MesAmis

Dublin will regress/Meath will improve eventually. After Meath hammered us in 2010 you'd be laughed off this forum it you had have suggested that Dublin would be the best team in the country over the following 5 seasons!

That's a fair point, after that beating things were looking bleak for Dublin and looking up for us but things couldn't have turned out much different.

But in all honestly Dublin were obviously putting in the proper work behind the scenes and they had great players such as Connolly, the Brogans, Flynn, Cluxton etc etc to work with. In Meath we're still basically a mess at county board level and we don't have players of that calibre (Keogan being the only exception), so we're not likely to turn the corner anytime soon.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 12/04/2016 16:42:37    1844829

I miss the atmosphere at those games but I'd still rather hammer the crap out of them :)

KerryKillers (Dublin) - Posts: 711 - 12/04/2016 16:44:31    1844832

Htaem
Lets get one thing straight buddy.....its not that we miss ye.....its that we miss beating ye when it mattered!!!!

i think this has its roots with the back door. It destroyed hardcore provincial rivalries by its very nature.

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts:6538 - 12/04/2016 16:27:52

Completely agree re the backdoor in Leinster anyway , nerves can play a major part in a game , they are less likely to play a part when you have your safety blanket , over the years there have been many a game where we were nip n tuck with Kildare Meath Wexford wonder what it would have been like and would results have been the same if it was winner takes all .
Last time we lost to Meath was a humiliation the goals etc Imagine having to wait a year till your next game try getting over that one

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 12/04/2016 16:49:26    1844836

"I miss Meath"

I miss Meath too...

Meath is in very difficult times. An occupied territory, a bit like Palestine. No one alive is from Meath (unless your poor unfortunate mother gave birth to you on the side of the N2/N3). We're all Dubs at heart....really. A few poor soles arrived via Drogheda/Mullingar who also have their own problems.

Let's face it, 50+% of the population living in Meath support Dublin. Since the great migration of boom times, Dublin flags and jerseys vastly outnumber the Meath ones in summer time. No other county is faced with this challenge. Kildare/Wicklow has to some degree....but not as bad as Meath. A lot of kids in Meath don't dream about playing for Meath. That's a problem. How does Meath GAA improve given the circumstances on the ground?

Meath will bounce back....eventually, hopefully...

DeJaMo (Meath) - Posts: 5 - 12/04/2016 17:14:01    1844849

Growing up in the 90s and doing summer work in Dublin in the early 2000s I was exposed to a lot of non-Meath opinions over the summer months. A great myth on Meaths inwards migration was it was all Dubs but in reality every county in Ireland was represented in Meaths big towns. The Gard across the road was from Westmeath, the teacher was from Offaly, the barfly was from Kilkenny. My street even had Antrim and Leitrim residents. I remember my dad said my u-10 team was an All Star team with lads parents being from all around the country.
What was amazingly consistent regardless of where they came from was in the build up to a big championship match with Dublin ALL of them would puff their chest out, clear their throat and proudly declare they would be supporting Dublin. It didn't matter they had settled in Meath, have Meath kids or even have any rivalry with us. It was always Dublin they supported. And again it would continue when working in Dublin, random Laois or Tipp people wouldn't even consider the idea of supporting Meath in a Leinster final against the Dubs.
So when I come on hear and read people saying they miss the great Meath teams and lament the death of the Leinster championship as a worthwhile competition I do find it very ironic. This is what you wanted. You wished this day would come every time you screamed your head off for Dublin...or Mayo....or Tyrone....or Cork over us.

RoyalBadger (Meath) - Posts: 571 - 13/04/2016 10:21:49    1845002

In the 80s and 90s when Meath were successfull, thousands of their supporters would cross the Boyne in to Louth to celebrate their victories. It is hard to believe how far they have fallen. Meath remind me of the wife. You can't live with them or without them. Hopefully there will be another Battle of the Boyne clash this summer.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 13/04/2016 10:38:00    1845006

Let's face it, 50+% of the population living in Meath support Dublin. Since the great migration of boom times, Dublin flags and jerseys vastly outnumber the Meath ones in summer time

hit the nail on the head right there that's one thing I can never get my head around as I live in Dublin I work with someone who moved out of dubin to meath when they were 12 and HIS SON follows Dublin ridiculous im from Kerry but if I had kids they would be supporting Dublin I would have no issue, how many generations does it take? one of the reasons I love going to gaa matches is seeing people from different counties going to games together I regularly go to croker with my Dublin mother Kerry father and cork fiancé great craic!

coopersleftfoot (Kerry) - Posts: 91 - 13/04/2016 11:08:11    1845020

Liam

Lets get one thing straight buddy.....its not that we miss ye.....its that we miss beating ye when it mattered!!!!

Aaaaaah same thing, your love for Meath is practically uncontainable Liamo, I can almost hear you singing Take That, "Want you back, want you back, want you back for good" :-)

i think this has its roots with the back door. It destroyed hardcore provincial rivalries by its very nature.

Well this is definitely true, losing a provincial match is still very disappointing but it doesn't bring the crushing feeling of being out of the championship anymore. Which I suppose is a good thing but it certainly takes a little bit of that edge away from provincial games.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 13/04/2016 11:08:30    1845021

Royal badger, no one likes ye......is that what your saying?
Ye poor craters, God help ye! As a Dubs fan living in Limerick, I cant imagine what that must have been like atall......................!!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 13/04/2016 11:13:07    1845024

Coopersleftfoot would you say the same to all the lads living in Abbeyfeale all their lives but who support Kerry cos the auld lad is from Duagh.....!!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 13/04/2016 11:18:43    1845030

Coopersleftfoot would you say the same to all the lads living in Abbeyfeale all their lives but who support Kerry cos the auld lad is from Duagh.....!!
yes without question, maybe not to their faces though them north Kerry/west limerick boys are tough!

coopersleftfoot (Kerry) - Posts: 91 - 13/04/2016 11:27:16    1845035

Damothedub

They were great days and to be fair Dublin never complained about the physical stuff, it was rough football back then and in all honesty the game has changed for the better, although the diving is hard to stomach. You'd how teams from the 80s would get on these days, the game could end up abandoned!

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 13/04/2016 11:32:50    1845042

Let's face it, 50+% of the population living in Meath support Dublin. Since the great migration of boom times, Dublin flags and jerseys vastly outnumber the Meath ones in summer time. No other county is faced with this challenge. Kildare/Wicklow has to some degree....but not as bad as Meath. A lot of kids in Meath don't dream about playing for Meath. That's a problem. How does Meath GAA improve given the circumstances on the ground?

Meath will bounce back....eventually, hopefully...

DeJaMo (Meath) - Posts:1 - 12/04/2016 17:14:01

Dublin have been dealing with that issue for years!!!!

Loadsa Dublin born people give plenty of support to the counties of their parents while their growing up. Loads even end up supporting their parents counties over the Dubs in games. They all usually grow out of it in their teens but all continue to have an affection for the counties of their parents or even grandparents. It's only natural.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13718 - 13/04/2016 11:47:22    1845060

Htaem, imagine Mick Lyons, Gerry McEntee, Keith Barr and Eamon Heery playing today!!
Sure Philly Mc and Aidan O'Mahony and the like wouldnt get a look in with those boyos!!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 13/04/2016 11:50:57    1845062

Damothedub

They were great days and to be fair Dublin never complained about the physical stuff, it was rough football back then and in all honesty the game has changed for the better, although the diving is hard to stomach. You'd how teams from the 80s would get on these days, the game could end up abandoned!

Htaem (Meath) - Posts:7090 - 13/04/2016 11:32:50


Think there has to be a balance , C Whelan said in the programme secretly we all like to see a bit of think it was argy bargy or some type of cliché meaning a bit of physical stuff , I count myself as one who agrees with that , the 80S and 90s did at times go overboard no doubts as did the stuff in the seventies , so the game has cleaned itself up , but its going too far in the opposite direction , the hysteria on here after the Donegal Kerry game just one example , diving I complete agree is creeping in and I hate to see it . Soccer has been turned into a near non-contact sport hope to God Im not around long enough to see the same happen to our codes

Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 13/04/2016 11:56:13    1845064

agree there damo a bit of a row always heats things up! having said that all this holding and gamesmanship etc by all sides is a farce two examples spring to mind the last 5 mins of the 2013 all Ireland final and last 5 mins in Kerry mayo replay 2014 It took a bit of the gloss off that win for me, its too easy to slow play down in football when was the last time in a big match that a team scored a last minute goal to win it, never happens anymore

coopersleftfoot (Kerry) - Posts: 91 - 13/04/2016 12:06:49    1845080

Master - what is a proper footballing county?

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 13/04/2016 12:07:17    1845081

I remember people going stir crazy after the '88 All Ireland replay against Cork, we were tore apart after it. I remember that article in the RTE Guide in 1991 where a scribe wrote about his hatred of Meath and his hope that a referee would do everyone a favour and send off every Meath player at the next available opportunity. I remember that dose of a programme Liveline after the '96 semi final and final replay against Tyrone and Mayo, God I never knew there were so many perfect people living in this little country of ours. True at times things went over the top but I look at today and think I'd rather the 80's and 90's, at least the players were manly about it, we didn't have players feigning injury, we didn't have fellas rolling round like they were shot when someone tussled their hair, we didn't have any eye gouging incidents or allegations, we didn't have fella deliberately trying to break another players finger, we didn't have biting allegations but if one player didn't like another he just let it be known and took a skelp at him. Players might not be paid in the GAA but they are developing Premier League like tendencys so yeah I too miss the way my county performed and many others do too, I miss the honesty, the manliness, the in your face toughness and the bravery. Give it to me over the cowardly actions of today anyway, where players cant even be punished due to their refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing, their belief that they are untouchable and the misguided use of legal practices which cast our association in poor light. Imagine Keith Barr, Eamon Heery, Colm O'Rourke, Liam Harnan, Larry Tompkins, etc engaging in such practices, I doubt it somehow.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 13/04/2016 12:18:12    1845087

No doubt Meath will come again but Dublin will never be average again like they occasionally were for periods over the last 30 years and I think that is the key point. No matter how you look at it, for every footballer meath or indeed my own county, Kildare can produce, Dublin can produce 8 or 9. And for every footballer than Longford can produce, Meath or Kildare can produce 8 or 9. It's a flawed system we all know that

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 366 - 13/04/2016 12:21:16    1845090

I remember people going stir crazy after the '88 All Ireland replay against Cork, we were tore apart after it. I remember that article in the RTE Guide in 1991 where a scribe wrote about his hatred of Meath and his hope that a referee would do everyone a favour and send off every Meath player at the next available opportunity. I remember that dose of a programme Liveline after the '96 semi final and final replay against Tyrone and Mayo, God I never knew there were so many perfect people living in this little country of ours. True at times things went over the top but I look at today and think I'd rather the 80's and 90's, at least the players were manly about it, we didn't have players feigning injury, we didn't have fellas rolling round like they were shot when someone tussled their hair, we didn't have any eye gouging incidents or allegations, we didn't have fella deliberately trying to break another players finger, we didn't have biting allegations but if one player didn't like another he just let it be known and took a skelp at him. Players might not be paid in the GAA but they are developing Premier League like tendencys so yeah I too miss the way my county performed and many others do too, I miss the honesty, the manliness, the in your face toughness and the bravery. Give it to me over the cowardly actions of today anyway, where players cant even be punished due to their refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing, their belief that they are untouchable and the misguided use of legal practices which cast our association in poor light. Imagine Keith Barr, Eamon Heery, Colm O'Rourke, Liam Harnan, Larry Tompkins, etc engaging in such practices, I doubt it somehow.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 13/04/2016 12:21:54    1845092