I am from Ashbourne the amount of Dublin parents who have their kids in Dublin jerseys is a joke.I mean they are been brought up in Meath and they are from Meath.I did meet a Dublin lad before who had his son in a Meath jersey and I was shocked,but he agreed with me 100%.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts:5005 - 16/04/2016 08:44:56 184

I understand your pain and if it was the other way round I would be annoyed. But Ashbourne is right on the Dublin border , Most Dubs who move there don't even move jobs or change circle of friends. Psychologically in their head they are still in Dublin. So when they have kids the thought of them supporting Meath is alien to them. Off course this added to other factors doesn't help Meath.
But I'm curious , are their the same amount of GAA clubs operating now as in the 90s ,are Meath losing hoards of young lads to other sports or migration. Could it be a case of Dublin being fortunate in having good players coming through at the same time (u21 and minor)and training them really well (money helps in understanding newer training techniques and nutrition possibly at the start but won't get a guy to kick a ball over the bar , so without the will and the players it will only get you so far)
Galway dont have hoards of Mayo folk moving into their county but have suffered similar faith as yourselves.
Maybe with all the technology and distractions now a days, coupled with work and the huge demands of an intercounty player ,huge effort has to be made to get young lads giving everything for their county and that has to involve making it seem an attractive proposition at juvenile, it's just not as easy as years ago just to expect lads to turn up and give everything to their county and be good enough to beat the opposition. Huge Investment of time and energy is required at underage .
Meath for me took their eye of the ball and Dublin really went for it as regards getting in among the communities and getting volunteers educated in training methods ( money helped Dublin at the start but nothing like people are happy to believe), also consciously getting ex players involved as coaches to appeal to kids and pass on their knowledge is massive. Have inter county players as their hero's with their names on their backs, not some muppet from premier league.
Now both Counties have gone in opposite directions, which makes the gulf worse .
Meath can get back up their again no doubt , they have enough people to do it.

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 16/04/2016 09:35:05    1846075

Leinster's strong hurling counties are Kilkenny, Dublin, Wexford and Offaly. It's surprising that Meath and Kildare are so far off the top level in the football championship and that there is no other county putting up a challenge in Leinster.

The way Leinster operates it's championship is it's own business. I can understand seeding semi-finalists to have a bye to the quarter-finals of the following year. Should the quarter-final draw be an open draw? Currently the seeded teams are kept apart in the quarter-finals.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7879 - 16/04/2016 09:55:06    1846079

Ollie

As you say the border is thin,but the guy was a Louthman so he should have been supporting Louth.

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2016 10:00:24    1846081

ATHCLIATH

This is a damning stat..

In the lat ten years or so kids playing gaa in Meath who are under 14,only 25% are still playing the game by the age of 18... As I said the Meath development squads at U14,U15 are very strong,but more has to be done to keep kids in the game..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2016 10:02:29    1846082

Ziggy most of Drogheda is in Louth. A small part is in Meath. Grange Rath which is the biggest housing estate in the town is situated in Meath and was built during the boom times. The north part of the Boyne in Drogheda is in the diocese of Armagh and the south part is in the diocese of Meath. I find that a lot of people who live in the diocese of Meath which is still County Louth support the Royals.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 16/04/2016 10:37:46    1846092

ATHCLIATH

This is a damning stat..

In the lat ten years or so kids playing gaa in Meath who are under 14,only 25% are still playing the game by the age of 18... As I said the Meath development squads at U14,U15 are very strong,but more has to be done to keep kids in the game..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts:5009 - 16/04/2016 10:02:29

In one way i think it's a duty of a county to get its own house in order to a certain degree, in another i think the Gaa should look at the organisation as a whole and if it's felt counties are slipping that far behind help should be offered. Antrim is another county.
Only now after the Roscommon game fiasco are the GAA saying something will DEFINETLY be done as regards the pitch.
Meath should have a decent stadium, structures should be put in place as reguards finance to help.
We benefited from money to allow us grow a project that needed a lot of people on board at the start. But without hard graft and everyone singing from the same hymn sheet , would mean nothing today. This allowed us progress . No doubt the GAA want a strong Dublin. But Leinster will eventually just disappear as a provincial competition if the gap keeps widening. I don't think the GAA want this.

I think financial incentives should be offered to counties like Meath to kick start them again. If they go and come back with good plans

AthCliath (Dublin) - Posts: 4347 - 16/04/2016 10:40:01    1846095

Athcliath

very sensible and fair post.

Ollie
Oh I'm very well aware of how Drogheda is.As you say most of the area(nevermind town) is in Louth,If I saw a Louthman in a Meath jersey I would personally tell him to cop on too,its not premiership soccer.If you are a Louthman you were that shirt with pride despite how successful or not they are.What happens if Louth do win something? I am sure people like him would be on the bandwagon..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2016 12:14:51    1846117

From my experience of Dubs who have moved into my area they have no interest in the local gaa club team never mind the county team. In fact they dont serm that interested in getting involved in the community at all

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 366 - 16/04/2016 13:11:23    1846129

From my experience of Dubs who have moved into my area they have no interest in the local gaa club team never mind the county team. In fact they dont serm that interested in getting involved in the community at all

11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts:110 - 16/04/2016 13:11:23

I would agree with that. It was different for the people who migrated to Kildare from the south and west during the seventies and eighties. They were so far from home that they had to immerse themselves in the locality and involvement with the local GAA club was the best way to do this. Most of the new population in Kildare have moved out from Dublin and are probably still within an hour's drive from their original homeplace. They aren't as inclined to get involved in their "new" community. I presume it's the same in other "commuter counties" like Meath, Louth and Wicklow.

beir_bua (Kildare) - Posts: 746 - 16/04/2016 13:20:34    1846131

yeah thats true here too lads.. I have a neighbour from south Dublin,but they are never at home..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2016 14:59:09    1846151

Ziggy on the point of bandwagon supporters. There was between 25,000 to 30,000 Louth supporters at the Leinster final in 2010. Many of these fans were at their first ever Louth match or at their first Louth match in years. Mattock Rangers GAA club in Collon on the border with Meath is funny in a way because the parish covers both counties so you would have Mattock players who would be from Meath. Plus you would have a lot of marriages in that area with one person from Louth and the other from Meath.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 16/04/2016 15:44:05    1846161

Ha,would Mattock players ever want to play for Meath? Doesn't seem to happen? In fairness you will get bandwagon supporters everywhere.There would be crowds from Meath going to Leinster finals,but you wouldn't see them in Navan in February!

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 16/04/2016 16:30:11    1846184

MMA me arse, we had Meath in the 80s :D

KerryKillers (Dublin) - Posts: 711 - 16/04/2016 16:33:57    1846187

Well I ain't going to get into the whole living in another county supporting Meath, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on, particularly with a dub wife living in Westmeath with kids who all went to croke park last year in their Mr tayto tops v Westmeath, so lees said and all that. Lalalalala. Now change subject. :)

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 16/04/2016 17:23:17    1846209

Ziggy when Mattock won their first ever Louth Senior Championship in 2002 they reached the Leinster final that year only to be beaten by that great Dunshaughlin team. In 2005 they won their second championship when they beat their great rivals the Blues. Captain of the Mattock team was a Meath man by the name of Gerry Hanratty. Mattock won back to back Championships in 2009 and 2010. It was a big surprise last year when Mattock got relegated from Senior and yet they won the Division one title by beating the Pats in the final last year. Themselves and the Pats had have some great battles down through the years. The Pats won their first ever Senior Championship in 2003. The Louth captain Adrian Reid plays with Mattock. He has played over 100 matches with the Wee County and is the only Louth player left in the squad that started in the Leinster final in 2010 in which he scored a peach of a point.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 16/04/2016 17:43:42    1846213

There is a huge number of Meath lads and lassies supporting Dublin even though they've grown up with Meath. My problem though is Meath players growing up and playing for Dublin and not Meath. We've seen a lot of talent from Meath tog out for Dublin under age right up to u21. Most of these players never progress to the Dublin seniors because the standard s so high but they would really strengthen Meath be it u18, u21 or senior. The GAA need to clamp down on this. If you've grown up playing for a Meath club you should have to play for Meath and that's it.

obviously funding is a big issue. If we could have 25 full time coaches in Meath and another 25 in Kildare to cover primary & secondary schools along with under-age clubs it would make a huge difference after about 10-15 years. Meath and Kildare will still lose to Dublin most of the time but we might get a win every 5 years or so which is better than the current situation.

Meath have beaten Dublin once in the last 15 years and Kildare haven't beaten them at all. It's crazy how they thought funding Dublin like this would result in anything but the most lopsided province. When Dublin were at their so called worse (in a shambles) the likes of Meath were still losing to them narrowly all the time. They should have funded all of Leinster as a province bar Kilkenny because they obviously couldn't care less.

Jack_Goff (Meath) - Posts: 2920 - 16/04/2016 20:32:54    1846279

The Master, the infighting in Galway you mention is as much to do with the hurling football divide in Galway as within football itself. People outside the county may not have a sense of the significant dislike a small number of hurling people admittedly have for football. Mind you the key positions on the merged county board are filled by hurling people with issues over resources for both codes because of a failed hurling centre of execellence ecfort. Back to topic. Yes I miss Meath. Always respected them and felt their achievements under Sean Boylan are sometimes not fully appreciated.

kiloughter (Galway) - Posts: 1947 - 17/04/2016 09:58:56    1846322

I actually miss Meath too :D

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 17/04/2016 11:20:20    1846340

Lets get this trending

#imissmeath

RoyalBadger (Meath) - Posts: 571 - 18/04/2016 15:07:12    1846867

Are Meath the most entertaining county of all time?

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1792 - 19/04/2016 19:50:25    1847384