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Really need to unearth a natural centre back with physicality and organisation skills. The three big men at midfield might work better if our keeper actually tried to kick long to them. Westmeath tried their best to play around them as they saw it as one of our strengths. If Meath show better hunger and a few tweaks to improve defensively, we would be a very strong team. winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 981 - 21/04/2026 18:42:14 2667766 Link 0 |
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Maybe read my my post again I opened with a pretty decent compliment to both teams .........." I see louth beating dublin and I don't see them allowing that type of performance against them so they should retain their title but if WM play like that two more times they'll win leinster." Oh God, Louth, Kildare, dublin, Westmeath you might as well add England to that list. Maybe trump will do us a favour and pull another stunt and the season will be abandoned." This part is clearly tongue and cheek. ?? Like come on have some common sense here and the above is much less arrogant than you combing through posts cherry picking things to actually throw digs in. You want to make fun of meath fair enough I would quietly laugh at the demise of some of our rivals too but I don't try twist words of other posters. Your "fact" pointing is pointless in relation to my actual posts, a fact none the less yes. Maybe throw in some balanced views or opinions, who knows what sort of conversation you might trigger. royalcounty1 (Meath) - Posts: 77 - 21/04/2026 18:58:55 2667770 Link 0 |
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Agree here more or less. Flynn and McBride our midfield and Menton possibly used as support. There were a few balls kicked into Lynch, Frayne and Curtis when he came in and they didn't stick. Jamie Murphy worth a shot in there soon. Expect places to be up for grabs. Priority is shoring up at the back. Our backs appear to be caught wrong side of their men when kuckouts lost and absolutely wide open. One on one defending not easy but it has to improve from where it is at!
winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 981 - 21/04/2026 19:14:04 2667772 Link 0 |
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Hard luck to the lads last Sunday. It was disappointing, but to be honest, I don't think the defeat came as a huge shock to anyone, it certainly didn't to me. Westmeath are no mugs, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them reach the final. Pound for pound, though, I still believe Louth are the best team in Leinster right now, and I'd fancy them to lift the Delaney Cup again this year. thelutch (Meath) - Posts: 1146 - 21/04/2026 19:34:21 2667774 Link 0 |
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I read your post. You gave a compliment, and then immediately followed it with a swipe at four counties and a Trump joke. If that was meant as a joke, fine - but you don't get to decide after the fact which parts people are allowed respond to. I didn't twist anything; I replied to the part that was clearly a dig. You threw it out there, I answered it. That's not cherry‑picking, that's just taking your own words at face value. If you want a serious, balanced discussion, then stick to that tone - don't mix digs and sarcasm and then complain when someone replies to them. Walter_White (Louth) - Posts: 23 - 22/04/2026 10:29:41 2667850 Link 2 |
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I think it would solve a lot of Meath's problems if we gave Conor Duke a chance at centre back. Similar to what we did with Campo a couple of years back. He's cool on the ball and he's a big, hardy man who takes no BS. Also a great man to pop up with a score. I see no issue with giving this a go. Where is Harry OHiggins? Could do with some bigger men defending inside. RegionalsGuru (Meath) - Posts: 48 - 22/04/2026 11:43:13 2667869 Link 0 |
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Well in 25 they finished second in Leinster, in 26 they got knocked out in the first round. Beaten by a team that couldn't get out of div 3 and a team we beat last year in the league. So the facts would suggest we have not improved. If you are going to reply to a post stick to the facts and not get into the gutted and make personal attacks on me. Just because you don't agree with my assessment of the team does not give you the right to get personal.
latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 569 - 22/04/2026 16:18:27 2667922 Link 4 |
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1. Brennan ParcT (Meath) - Posts: 44 - 22/04/2026 16:32:38 2667925 Link 0 |
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Good to see mainly balanced and common sense responses to the loss sunday, with perspective taken into account.....not too many OTT dramatic contributions. I think everyone feels the same, gutted but its very easily fixable. southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 1072 - 22/04/2026 17:00:39 2667930 Link 0 |
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Fully agree, Louth didn't get promoted but I'd much rather be in their position. Who really cares about the league now? And by the way they weren't out of 2nd gear beating a Wexford team who beat Westmeath a few weeks ago. If anyone seen the Division 3 final, Wexford were way below average. What does that say about how bad we actually were on Sunday? We've messed up so bad here it's unbelievable, we would've had to beat a poor Kildare team to get back to a Leinster Final when Dublin aren't looking great and we lose in the first round to a Westmeath team who couldn't get out of division 3?? I don't know where we go from here. We don't have a great defense no matter who we play there. No ruthlessness or street smarts that's needed to win a Leinster or go far in the All Ireland. Any team intent on winning sets up their defense and makes sure they are hard to beat. We don't have the guys set up solid at the back - still evident failings from last year, Leinster Final, Roscommon, Galway even when we beat them scored handy goals against us. We're competing because we've big men winning ball around the middle with a lot of kick outs going out there and we have some really good forwards, which we always have had. But we will not win anything until we address our defensive Achilles heel. NYRoyal (USA) - Posts: 105 - 22/04/2026 18:40:34 2667950 Link 2 |
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Interesting view. I also think we're lacking a bit there but is that just philosophy as opposed to lack of ability. I don't see management doing that with Duke. He probably lacks the pace that modern half-backs have, and I wouldn't be convinced he'd be an improvement on Coffey. Back in the winter I mentioned Kinsella going to 6, but that was before he really kicked into gear as a forward, so that's a non-runner now. That said, if we could afford to lose him from the forwards, I do think he'd make a fine 6. Someone also suggested Costello at 6 - I don't see that happening either. I think a floating 14 is his role. I actually think that if Jones, O'Neill, Gray, or McBride could step up and be considered a first-choice midfielder, Menton could do a good job at 6, as long as he's not tied to a man-marking role. That would mean a midfielder or half-back sacrificing some of their game, and possibly impacting the team's current attacking approach. Is Keoghan, in a more defined role, the natural choice at 6? Coffey doesn't have the same fielding ability for kickouts on the wing, but he can certainly bomb forward and fight for breaks. Keoghan is a solid defender and would probably be the better stopper. The other approach is pushing Rafferty out to the half-back line. I'd like to see it trialled. That's probably the riskier option, because with the new rules we effectively have four players with full-back line experience. royalcounty1 (Meath) - Posts: 77 - 22/04/2026 21:28:16 2667976 Link 0 |
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Football isn't as linear as that lad, you know that surely, we lost to them who lost to a worse team who didnt play well at all on the day in qs etc etc, come on. I agree with you bigtime, defence need sorting, we should be beating westmeath, simple as that, but we weren't at it on the day and got punished, we weren't at it for long spells in the league too but outscored teams thanks to, as you said, winning balls in midfield and having scorers. Regards last year, roscommon galway etc are very good teams, its extremely hard to keep these teams out, we should be working to improve that...but complaining about anything from that Galway game last year is ridiculous, it was a 20 year highlight against all ireland favourites at the time.
southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 1072 - 23/04/2026 07:53:15 2668011 Link 0 |
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We have messed up badly and there is a lot of disappointment. I will say that people might not care so much about the league right now but they will when it swings back around and we're playing the likes of Kerry, Donegal & Kerry while there's a dogfight going on in Div 2. To put things in context, we have made a lot of headway in the last 18 months - won loads of games against good opposition and have had 2 disappointments against Louth in Leinster final and against Westmeath last Sunday. The team has bounced back after previous losses and I expect they will do so again - that's the journey with a young team and a relatively new coaching to ticket. I do think we need to take a longer term view on the defence - no point putting Menton at 6 if he's not going to be there in 2 years time. I would be willing to try some different combinations out in the next 2 championship games and in the league even if meant losing a few games - provided it sets us up for success in championship next year and beyond. I wouldn't waste Kinsella at 6 when he's such a good 11. No way they put Costello there either. I'm coming around to bringing Rafferty out to 6 with Coffey & Caulfield on the wings. Ryan at fullback with Keogan in the corner and either of Lavin / O'Halloran/O'Neill/Smyth in the other corner. I predict Smyth will be a starter before long, he's looking more assured and impactful with every appearance. I think any forward line would do well to run up the middle past Rafferty and Ryan with Keogan back there covering too. And we would still have a very attacking half back line. Give it a try Robbie - you know it makes sense! gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 149 - 23/04/2026 09:30:41 2668022 Link 1 |
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No I get that it's not linear but I don't think Westmeath are a good team. If they were, they would've got out of Division 3. Think we were so bad on Sunday and played at their level. The first 2 goals were calamitous and the last goal was a good finish but don't know where you start with the defending. You've got to be cutting off danger. My point on the sloppy goals is we continue to give away these chances, if the coaches are looking at this and we're trying to fix it surely we'll see that plan implemented whereby there is clear evidence we're trying to do something. And maybe there is a plan and our defenders are just not at it? It's not just the goals either. If you notice Loughlin's 2 pointer at the start of the 2nd half, all the Westmeath players are around the 2 point arc with zero danger inside but all our defenders standing inside with no pressure on the ball and it's sign posted that Loughlin is going for the 2 pointer. What are we actually doing there? NYRoyal (USA) - Posts: 105 - 23/04/2026 11:29:42 2668071 Link 1 |
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Personally I would go with O' Neill and Rafferty in either of the central defensive positions, people forget that O' Neill was very good at full back under COR, I think he would be effective in either of the central defensive positions. Coffey and Caulfield at 5 and 7 would give a great attacking dimension whereas no. 6 would need to more defensively minded player. I would put Keoghan in one corner and Lavin in the other. I honestly think our whole defense tightens up if our no. 6 is more defensively minded. That would leave us with Ronan Ryan and BOH as cover in the full back line and a whole host of options in the half back line, personally I would love to see Adam Mc Donnell near the top of the list. Thunderstruck (Meath) - Posts: 482 - 23/04/2026 13:40:52 2668117 Link 2 |
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As good as athletes as Caulfied and Coffey are and the ground they cover, they are not overly comfortable in one on one defending so people are right in saying we need more defensive cover with hopefully height and strength in halfbackline. Keoghan also has shown signs of fatigue the past few months and much like Menton is unlikely to be around beyond the short term so a back 3 spot for him for now may be best. Smyth has shown in glimpses alot of promise and Hickey and McDonnell also good options in halfbackline to compete with Caulfield and Coffey. The main position to fill is 6. Perhaps one of the big men options at midfield could fill this role. C O'Connor has played here a bit for Dunshaughlin. I think goalkeeper is also a position not nailed down and maybe Hogan deserves another go. Up front, Conlon has to start but instead of playing the 3 big men in midfield, for summer football I'd be selecting 2 (probably Flynn and McBride) and introduce another as needed. There is not major surgery needed. We can obviously score heavily and win plenty of ball around middle. Defending and our own kickout strategy are obviously things to work on.
winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 981 - 23/04/2026 18:45:26 2668201 Link 0 |
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I'm still very hopeful about the all ireland, agree that these ten teams all have potential to be 3rd or 4th team in the country. If we're up there with a quarter or semi final appearance and another scalp or two we'll head into Div 1 on a high. But if we're out after 2 or 3 games the air will be truly out of the balloon. I'm still feeling glass half full despite the disastrous result. We could look back on these early post rule change years as a crazy couple of seasons with upsets galore. So we may as well try and make hay. And this is the first real opportunity for RB to put a body of training ground work in since starting because of the need to go flat out in league both years and the Leinster run last year. I'm confident we'll see a stronger defensive structure next month after five weeks of work MeathAbroad (Meath) - Posts: 184 - 23/04/2026 20:05:38 2668213 Link 0 |
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Caufiled gets pushed around far too much too, he's a great player who has a bottomless engine but he's too nice, probably the same thing can be said for Caufield. Killian Smyth from what I've seen from him at club level has a bit more steel but he's not ready to start yet - looks to be Keoghan's long term replacement though. I think we've seen enough of Billy Hogan to know he's not the answer either. Too many times I've seen him put his kickout straight over the sideline, let soft goals in (Leinster Final) and is generally quite poor at free/45s. Brennan has been fairly solid throughout the league and his left foot was an asset from placed balls. I'm not saying the position isn't up for grabs, but Billy Hogan offers nothing extra. Cabbagepatch1667 (Meath) - Posts: 136 - 24/04/2026 00:01:16 2668261 Link 0 |
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Robbie has a big decision to make (I assume he's already made the decision earlier this week) around whether we stick or twist with the defence - put it all down to a lack of intensity on the day and hope defence improves with greater intensity or look at the bigger picture and admit that there have been issues for a while now. He's a smart guy so I think he'll look at the bigger picture but it's a big call to rearrange the defence and possibly bench 1 or 2 guys. As the poster said he has 5 weeks so plenty of time to work on a new set up. Personally, I'll be disappointed if we see the same starting 15 and set up the next day out. It's too early in this team's journey to be sticking rigidly to something when it's clearly not working as it should.
gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 149 - 24/04/2026 09:33:43 2668276 Link 2 |
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Its a mistake Meath have been guilty of over last number of years beliving same team will come good next time out. Last Sunday we looked like a team that were trying to ease themselves into Leinster , peaking for final but WM had other ideas. Our defence is poor both individually and the system, their no 13 made several Meath players look way off required level. Their main goal now gone its going to be a difficult reset. Hopefully Jones, Costello and one or two more can provide a freshness we badly need. seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2246 - 24/04/2026 15:35:58 2668388 Link 2 |