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That is optimistic. We should have been beaten by meath at home. Tipp deserved their win against us with a strong finish. We were marginally better than Clare. Apparently, Cork finished the game at the weekend with 12 players so it is difficult to overlook this. If you were to be brutally honest, we could be on as little as 4 points. The only games we deserved to win on the balance of play was v Clare and Armagh. Possibly 6 if you include Cork at the weekend. But certainly not 10. We are lucky to be on 8. But I believe we are better than Kildare and we should get over the line at the weekend. Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 18/03/2019 22:08:39 2173537 Link 0 |
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They are about 4 times fitter than the rest of the country right now, Gallagher did the same with Donegal a few years ago in the league and got their arses handed back to them against Tyrone in the Ulster semi final. They are not well coached just well conditioned, won't be seen come championship.
totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 912 - 18/03/2019 22:15:06 2173538 Link 1 |
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I was not at the game but the general consensus is that indeed Meath were unlucky. However I did see the highlights of the game and while yes the Meath keeper should have been more commanding it was also a great piece of intuitive play from Caolan McGonagle. I have gone on record here as saying that he did not get the credit he deserved. He tracked the ball from out the field and used his pace to get a touch on the ball directing it through the keepers legs. Anyways if Donegal can beat Kildare at the weekend it will give Meath the opportunity to put that defeat right.
panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2779 - 18/03/2019 23:12:44 2173555 Link 0 |
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Goalkeeping howlers are part & parcel of the game not some anomaly. The 2014 AI final is a constant reminder of this to Donegal people & this is no fault to Papa. Such is life. MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 18/03/2019 23:31:51 2173562 Link 0 |
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Ok heres a very short points why Meath have improved this year. Sorry for the long posts. I do have a tendency to go and on. I dont mean to annoy people. Its just I enjoy writing about Meath football on this forum now and again. 1 In the last two years Meaths very good performances v Tyrone Donegal twice Galway Roscommon and even v Dublin in last few months were evidence Meath were not as crap as people thought. 2 It was always in his third year McEntee would improve the team. It took Boylan Dywer and McGee, the three most sucessful managers in leinster football history outside Heffernan and Galvin , it took them years to turn around their counties. 3 Very good performances v Tyrone Galway Donegal and Roscommon and even Dublins showed good signs. Even the two games v Dublin in recent months were a help. 4 Meaths performance v Tyrone was important. Meath took an awful lot from that performance. 5 The moving of James McEntee to wing back and moving of Donal keoghan to centre back have been massive for Meath. Why? ( a ) Half back line has been a problem area for Meath for years. Half back line is most important line in modern football. James McEntee moving from wing forward to wing back has been a huge sucess. ( b) Since the Cork game last year, Keoghan has played every game at centre back. His longest period out the field. For me Donal keoghan is one of the best defenders in the country and could be the best. He wud walk onto any team in the country including Dublin and would walk onto Meaths teams of 80s and 90s. He is Meaths best defender since Darren Fay. 6 The main area of Meaths improvement was our defence. Meath have 4 top class defenders eg Donal keoghan Conor McGill Seamus Lavin and Shane Gallagher. Niall kane and James McEntee are quality effective attacking wing backs. Other defenders like Ronan Ryan Gavin McCoy Padraig Harnan and Mickey Burke are proven inter county defenders also. 7 Meath have a group of players who are now peaking. eg Cillian Sullivan James and Shane McEntee Adam.Flanagan Seamus Lavin Padraig Harnan . While players like Donal Keoghan Brian Menton Conor McGill are also peaking. 8 Meaths tackling has improved in defence but also in attack. Now after a few years strenght and conditioning ,these players are now stronger in the tackle. 7 Another reason for Meaths progress has been these new young players.. For first time in years Meath have under 21 players making an impact straightaway. Players like Daragh Campion Ethan Devine Ronan Ryan and James Conlon all under 21 players all have made an impact . 9 Andy McEntee in his first year or two was probably trying to do everything. Coaching and managing. This year he has brought in Nally as coach and this has worked real well. Andy McEntee is doing more one on one man mangement with the players this year. McEntees is good at man management. He can be blunt but he is a good motivator. 10 The introduction of Nally as a coach has been very important. Coachs importance has grown massively recently. Paul Grimley Peter Lally Donie Buckley Cian O Neill Jason Sherlock have all showed how important a quality coach is. Nally is one best coachs in leinster. The Meath players are very very happy with him. (I wud recommended every Meath person to check out Colm Nally appearance on off the ball football show recently. U cud listen to this guy talk about football all day long. He really impressed me in this show. ) 11 Meath have failed to adapt to modern tactics in football. How do you get the Meath players to play tactically aware football with their old school passion.McEntees passion combined with Nallys tactical nuance has really worked. So there r 11 reasons why Meath have improved this year. Meath are still not the finished article and still wil have ups and downs. But they are going in right direction. They have young team with strong defence and strong management and new talent coming thru. Meath football is turning the corner. And this can only be good for football. Leinster needs a strong Meath and kildare. Hopefully we see a Meath v kildare league final. 3 leinster teams in division wud be great for leinster football. Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 19/03/2019 02:51:32 2173581 Link 2 |
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U r making progress. Kildare reached the super 8 last year and played in division 1 and had ur biggest win outside the provience of leinster in the championship in 20 years since u beat kerry in 1998. Beating Mayo last year was progress. Kildare also won in my view one of the best underage All Irelands in modern leinster football history last year with under 20s. Look at the forwards kildare have eg McNally, Niall Kelly, Jimmy Hyland, Neil Flynn, Ben McCormack and Dan Flynn. All young natural forwards. That is the best set of forwards kildare have ever had. Cribbens Moolick and Feehily in midfield are quality also. U r lacking quality defenders which is unusual for kildare. But defenders can be coached. But u eitheir have the forwards are u dont. Kildare do have quality upfront. Under the right manager and with the right belief there is potential with kildare. Yes Dublin will beat you guys this year, but I could see another super 8 for you guys this year again. U have a great record in backdoor. Kildare need to improve in the leinster championship and start getting to leinster finals every year they r on opposite side of the draw to Dublin. They need a group of footballers to go to war with Dublin for 4 or 5 years. And over 3 or 4 or 5 games in 5 or 6 years, keep taking the fight to Dublin. Thats what kildare team of 90s did. It was in their 5th game v Dublin in 7 years, in 1998 that kildare eventually beat Dublin. It took Meath to their 4th game in 4 years v the Dubs to beat Dublin in 1986. It takes time,bad loses, moral victories and near misses before u eventually take down Dublin. Its a slow long up and down process. But kildare do have potential. I have seen these young kildare players at minor under 20 under 21 and senior. They are good crop of players. They like Meath are just beginning and both counties have potential. Only in 4 or 5 years time will we know how good kildares Jimmy Hyland Niall Kelly Ben McCormack and Meaths Ronan Ryan Daragh Campion and James Conlon can be. All I know is Meath beating Dublin 4 times in 4 years at minor level and kildare hammered Dublin in under 20 leinster final last year. If that continues at underage for both counties it will over a period of years (and it could take half decade), but over time the gap will close. I am convinced of that. U r not . Time will tell who is right. But I do believe there signs of progress if u look closely. Where kildare r now to where they were in 2015 and 2016 is progress. And to where Meath r now to were we where in 2015 and 2016 is progress. Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 19/03/2019 03:14:52 2173584 Link 3 |
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Furlong is a Hs legend his posts are a extremely worthwhile read, in-depth accurate and above all highly interesting, trust me you don't know what you are missing if you not reading them.
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2019 05:37:40 2173586 Link 1 |
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Politely disagree. I enjoy the detailed posts.
cabbage (Meath) - Posts: 162 - 19/03/2019 08:03:40 2173595 Link 1 |
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Look at the forwards kildare have eg McNally, Niall Kelly, Jimmy Hyland, Neil Flynn, Ben McCormack and Dan Flynn. All young natural forwards. if_in_doubt (Kildare) - Posts: 3685 - 19/03/2019 11:41:26 2173646 Link 1 |
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Thanks Royaldunne and the Meath contributer below named Cabbage for ur comments. I appreciate them. Royaldunne hopefully now this day next week we will be in divsion 1 2020. I think promotion to divsion 1 wud be massive boost for Meath football. I dont think people realise outside the county how long we have been in divsion 2.It not just 13 years , we basically have spent 17 of last 20 years in division 2 . We have finished 7 or 8 times 3rd in divsion 2 in last 12 years and in 4 of the last 5 seasons we where 1 win away from promotion to divsion 1. Just to get out of division 1 it would be great. While if we were promoted to division 1 any time since 2010 we wud have definitely been relegated in every year since 2010. Next year the age profile of team will help and if we can get 4 games in Navan I wud quitely confident we could do much better then people think. But if we were relegated even one season in divsion 1 is worth 4 or 5 years in division 2. Division 2 is a very very tough tight hard division. But if u want to suceed and improve as a football team, division 1 is where its at. It always been critical to any football team improving since the league was introduced in 1930s. Meath are the best example. Mayo also r a great example. Mayo are the longest running team in divsion 1. Mayo have spent 23 unbroken years in div 1. In the same time period they have reached 8 senior All Ireland senior finals. Meath have basically been in divsion 2 since 2001. Meath havent played in 0 senior All Ireland final since 2001. And u look at Meath sucess prior to 2010. Meath were permanently in div 1 and winning league div 1 titles in 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s and early 00s. And every sucessful Meath tea up to this decade since pretty much 1920s won a league 1 title and in 00s we reached a league 1 final in 2000. Playing division 1 would be great for players but probably even greater for fans. Since 2010 Meath football has been stuck in groundhog day every year. Division 2 football and knocked out in July by Ulster team in back door. That has sucked the life and soul out of Meath football. A promotion wud really be important. For other counties they wouldnt think to much of it. But where we r as county it definitely will help boost the morale of Meath football. If we get relegated next year which has to be a possible outcome looking at div 2 promoted teams record in div 1. If we were relegated next year we still have a young team to try and get back up in 2022. The more u play and the more u stay in divsion 1 , the more u improve as a team. It was the same 50 years ago, it will be the same in 50 years time. Division 1 is where improvements and sucess can be obtained. U cannot improve to the higher levels of gaelic football outside div 1. Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 19/03/2019 12:23:00 2173666 Link 3 |
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I understand what u saying , kildare have stalled a bit and probaly regressed this year. But u guys have a young team and young teams r up and down. I do get the feeling that O Neill is coming to end of his tenure. And the point Im making in the next few year under someone like Glen Ryan and Davy Burke I think kildare have potential. Thats my main point. I understand this year it seems kildare have regressed, I understand that. But u have allot of young under 20 players from last years team ans it takes time for players to adapt. I know where u r this year. Im really talking about next 4 to 5 years. I just feel both Meath and kildare will get stronger in 2020s. Thats a gut feeling I have but also based on genuine talent coming thru in both counties. But I think Glen Ryan and Davy Burke r guys to bring u forward. The same way Andy McEntee and Colm Nally r the guys to bring Meath forward over the next few years.
Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 19/03/2019 12:54:56 2173675 Link 3 |
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I fully expect meath to be relegated next year, if kildare go up they will be too. I think donegal would be the best equipped maybe forcing Monaghan's hand who are looking wary Mickygormley (Armagh) - Posts: 4 - 19/03/2019 15:05:35 2173714 Link 0 |
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i have been to all Donegal's league games bar Tipp, where by all accounts Tipp's win was fully merited, regarding the meath game , meath were better than us up until the goal, but they capitulated after that and died, Donegal took the initiative and were the stronger side in the last 10, the game is 70 mins. a big incentive for them if we do meet again in the div 2 final. we deserved to beat Clare, Armagh and Cork. we lost to a Fermanagh team that is already at championship fitness so i wouldn't be too worried about that (they fully merited their win). we have had some greta battles with kildare over the last number of years and the games are always close, I expect sunday to be no different. I expect us to win, just.
totalrecall (Leitrim) - Posts: 912 - 19/03/2019 15:27:54 2173720 Link 0 |
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Well we there and you not so as they say. We don't care. Hon the royal royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2019 16:03:32 2173731 Link 1 |
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Some little inaccuracies about Division 1 in this post. The National Football League was not always arranged in Divisions of decreasing strength. I know that in the '60s Division 1 of the NFL comprised 8 Ulster counties except Cavan. The eight competed for the Dr Lagan Cup. Division 2 was made up of all the counties fro Mayo to Louth across the country, ie Louth, Meath, Cavan, Westmeath, Longford, Leitrim, Sligo and Mayo. Division 3 contained some of the 'strong' counties in the southern part of the country, with Division 4 being made up of the perceived weaker counties. I am open to correction on the composition of Divisions 3 & 4 but the situation as outlined above regarding Division 1& 2 applied for an extended period. MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1062 - 19/03/2019 16:14:20 2173735 Link 0 |
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I would probably agree with you regarding Meath but at the same time I didnt expect Meath to be in situation that they are in now at the start of the year so things can easily change. Regarding Kildare, I dont know what to make of them. They definitely have the talent available to them but there is something missing with them. I have seen them a few times over the past few years and they seem to be fine when things are going well but if something small bad occurs on the pitch they cant recover from it. Maybe its a lack on field leaders. Something which Johnny Doyle provided for years. Donegal were my favourites to go up this year, they have struggled but grounding out the win against Cork at the weekend showed a fight which was maybe missing for a few weeks their. juicy (Meath) - Posts: 399 - 19/03/2019 16:42:15 2173742 Link 0 |
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I actually predicted armagh/meath and donegal to go up. Thought when kildare were missing a few of there big players for the year they would struggle.. pity the armagh draws against kildare and clare have come back to bite us but im also equally delighted we arent getting promotws would like to do what meath did compete and build in dv2 then when proper equipped give dv1 a rattle. If clarke and Campbell stay with us have no doubt be there soon enough
Mickygormley (Armagh) - Posts: 4 - 19/03/2019 19:32:43 2173784 Link 0 |
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Put pessimism on hold for another week, until we actually get promoted.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2136 - 19/03/2019 19:34:17 2173785 Link 3 |
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Well we should know this time next year, I've a feeling we be ok we've a young panel who should improve year on year now, im glad armagh finally managed to stay in division 2 not like the last two times they were in it.
Royal.Legend (Meath) - Posts: 665 - 19/03/2019 19:39:40 2173788 Link 1 |
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Can't argue with that juicy. Definitely lacking leaders in this Kildare team. We still have a huge problem defensively too : it is so, so easy to run through our defence. Eoin Doyle is a fine player but I don't know one Kildare supporter who thinks he's a no.6. We have to find one (I don't know who though) & move him out of there.....but said that last year too & hasn't happened. KildareKelly (Kildare) - Posts: 593 - 19/03/2019 19:42:32 2173790 Link 0 |