kerry. We went toe to toe with Tyrone until dying mins. When they got a peno which wasnt a penalty. They scored. We went up the field Wallace was taken down in the square no peno.Tyrone win by 2 points. Again we played well and upped our game v top team.

2014 2016 and especially 2017 v Galway. We beat Galway in 2014 with an excellent attacking performance by 7 points. Drew with them in Galway in 2016. And in the last 12 months or so we beat them.
We have played 3 top 8 teams in the last year and a played well with 2 results of a win and a draw. Cavan kildare or not top 8 teams. Galway Roscommon and Donegal are in the top 8 teams in the country. We played well in all those 3 games and got a result in 2 of them

2017 v Galway Galway were flying we had lost to kildare and Down and no one gave us chance v Galway. Yet again we are upped our game and played really well. And we defeated Galway the last time Galway were beaten in the league before the Dubs beat them this year in the league final

2017 v Donegal are top team. Yet again we upped our game v them. Went toe to toe with them. And with ten mins to go went two ahead and looked liked winners. Donegal won in injury with last second wonder point from McBreaty. Again we upped our game v top team.

2018 v Roscommon. They are not All Ireland contenders but they are a top 8 team. Connacht champions drew with Mayo last year and won div 2 this year. For the second year in a row the team which won div 2 Roscomon this year and Galway last year we were unbeaten. Very few gave us a chance v Rossies in Hyde. Yet only for last second penalty we would have won by 3 points. We drew and again upped our game v top 8 team.

Can you find any county in the last 12 months in div 2 3 and 4 ( besides Roscommon) and besides Meath who have had such good performances and results v top 8 teams. Yet we lost to Kildare Twice Cavan Down and longford. We can up our game v top 8 teams but lose v div 2 teams top and mid even bottom div 2 teams. We are incredibly inconsistent and incredibly unpredictable.

But I alway believed Meath in watching them in last 35 years upped their game v sucessful traditional counties eg Dublin 86 to 01, Mayo 96 07, Cork 87 88 99, Tyrone 96 07 kerry 01 etc..And in this decade why we dont beat the top teams , we do seem to well v top 8 teams or a traditional sucesful county like Galway or Tyrone, we do up our game. Hopefully on sat we will up our game for the third time v Tyrone and this time we are third time lucky with a win.

Another point regards sat. So many players who will play on sat were involved in Meath v Tyrone minor q final in 2012 where Meath defeated a highly fancied Tyrone team under Andy McEntee. Lavin S McEntee J McEntee P Kennelly C Sullivan were all playing in that minor quater final. And up to 8 of the current Tyrone teams played in 2012 quater final. Tyrone could have 6 starters that played in 2012 anf Meath have 5 and the same manager in Andy. To show how good that Tyrone minor team was they went onto win under 21 All Ireland. And yet Meath minors beat them in 2012.I wonder will we repeat the result at senior. Its unlikely but not impossible."

Replying To Furlong1949:  "Loyalroyal lagrag and Royaldunne or correct we do up our game v top teams in general. Leaving Dublin aside since 2012, 2013 we havent put it up to Dublin. But that was the last time any team in leinster put it up to Dublin.

In the past we always seems to raise our game v the top counties, traditional sucessful counties eg Dublin kerry Mayo Cork Tyrone as we have an excellent record against them all. We dont have the players we once have but we still up our game v the top teams. It doesnt make sense. In that our record is very inconsistent and up and down and very hard to anaylsis. In that we can lose to team in div 3 this year and lose to team like Cavan this year or Down mid table div 2 div 3 last year. And yet we can beat Galway. We couldnt beat kildare twice.Kildare couldnt Galway twice and in two games v Galway we were unbeaten drawn 1 and 1 win in 2016 and 2017. Explain that.

We think we are better then Fermanagh or limerick or Wexford or Westmeath. We arent. They have beaten us all in the last 15 years. But when it comes to the more sucessful counties we see ourselves as equals we dont fear them are not in awe of them , we dont have an inferior complex. We lack belief in many ways , but there is inner belief something Galway footballers have, Down footballers have, Cork hurlers have that can come to surface now again. look at how Galway footballers did well in div 1 not kildare. Yes Galway have good underage talent but so do kildare. Kildare lack the inner belief to take on the kerrys and Dublins and Tyrones. Galway see themselves as equals as a top county. Pyshology has a role to play so much in sport and the GAA.

I feel we do up our games still v top opposition, sucessful counties. And yet we can lose to longford this year who r in div 3 or Westmeath who were in div 3 in 2015 or Armagh in 2014 who were in div 3. It doesnt make sense.. But in a way it does. Anyway here our performances v top teams in last few years that indicate usually out of nowhere we can play well. Not all the time but most of the time we do up our game v top teams.

2013 v Tyrone. Tyrone were a top 8 team. I think they reached All Ireland semi final in 2013. Yet we played very well. And I actually thought we were the better team with Meade and Gillespie at midfield. With ten minutes to go we were playing real well it nip and tuck, both teams level, Tyrone got two soft frees and won by 2 points. An example of upping our game v top team.

2014 we played Donegal in the league in Ballybofey. Donegal 12 months earlier were All Ireland champions and in 2014 would be the All.Ireland finalist and beat Dublin in a famous semi final, Dublins last lose in the championship. Donegal had won all their opening games. i think we lost to Fermanagh in the second game. Open to correction there. But we started with up and down league erformances. No one gave us a chance v McGuiness Donegal in Donegals backyard of Ballybofey. Yet we tore into Donegal from the start went 4 or 5 points and were the better team well into second half. Donegal finished strongly. But only for a throw up ball for wasting time. And Donegal winning free from throw up and Murphy hitting extraordinary point from the free in injury time we would have beaten not drew with 2012 All Ireland champions in their backyard. Another example of upping our game v top counties

2015 v Tyrone in Omagh. Again lost to Westmeath noone gave us a chance v Tyrone who were top 8 team and would reach an All Ireland semi final that year and unluckily lose to kerry. We went toe to toe with Tyrone until dying mins. When they got a peno which wasnt a penalty. They scored. We went up the field Wallace was taken down in the square no peno.Tyrone win by 2 points. Again we played well and upped our game v top team.

2014 2016 and especially 2017 v Galway. We beat Galway in 2014 with an excellent attacking performance by 7 points. Drew with them in Galway in 2016. And in the last 12 months or so we beat them.
We have played 3 top 8 teams in the last year and a played well with 2 results of a win and a draw. Cavan kildare or not top 8 teams. Galway Roscommon and Donegal are in the top 8 teams in the country. We played well in all those 3 games and got a result in 2 of them

2017 v Galway Galway were flying we had lost to kildare and Down and no one gave us chance v Galway. Yet again we are upped our game and played really well. And we defeated Galway the last time Galway were beaten in the league before the Dubs beat them this year in the league final

2017 v Donegal are top team. Yet again we upped our game v them. Went toe to toe with them. And with ten mins to go went two ahead and looked liked winners. Donegal won in injury with last second wonder point from McBreaty. Again we upped our game v top team.

2018 v Roscommon. They are not All Ireland contenders but they are a top 8 team. Connacht champions drew with Mayo last year and won div 2 this year. For the second year in a row the team which won div 2 Roscomon this year and Galway last year we were unbeaten. Very few gave us a chance v Rossies in Hyde. Yet only for last second penalty we would have won by 3 points. We drew and again upped our game v top 8 team.

Can you find any county in the last 12 months in div 2 3 and 4 ( besides Roscommon) and besides Meath who have had such good performances and results v top 8 teams. Yet we lost to Kildare Twice Cavan Down and longford. We can up our game v top 8 teams but lose v div 2 teams top and mid even bottom div 2 teams. We are incredibly inconsistent and incredibly unpredictable.

But I alway believed Meath in watching them in last 35 years upped their game v sucessful traditional counties eg Dublin 86 to 01, Mayo 96 07, Cork 87 88 99, Tyrone 96 07 kerry 01 etc..And in this decade why we dont beat the top teams , we do seem to well v top 8 teams or a traditional sucesful county like Galway or Tyrone, we do up our game. Hopefully on sat we will up our game for the third time v Tyrone and this time we are third time lucky with a win.

Another point regards sat. So many players who will play on sat were involved in Meath v Tyrone minor q final in 2012 where Meath defeated a highly fancied Tyrone team under Andy McEntee. Lavin S McEntee J McEntee P Kennelly C Sullivan were all playing in that minor quater final. And up to 8 of the current Tyrone teams played in 2012 quater final. Tyrone could have 6 starters that played in 2012 anf Meath have 5 and the same manager in Andy. To show how good that Tyrone minor team was they went onto win under 21 All Ireland. And yet Meath minors beat them in 2012.I wonder will we repeat the result at senior. Its unlikely but not impossible."

Replying To meathforsam09:  "I just love his sly dig at Louth at the very end!"

Replying To Cuckoosinging:  "Pretty silly and disrespectful that he mentioned Leitrim though who were not in the round 1 draw and come Saturday evening will be still in the Championship with 1 win under thier belt with when Meath could be gone"

Replying To Loyalroyal17:  "I dare any man woman or child to argue with this intelligent post. You have hit the nail on the head my friend and have explained exactly what i think about us playing against the bigger teams, could never have put it as well as that."