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Replying To waynoI: "Its not karma, Its not a curse, Its not coincidence and its not a lack of time and effort that their players are putting in.
You can try and dress it up with little bows and bring some modern curse like phenomenon, But its as simple and as black and white as this......They simply aren't all that good.
For me, There is Dublin, Kerry and Mayo who are the leading pack, then as far as I'm concerned there is probably Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal who are the level below, Then there is Galway and Kildare who are the nearest to breaking into the Mon/Tyr/Don.... And then there is the rest, 9-32 who you can literally put in any order ye want.
Meath don't have the footballers anymore. In Biggie they have a talented footballer, against average sides. When the going gets tough, there isn't one single player on that Meath panel that I would trust to stand up and smash heads together in the dressing room
They are a decent-good bunch of players, But they aren't anywhere near the top 8 or 9 at present. They are playing at their level and facile wins toward the end of the league and against Louth gave *some* of their fans a little bit more confidence than maybe was justified.
But the reality is Kildare are further along the road than Meath at present, And before any Meath player/fan/management starts contemplating putting it up to the Dubs, they must first focus on putting it up to the Kildares of this world before making the step up cause currently they are miles behind Kildare, let alone teams above that
The one thing that struck me at the game on Saturday, was that Meath players where absolutely goosed and out on their feet from very, very early doors. Kildare were playing in the same conditions and they seemed so comfortable.
Meath may well get a decent run in the qualifiers, They got Sligo in the draw this morning, but realistically their season will end before or at the quarter final stage.
Andy McEntee should go hell for leather at the league next year, Meath need to be playing the Dublin and Kerrys of this world in the spring for two reasons
1) To make them realize the level they have to try reach in terms of consistency, skill, mentality etc of the top teams
2) To get them accustomed to playing these types of teams again cause right now they are miles off.
But worth remembering its McEntees first year. Plenty of time to do it , Meath fans just have to be patient. But at present, with the panel in place, a mediocre championship summer is now all but certain." Ah yes good post, that's probably the gist of it. Off topic waynol but did i read in a thread over the last year or so that you're a Wicklow native?
Laois76 (Laois) - Posts: 1270 - 19/06/2017 18:42:40
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Replying To jimbodub: "Meath had two golden generations on the bounce
Winning 4 of their 7 All Irelands under one manager overseeing the two teams
This was actually an anomaly when you look at their entire GAA history - a fantastic one mind!!
This anomaly IMO lured them into a situation where I think the powers that be in Meath GAA circles just thought they could sit back and watch the magic continue.
But in reality the ground work wasn't being done at underage and when Boylan left - the managers that followed didn't have the same raw materials close to hand, and as such the magic stopped." I often hear non Meath people saying Meath had not done much in football pre Sean Boylan but I always tell them this is a bit simplistic, the Boylan era was definitely Meaths best era winning 4 of Meath' 7 AI's but he is not the full story of Meath football history. Meath had some very good teams in the 1940's/ 1950's/1960's (the end of the 1960's team was actually losing the 1970 AI final) before the Boylan era. If you look at Meath football between 1939 and 2001 (63 seasons) Meath won 19 (Boylan won 8 of these over 16 seasons) Leinster titles and reached 15 All Ireland finals (Boylan reached 7 of these in 15 seasons).
bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1337 - 19/06/2017 19:13:26
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Replying To waynoI: "Its not karma, Its not a curse, Its not coincidence and its not a lack of time and effort that their players are putting in.
You can try and dress it up with little bows and bring some modern curse like phenomenon, But its as simple and as black and white as this......They simply aren't all that good.
For me, There is Dublin, Kerry and Mayo who are the leading pack, then as far as I'm concerned there is probably Monaghan, Tyrone, Donegal who are the level below, Then there is Galway and Kildare who are the nearest to breaking into the Mon/Tyr/Don.... And then there is the rest, 9-32 who you can literally put in any order ye want.
Meath don't have the footballers anymore. In Biggie they have a talented footballer, against average sides. When the going gets tough, there isn't one single player on that Meath panel that I would trust to stand up and smash heads together in the dressing room
They are a decent-good bunch of players, But they aren't anywhere near the top 8 or 9 at present. They are playing at their level and facile wins toward the end of the league and against Louth gave *some* of their fans a little bit more confidence than maybe was justified.
But the reality is Kildare are further along the road than Meath at present, And before any Meath player/fan/management starts contemplating putting it up to the Dubs, they must first focus on putting it up to the Kildares of this world before making the step up cause currently they are miles behind Kildare, let alone teams above that
The one thing that struck me at the game on Saturday, was that Meath players where absolutely goosed and out on their feet from very, very early doors. Kildare were playing in the same conditions and they seemed so comfortable.
Meath may well get a decent run in the qualifiers, They got Sligo in the draw this morning, but realistically their season will end before or at the quarter final stage.
Andy McEntee should go hell for leather at the league next year, Meath need to be playing the Dublin and Kerrys of this world in the spring for two reasons
1) To make them realize the level they have to try reach in terms of consistency, skill, mentality etc of the top teams
2) To get them accustomed to playing these types of teams again cause right now they are miles off.
But worth remembering its McEntees first year. Plenty of time to do it , Meath fans just have to be patient. But at present, with the panel in place, a mediocre championship summer is now all but certain." That's a very good assessment an outside view from within if you know what I mean I've no doubt AMc is an excellent manager but is working with a limited enough squad and there's only so much he can do we all know we're at the level we're at because of a stone age co board and their neglect of juvenile football in recent decades but hopefully we can re group for a decent run in qualifiers I don't think we're quite as bad as Saturday showed
runnerin (Meath) - Posts: 202 - 19/06/2017 19:38:58
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Replying To CastleBravo: "I think people are forgetting how bad Meath really were between 2001 and 2009. Aside from a draw vs. Dublin and a win vs. Tyrone in 2007 there were almost no big wins. In 2001, 2004 and 2006 Meath were relegated from a 16 team divison 1 of the league, being a yoyo team from the old division 2. Meath lost to Fermanagh 2 years in a row, then lost to Wexford twice in 3 years, and then Limerick too in 2008.
Between 2002 and 2009 we didn't make one Leinster semi final (which only requires stringing 2 wins together at worst) In comparison we've only missed one Leinster semi final in the last 8 years.
In 2010 we reached a final for the first time in 9 years, but followed it up with reaching 3 finals in 4 years.
I'm not saying all's rosy or that we're doing great, but people are rewriting history to try and paint the 2000s as anything but terrible." I am not sure are you trying to say things are better in the last few years than in 2002-2009 ?, considering we got to 2 All Ireland Semi finals in that time I would say recent times have been worse (Although 2008 did stand out as a very very bad year no doubt about that). Back then you felt if we played Dublin we would raise our game (which back then we always did) for a big match where as since 2014 Dublin have humiliated us. First ever loss to Westmeath from being way ahead, losing to Derry last year from being way ahead. Even some of the losses back then which you point loss to you failed to mention that both Limerick and Wexford were from their point of view going through a good few years.
bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1337 - 19/06/2017 20:41:31
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I think one of meaths biggest problem is the way the media and supporters/posters on here build them up year after year based on the teams of the boylan era and not the current players.
ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 19/06/2017 21:35:37
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Replying To ROS1: "I think one of meaths biggest problem is the way the media and supporters/posters on here build them up year after year based on the teams of the boylan era and not the current players." Naturally enough things looked good this year after seeing you team score 27 points in the opening championship match. What people write here has almost no impact on the team, most people are not on here reading these forum's.
bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1337 - 19/06/2017 22:06:02
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Replying To Laois76: "All good points and overall true.
But the 80s team weren't back boned by underage success. The fight seems to have left them. In gaelic football, as opposed to hurling, with decent organisation and heart you should be able to rise into the top 10 to 12 counties like Clare.
Even in previous barren spells Meath were a tough outfit to play against. Now they look sluggish, unfit.. areas you'd expect to be rectified. They look as unfit as Laois at present! I don't understand it, players mix with other inter county players at college and regardless of management should know the level of fitness required, diet etc.
I saw some of the Laois fellas out and about yesterday with fizzy drinks and ice cream cones and the like. I know i'll be slated for this as it's so puritanical... but consuming that food and drink shouldn't be on for a modern day footballer...it's pure shi*e!! You have to really go all out, putting good fuel in the engine is important. Ok if it's a once off, but if your down at the local shop eating chocolate and fizzy drinks it won't cut it now.
That's modern sport and to be an athlete for a possible 80min of football or more in 26-27C heat everything has to be perfect." in 1985 laois beat meath by 10 points,people wanted boylan gone,the rest(as they say) is history..
ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 19/06/2017 22:29:44
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Replying To ziggy32001: "in 1985 laois beat meath by 10 points,people wanted boylan gone,the rest(as they say) is history.." Remember it well :) So true.
Laois76 (Laois) - Posts: 1270 - 19/06/2017 23:10:51
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Replying To Laois76: "Remember it well :) So true." meath won 3 leinsters and 2 all-irelands after that. bet people would have laughed after that day against laois.
ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 20/06/2017 08:23:32
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Meath are not as bad as many people want them to be. I have never seen a team which is one of the youngest teams in the country been so written so early in their careers. . And if you take out O Rourke and Burke the average age is 22. I have never seen a young team being written of so much after 1 games. In all sports young teams deliver bad performances. It's part and parcel of a team developing. This Mesth team can only be truly judged in 2019 2020 and 2021. That's when this team will reach their peak . When they reach the collective age of 26 27, the age bracket of when teams peak .
In Kildare in the first season under Cian O.Neill Kildare were dreadful. Their performance v Westmeath last year was the most spiritless performance I have ever seen from Kildare. There is no comparison between Kildare this year and last. Kevin Walsh made very little progress in his first two seasons. It was not til the third and fourth season we saw a real improvement. It took Sean Boylan 4 years to win leinster title. In their first few seasons Jimmy Barry Murphy and Nicky English had a few bad seasons and performances before they won liam Mcarthy in 1999 and 2001 in their respective counties. We can not judge Meath yet under McEntee. In a first season a manager is clearing out the dirty petrol in the first season . Andy McEntee has allot of problems to sort out. Allot of theses guys have bad defeats at underage and senior level for Meath. He also needs to find out which player he can work with and stamp his ideas on the team. This will take time. And to expect him to do it in a couple of months is not being realistic. Pat Gilroy had a nightmare start as Dublin manager. Many were calling for his head after his first and second year. Well we all know what happened next.
This Meath team are not a division 4 or Division 3 team . They are a top Division 2 team. Who have finished 3rd 3 times in the last 4 year's. Which would mean they could be give the title 11th best team on league performance. Meath need to get into Division 1. Something they have ot done aince 2001. Taking Meath from 11th to 8th and gaining promotion is attainable. Staying there is not impossible. In the next few seasons these Meath players will be bulking up and be more able to deal with Division 1 team when the you reach mid 20s age bracket. We also have some good footballers. Eg Keoghan Menton Rooney Forde Sullivan Reilly and lenihan. We need to find 4 or 5 more players to add to the team. But the McEntees will let players go if they are not performing. So we will see changes if needed. Remeber this is Mick O Dowd squad . And Andy has already said if players don't perform he make changes.
Meath are not as bad as sat . Remeber Kildare always play like they are posessed v Meath. And they are more subdued and submissive v the Dubs.
This Meath team can only get better. And we do have a management team that can go toe to toe with any team in thr country. Even if we had short summer that is not the end. It's only the beginning for this Mesth team. If we are still delivering performances like the sat in 2019 then criticism is deserved. But to rush to a final judgement of this very young Meath team does not make any sporting sense. Judge both this Kildare and Meath team in 3 to 4 years time. I have total faith in the McEntees . They are warriors and they are not quitters. And Andy and Gerry will do everything to get us back where we belong.
Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 20/06/2017 16:36:55
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In fairness most of the Meath posters have realistic with their expectations, there's only one poster who really gets carried away.
Its the start of the process and it takes time and like I said months ago the time to judge counties is at the end of the championship. Meath are on the tough side of the draw and if as expected Clare, Donegal & Meath all get through there will be no easy game.
TheWestIsAwake (UK) - Posts: 529 - 20/06/2017 18:00:40
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