I really believe Meath football is at an all time low, I dont see any light at the end of the tunnel. Our underage teams to put it bluntly are brutal , we thought everything was rosy in the garden after beating a third string Dublin by a point in the O Byrne Cup. Yesterdays performances by both the under 21s and seniors were pathetic, we are at best third in leinster about 8 points behind Dublin and Kildare. First of all we have to realise how bad we really are before we can improve.If we think we are a powerhouse of football then we are deluding ourselves.

millhouse (Meath) - Posts: 892 - 07/03/2010 10:26:57    581000

I dont think anyone with any knowledge of the game thinks we are a powerhouse at the moment. You are completely over-reacting. Its only march and we've got 2 league wins under our belt and we still havent really got out of second gear. No need to panic.

I would like to add that O'Briens persistance to pick Niall McKeigue is starting to annoy me a little bit. Also, Barry Regan has had his chance is NOT good enough for to represent the county.

Ochocinco (Meath) - Posts: 82 - 07/03/2010 12:06:01    581029

Well I wouldn't go as far as to say that its at an all time low but I will concede that there's been better days.

Meath have never been strong under-age, indeed Leinster teams as a rule are not strong under-age, particularly at u21 level. If we're being honest, we have had one decent under-age team and that was the minors of 1990 through to u21s of 1993. In 1997, the u21s were fairly strong but alas, they succumbed to Derry in the final of that competition. The team yesterday was a poor one, good players like Brian Sheridan and Mark Collins were playing on a team where many of their team-mates were never up to the standard, but the presence of these good players gave Meath supporters false optimism (and people conviently forgot that we were greatly lacking in other areas of the pitch).

Seniors. Look, greatly exaggerated posts appear on this board every year. I seem to recall our GAA obituary being wrote after a certain Fermanagh game last year and we still managed to reach an All-Ireland semi-final. But what is apparant is that we are greatly lacking in the full-back line and half-forward line. James Macken, Niall McKeigue and Ollie Lewis are not the solutions. But we do still have some outstanding players, David and Stephen Bray for example. There is still the basis for a very good team there if players can be found to compliment these outstanding players.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 07/03/2010 12:41:36    581042

Overreact much?
Yes the performance was disappointing but we got the win out of it and I think we deserved it.
Niall McKeigue didn't have a good game, but I have to say I'm ashamed at the conduct of some of our "supporters" last night. Some of them seemed to be more interested in roaring abuse at our own players than supporting them, McKeigue especially. I heard one of them screaming after Westmeath's 2nd goal that McKeigue should be taken out and shot. Of course, when you're having a bad game, thats the last thing you want to hear. Almost everything seemed to be McKeigues fault. Regan ran into trouble and handpassed to McKeigue who was surrounded by 3 Westmeath players and nearly lost the ball. Cue more abuse and threats to McKeigue.
But whatever about the defence, I felt the forwards were extremely poor yesterday and if we hadn't won I think they should have taken most of the blame. I lost count of the number of wides we had, the majority of them from very scorable positions. And Queeney's 25 yard free that dropped into Connaughtons hands near the end was inexplicable. I feel that, despite peoples views on Cian Ward's contribution to open play, he's absolutely vital for his frees.

Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1466 - 07/03/2010 12:46:25    581045

relax there millhouse... all ireland semi finalists 6 months ago?

dorkside (Meath) - Posts: 71 - 07/03/2010 13:16:18    581057

Our main problems can largely be fixed if we have the following players fit.
This would be my team for the Offaly game.
Put Anthony Moyles centre back to organise the defence.
That alone will make us much more fluid when moving out with the ball.
Put McGuinness wing back.
Drop Niall McKeigue and Barry Regan. Sorry but they are not up to scratch.
Bring Brian Farrell in for David Bray as soon as he's fit and have a FF line of Farrell, Queeney and S Bray with a HF line of Peadar, Joe and Seamus Kenny.
Meade and Crawford midfield. I know Ward is catching plenty of ball and making marks but that can't disguise the fact that he is very immobile and can't tackle.
King/Reilly, Moyles, McGuinness HB line.
O'Connor, Reilly, Harrington FB line.
O'Rourke in goals.
It's time for Eamon to start putting a shape on a team for the Offaly game.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 07/03/2010 13:30:50    581064

Millhouse is spot on..as for being semi finalists,true,but in all honestly we were never goin to win it..kerry hammered us without breaking a sweat..meath are a long way off the pace and are not near good enough to even win a leinster..

CommonSense1 (Meath) - Posts: 28 - 07/03/2010 13:33:30    581065

classic stuff millhouse. you definitely are a typical gaa "supporter".

overdabar (Westmeath) - Posts: 256 - 07/03/2010 13:43:26    581073

Really over the top there with sayin its a all time low.Barry Regan is not up to the mark,i havin seen anything to say he is.An other piont is what the hell is moyles doing playing wing forward.never going to be a forward thats going to add to the forward line,take regan out of 6 and put moyles there...

timmyryan (Meath) - Posts: 10 - 07/03/2010 13:48:23    581074

all ireland semi final? the likes of wexford and fermanagh can reach all ireland semi finals, the truth of the matter is we have not even reached a leinster final for allmost 10 years and we all know how bad leinster is, i really think alot of us meath supporters are easily pleased, we are a mid table div 2 team and no better i would place us about number 10 ireland at best , i really think in time to come we will become like cavan a team with a distant past and not really considered a tier one team.

millhouse (Meath) - Posts: 892 - 07/03/2010 14:15:20    581082

Thats it lads look at the negative the whole time, were useless, we have no hope, we will soon be in division 4 and it will be another 20 years before we get to a Leinster Final well as long as so called supporters of Meath football hold those thoughts in their heads we will never get anywhere because that belief filters down to the players who are acutely aware of supporters thoughts. True we are not at the heights we once were and we need restructuring, especially at under age, but starting threads like this is showing a defeatist attitude about Meath football and I will be damned if I will ever go down that road.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3772 - 07/03/2010 14:45:10    581098

millhouse
County: Meath
Posts: 356

You should be ashamed of yourself. You are overreacting completely here. For a start I would consider an AI more significant than Leinster and reaching a semi-final is not an easy thing to do.
Now I was absolutely raging after last nights display but I too would place more of the blame on the forwards. <<< this is based on last night no other games.
I think the problem lies in the confidence of some players and I dont blame them, it's due to people like you Millhouse who focus on the negatives and are no supporter at all. Players don't need to see this kind of thing and they certainly shouldn't be subjected to it at games.

itsgreenandgold (Meath) - Posts: 312 - 07/03/2010 15:01:49    581108

I agree with millhouse.If you're a true royal supporter you can see through the cracks and realise things aren't right.It's not being pessimistic,it's being realistic.We should be the Kerry of Leinster if we put our mind to it.As millhouse said,Wexford got to an All-Ireland semi-final in 2008 and look at them.Getting to All-Ireland semi-finals in 2007 and 2009 were flukes and weren't true reflections of our team.Sure we only beat West Meath last night by a lousy point,that's poor.

johnboywalton58 (Meath) - Posts: 71 - 07/03/2010 15:41:53    581136

Hang on john boy, you are trying to tell me that beating Galway and Tyrone in '07 was a fluke as was what was done in '09, thats total rubbish talk. I am also a realist I am aware of the shortcomings but I am also aware of the potential of the team and the success they could achieve. I fail to understand how any Meath supporter could have sat in Croke Park in the 07 Semi Final or last year thinking we got there by fluke. The team won last night albeit after a poor second half and yet now all of a sudden we are the worst of all time sure we shouldn't bother our backside traveling to Thurles next weekend so. Lord lads will ye cop on your supposed to be supporters, constructive critcism is always welcome but not this tripe

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3772 - 07/03/2010 16:10:10    581151

who would have thought coming out of croke park in 2001 after giving kerry a good hammering what the next decade had in store for us, its bad enough not producing footballers of the required standard, but we are unable to produce the manly players like harnan, lyons o rourke ect , this lot are a bunch of handbags in comparison.

millhouse (Meath) - Posts: 892 - 07/03/2010 16:46:21    581179

Would you all get a grip.It is only March and the first round of the championship is on May the 23rd.Alright i except that the performance wasn't great but EOB will have learned alot about the team last night.McKiege and Regan were poor last night and Macken was all over the place and the sooner Riely is back the better.Moyles i felt did very well in the half-forward line.He gave great accurate balls into the forwards and that is what we need.Mark Ward cannot play another game for Meath this year as he is not consistent enough.Brian Meade will start the next day.Joe was poor but the ball going into him from Ward was poor also.Steven Bray played well,but David was very bad.He missed 2 simple free's in the second half.Seamus Kenny and Ollie Lewis were the 2 best players on show and he took both of them off and left David Bray,Niall McKiege and Barry Regan on,when he could of taken off Regan and put Moyles centre half,and Bring Shane O'Rourke on and Brian Farrel and instead of taking Kenny off he should have taken McKiege off as he cost Meath 1-1 and put McEarney in corner back.And i would of even brought on Peader or Brian Meade.The sign of a good team is playing bad and still winning and in all fairness they did show great heart to come back after the goal.Also Crawford played very well.I am still worried about the scoring rate.I think though alot of the misses have come from David Bray so if Cian Ward acn be fit for the next day i can see him coming in for David Bray.

12Royal (Meath) - Posts: 987 - 07/03/2010 17:46:08    581226

millhouse is over-reacting a little bit alright but thats probably just because he's so disappointed and i won't tear him down for that. This meath team got together since say 2007 and ever since then the most consistent problem with the team has been their inability to keep the score board ticking over, which has been seen time and time again in all competitions. Now i know every team even good teams are capable of going through bad spells in games and maybe don't register a score for 10mins or so but ive seen this meath team fail to score for up to 25mins in games and that is not acceptable especially considering the fire power we have up front and i can only put that fault down to a lack of leadership in the team.

Anyway lads just take a step back, relax and wait to see how the rest of the league goes because when its all said and done this is not a great meath team and we shouldn't really be expecting too much out of them. Who knows maybe in 5 or 10 more years we'll have a new generation of Lyon's, Giles's, McDermott's etc etc who'll go on to restore our ego's but until then just be patient lads.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 07/03/2010 17:47:48    581231

i suppose the 5 points from david were no help last nite 12royal.barry reagan done ok.u want brian farrell in ur on another planet.

7stars (Meath) - Posts: 94 - 07/03/2010 17:55:58    581242

Davis Bray top scored last night so to say he was poor is smoewhat harsh.
Our goalkeeper did well last night, beaten by a good shot for the second goal and I would always expect the forward to score a penalty from 13 metres.
The full back line struggled I feel against what was not a great full forward line with Macken and McKeigue experiencing difficulties.
In the half back line Seamus Kenny was our best performer and I'm not sure why he was taken off, maybe he had picked up a knock. I said before that I don't think Barry Regan is up to county level and while maybe I am wrong what I saw last night hasn't changed my mind.
At midfield we won plenty of ball but distribution to the full forward line wasn't great.
In the half forward line Ollie Lewis had a very good first half but his influence had waned before being taken off. Jamie Queeney I don't think is a centre forward at this level and I would prefer to see Joe here while Anthony Moyles had a decent game though he is capable of much better,
In the full forward line Joe hadn't one of his better days and I still believe he is better out the field where he has more space. In the corners the two Brays notched about 8 points between them, David missing a relatively simple free late on but then stepped up to notch a very good equalising point.

Overall some of the hysteria here after last night beggars belief. No we didn't play well, but the main thing is a win.
Next week against Tipperary in Thurles will be tough, they got a good draw in Newry last night and the Meath team will have to perform better than last night to get the two points.
Hopefully though this will be the case abd by this time next wek there will be 6 points out of 8 in the bag.

jackhackett (Meath) - Posts: 773 - 07/03/2010 18:02:56    581250

As usual a lot of nonsense along with some good comments being posted, however for a novice it would be very difficult to differentate. The comment about putting Moyles at CHB demonstrates the posters knowledge about football! far too loose as could be seen by anyone with na little eyesight last year- forward maybe just!. I suspect that the management are trying out players in various positions even though some of the positional should be unnecessary. Regan for example is not a back and never plays there even for his club. I think that most of our backs are too loose, however there are not too many better ones in the County except Reilly who is recovering from injury.

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 07/03/2010 18:24:06    581276