There is a lot a doom and gloom about Meath football and in my opinion rightly so. Meath have a lot of talent available in the current panel, however all the talent is up front.

The real problem is our defence and you start a team around a strong defence first, any good manager will tell u that. Start from the back, then sort out the rest.
Right now we have the worst set of backs I have ever seen in a meath jersey, they would all struggle to make any top 16 intercounty team.

Ard Ri commented about O'Connell, Callaghan,Giles, etc but those teams had 6 top defenders and strong guys on the bench to come on so Boylan had the luxury of trying them out as forwards, plus they were excellent footballers

Chris O'Connor,Macken and Burke are not intercounty standard in my opinion and worse no where near intercounty defenders, McKeigue and Moyles are past there best, even in their hay days struggled , Kenny and McGuinness good footballers but no way would they make any intercounty team close to winning all-ireland. King was never at the races, always got exposed against pace and talent.

Harrington is the only defender we have and at this level you need 4 class defenders and 2 top quality footballers to win anything. I dont care how many points O'Conor scored against Waterford, Limerick etc last year, as a corner back/half back just not good enough, Burke is junior intercounty player.

Unless you have a half back line breaking through and a really clever 40 yards man to set up the scores you can have all the talent in the world up front and it will do u no good.

EOB is a disaster and as I said here 2 years ago if this Meath panel had real men on it they would not play for him, how the man rates the above, plays a poor rathkenny player at full back, keeps the same midfield style for 6-8 years now, rates David Bray higher than both Joe and Brian Sheridan, carries a free taker in Cian Ward.

Someone made a point, come championship Moyles will be at 3 which is a disgrace, what happens if Harringhton or McGuinness got injured??? Reilly will turn up in August and start who I'm not a fan of but at least he better than the above mentioned names.
What are coaches doing at underage that no defenders are coming through.. why not try Brian Sheridan at 6, Joe and Peader at midfield or Quenney at midfield

The players should demand EOB be removed and it's not too late,Ard Ri mentioned Babs in Offaly, but they wont because they are in cosy little envirnoment with no real leaders, who are the leaders of this team.

They should be managed by Mick o'dowd, selectors, Kevin Foley and Terry Ferguson, drop 10 players, panel of 24. Drop, Burke,Macken,O'Conor,David Bray,Mark Ward, Moyles,King,Lewis,Meade, O'Brien and one goalie, bring in young defenders and turn a few half forwards into half backs/midfielders.

Our 4 best defenders now are Harringhton,McGuinness and Kenny and an unfit Reilly, who are nowhere near the lesser name defenders of the past, Paraic Lyons,Ferguson,Coyle,Harnan,Cormac Murphy, Traynor,Nestor,Mark O'Reilly,Reynolds, Mcmanus,Curtis and until this is sorted we are going no where.

Northmeathman (Meath) - Posts: 284 - 19/03/2010 11:50:42    592313

NMM i agree with nearly everything you said. The current set up is just not good enough. There should have been a review at the end of the year where EOB was asked about plans, ideas, tactics for the following year, and also questioned about meaths lack of a secondary game plan and players for the future. What happened instead was EOB was asked in the dressingroom after the abject defeat to Kerry would he do another year.That in my opionion is terrible and the fault for our poor season this year partly lies at the feet of the county board. There doesnt seem to be any heart in this team and things appear to be falling apart. I win against Laois will just paper over the cracks, and i think we will win. We need to have a long hard look as to how football is run in this county and stop playing parish politics.

boylanabu (Meath) - Posts: 111 - 19/03/2010 13:05:44    592438

northmeath man would you ever get out of town. you make some valid points but most of it is tripe. you talk that much rubbish i cant validate all the points but il start with some. try b.sheridan at 6 and peadar in the middle absolute rubbish sheridan is an out and out forward and doesnt have the necessary requirements to play 6. peadar at midfield are you mad the game has always had tall midfielders and in the last 10 years or so they have got bigger and bigger with few exceptions peadar is much too small to play midfield.another point carrying cian ward whatever your opinion could you imagine the reaction in not playing the top scorer in the meath championship for the last few years ward is definitely good enough to start.
we are definitely weak at the back but getting rid of lads isnt the answer who are we going to replace them with. like it or not the best players in the county are on the panel bar maybe mcgill. were just weak at the back and lacking quality defenders it happens we just have to get through it.
look we are a team in transition and it happens every where i can remember kerry haveing a very lean time time of things before this very sucessful era they are having
maybe if the likes of you stop jumping on the backs of everyone and supporte them through bad times and good we might get back to the top a little bit quicker

wallace (Meath) - Posts: 62 - 19/03/2010 13:56:04    592493

Wallace 95% of Wards scores in the championship are from frees, in my opinion he offers nothing from general play. Brian Farrell had a poor season last year and he scored more from play.
Tyrone won 3 All-irelands in the last decade with 2 players no taller than 6ft 1". I'm only looking to try something different. Check out the midfield all-stars for the last 5 years, bar Earley who is media darling all around 6ft1, same height as Byrne. I'm not saying he's the answer, I'm saying the current solution doesnt work.

Maybe Sheridan wont work, but whats to lose, he's a quality footballer, won the SFC, just won sigerson and I would rather him on the field than the rubbish i'm lookin at. At the moment OConor,Burke,Moyles,Wards & David Bray seem to be undropable and based on what i'm seeing shouldnt be the near the panel
Dropping lads who are not intercounty standard would do the rest of the panel the world of good. You can only play 20 players, this idea of 30 - 35 players on a panel can only destroy team spirit morale etc..

What is the point of keeping players on a panel who will never make the step up, 24 fit players should be enough to play at most 20 games if you win the league and all-ireland

Northmeathman (Meath) - Posts: 284 - 19/03/2010 14:56:42    592562

wallace just because wady is the top scorer inn the county championship doesnt give him the right to start on the meath team! he simply is not fast enough for inter county.

juicy (Meath) - Posts: 402 - 19/03/2010 16:09:54    592674

Moyles is past it and even struggled in his hayday?
Where did that pearl of wisdom come from NMM?

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 19/03/2010 16:21:09    592694

Northmeathman

For once I am going to take your side in an argument, indeed you seem to be backing up some of what I said in previous posts even if you seem to misunderstand the point I was making with regard to players being moved about the pitch. What I was saying was as a repost to those who said on one hand that a county player should be able to adapt to any position and those who held the opposite opinion that players had only a few positions where they should play. My comment was basically that it depended on the individual. Some could play anywhere and others could not. End of.

Now with regard to your radical surgery on the team, I completely concur. Many faces need to disappear for good and the first on my list are Moyles, McKeigue, Farrell and Murphy. Sticking with these is only looking backwards. Your suggestion of trying Brian Sheridan at CHB is an excellent one even if I think that McGuinness has done a reasonable job here. This should be tried out immediately and if working should be the situation for the championship. I can see some posters getting on here wanting him as a scoring forward. While Brian scores plenty his best work is done in fielding a ball and immediately laying it of to a fellow teammate. This would be excellent at CHB. Cian Ward was, over the past couple of years, the most accurate man from frees in the county and up there in the top three in the country. That's excellent but he cannot win his own ball and has begun to miss more than he scores. He is fast becoming a luxury we cannot afford. Looking at Queeney I think his free taking will improve and he can win his own ball. Definitly keep Cian on the panel as he will be needed from time to time but it is time to give Queeney more responsibility.

We hear a lot in Soccer and Rugby about couches for forwards and different ones for backs, men who have distinguished themselves in these positions. We need to apply this to our team. Maybe this is already being done on an informal level, but it certainly need to be revamped.

You said that you would drop one goalie. I agree, as three is a luxury we cannot afford. Drop Murphy, despite what posters say he concedes as many as either of the other two and is now getting on. I would have Davy Lyons as my first choice. I am a fan of Paddy and think he comes in for needless criticism but Davy really impresses me. Trying McKeigue or Harrington at full back is ridiculous. Neither are up to it and McKeigue is past it as a county footballer, and yes he did struggle the best day ever he was. So did Moyles but he could cover up his imperfections better than McKeigue. Harrington is an excellent corner back and if he had five others of his caliber around him he would be as good as any corner back we have ever seen in the county.

Finally, you have been going on about getting Mick O'Dowd as manager for over two years now. Do you know if he is interested because he told me categorically that he is not. While I don't think he would admit it if he was, I was satisfied that he was not being coy at the time. Have you asked Mick if he would take it because if he was interested I would back him for the job. As his two selectors I think Brian Stafford for the forwards and Padraig Finnerty (another Skryne man) for the backs.

The real Árd Rí (Meath) - Posts: 990 - 21/03/2010 10:36:52    593770

The mind boggles...

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 21/03/2010 11:18:46    593792

Moyles was my man of the match last night! Some brilliant passes out of defence and seems to be the only back who can kick it OUT of defence.. Great footballing brain!

omahonys_man (Meath) - Posts: 229 - 21/03/2010 11:35:25    593804

God O Mahonys Man you and i must have been watching different games last night! I thought Moyles was very poor, i thought the much maligned McKeigue was excellent yesterday on a very talented kid in Kingston. Seamus Kenny as usual and Ollie Lewis were our other best players in my opinion.

Jgc81 (Meath) - Posts: 195 - 21/03/2010 12:00:13    593815

lads, McKeigue was not excellent yesterday, kingston was terrible! i dont think he caught one ball all night and when he did have it he was slow and selfish. he ran in crowds of players and tried to beat everyone, passing and shooting was poor too. my granny would have done a good job on him last night!
pity is EOB wont see it like this and next week we can all watch in horror as McKeigue "tries" to mark murphy... god help us...

Royal_son (Meath) - Posts: 300 - 21/03/2010 18:03:40    594078

So royal_son, when Niall McKeigue does poorly on his man, Niall McKeigue is awful etc etc. But when Niall McKeigue keeps his man scoreless from play, as he did last night, all of a sudden it's because the man he was marking had a terrible game.
Seems like nothing McKeigue does will be good enough for you.

Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1387 - 21/03/2010 18:29:54    594103

Jesus lads we need to step back and take a deep breath here, as far as I could see last night it was our forwards who let us down more than our defence, I fail to understand the heat Moyles is getting, he busted a gut last night despite being the oldest man on the team and laid off some great ball yet there is some very unfair criticism of him. And now we have the scandolous suggestion that players don't play for Eamonn O'Brien!!!!!!! Listen lads we are not Cork, Limerick or some other shower of prima donnas who consistantly look to blame someone else for not winning All Irelands, the thought that players would refuse a Meath jersey because of the manager is in my opinion a doomsday scenario. This is the National League, if ye look around the results in both Division 1 and 2 you will see a lot of strange results and a lot of teams positioned in strange places and playing far off the form we are used to seeing so lets not get dragged into the belief that we are the only team with issues and that we are at an all time low with no hope of anything we have been in this position before and come out the right end and belief and hard work is the key to doing it again.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3748 - 21/03/2010 18:53:41    594129

Both Moyles & McKeigue done well last night. Some lads will never give them a break tho!

Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6347 - 21/03/2010 19:14:41    594179

I think that meath backs would not our best defencive play

SeanR0716 (Meath) - Posts: 65 - 21/03/2010 19:39:17    594220

The criticism of Moyles is baffling.
He has never let us down.
Thrown in at the deep end last year in an unfamiliar position and did his best.
We badly need his intelligence around the midfield diamond.

Coylers Elbow (Meath) - Posts: 1075 - 21/03/2010 19:59:48    594250

The defence was best part last night, however I expect the forwards to be best part of team once some of the vplayers get more match fit (and with accuracy). Not sure what match O'Mahonysman or indeed Royal son were watching!! Have to agree withJg98

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 21/03/2010 20:07:54    594256

Jgc81
County: Meath
Posts: 95

593815 God O Mahonys Man you and i must have been watching different games last night! I thought Moyles was very poor, i thought the much maligned McKeigue was excellent yesterday on a very talented kid in Kingston. Seamus Kenny as usual and Ollie Lewis were our other best players in my opinion.

While the likes of Burke and McGuinness were passing backwards all the time and being caught out on a number of times i thought Moyles was the only one looking to kick the ball out the field every time and some of his passes were brilliant!! Brilliant reader of the game as well which helps him make up for his lack of pace.. Ok maybe man of the match was a bit too far but cant see many more contenders on the meath team apart from Ollie maybe..

omahonys_man (Meath) - Posts: 229 - 21/03/2010 21:34:53    594433

Mickey Burke did not kick the ball once in the second half.It was all handpassing between himself and McGuiness.I thought Moyles was poor.He nearly got Paddy O'Rourke killed with all that rubish handpassing in the backs.McKiege had a good game but gave the ball away a few times and if he is Full-back in the championship he will be cleaned out of it.Brian Meade and Peader both had a big impact on the game when they came on,unfortunetly the same cant be said for Brian Sheridan.Also Joe was not to happy when he went off.Really i dont know why he was complaining.He is low on confidence and seems to have gained a bit of weight again.Shane O'Rourke played well despite the fact that it was the first game he started in 2 years.I feel he could be more use in the half forward line.With Queeny at full forward and Joe at Centre half and Shane at right have forward and Peader Byrne at left half forward.Ollie Lewis could force his way into the starting 15 aswell.The performance was alright but there still is alot of improvement needed.But the lads confidence will be lifted after this win and we certainly can beat Donegal.

12Royal (Meath) - Posts: 987 - 21/03/2010 21:55:27    594506

I thought Niall McKeigue did well last night but he will struggle against young Murphy next weekend. He is not the solution to our problems. On the other hand, Moyles didn't have his best game in a Meath jersey but it wasn't his worst either.

men_of_49 (Meath) - Posts: 2015 - 22/03/2010 12:36:08    594850