Get banty out he made progress with monaghan but neglected the youth coming through and played it safe with the old guard looking at the team for meath yesterday looked like same old meath in terms as not much tried out in the league he used the mckenna cup with monaghan to rest senior players and brought nobody through in the league. yesterday monaghan went out missing 17 players who started in the ulster championship last year. we won easily i just hope for the sake of a great football institution that banty gives the young players a chance because at the end of the day he cares about success during his term but could neglect meath in the long run.
Meath were always my second favourite team but i really fear for ya's

shaggylegend (Monaghan) - Posts: 1948 - 07/02/2011 16:44:43    862420

You can't really expect the guy to turn things around in one season. It will be fantastic if he does, but really it takes longer than one season to build a championship winning team. I really believe its a step forward having 'an outsider' in charge, I'm not entirely convinced Banty is the man for the job but I firmly believe he should be given the time and support he needs to lead us forward.

Ex_Pat (USA) - Posts: 186 - 07/02/2011 17:30:42    862473

EX_PAT-- Plenty of managers have turned around in one season and landed the championship - Mickey Harte 2003(tyrone), Joe Kernan 2002 ( Armagh), Jack o Connor 2004 and 2009(kerry) pat o Shea 2007(kerry), John o Mahony 1998(Galway). Admititly these aforementioned managers had sum great talent to work with, not sure if banty has the same calibre of players to go the whole way, the only way is to try a few new players during the league but the team he picked vs laoise doesnt look if he is willing to experiment and doesnt forebode well for the future.

tailteannpark (Meath) - Posts: 174 - 07/02/2011 19:37:47    862628

tailteannpark
County: Meath
Posts: 46

862628
EX_PAT-- Plenty of managers have turned around in one season and landed the championship - Mickey Harte 2003(tyrone), Joe Kernan 2002 ( Armagh), Jack o Connor 2004 and 2009(kerry) pat o Shea 2007(kerry), John o Mahony 1998(Galway). Admititly these aforementioned managers had sum great talent to work with, not sure if banty has the same calibre of players to go the whole way, the only way is to try a few new players during the league but the team he picked vs laoise doesnt look if he is willing to experiment and doesnt forebode well for the future.


In fairness Harte had a good deal of underage success with the bulk of that team when he was minor and underage manager. Likewise when conner returned to Kerry it wasn't an entirely new set up to him. Having said that I agree with the rest of your post. If he's not trying new faces in the league then he's not going to put his stamp on the team.

Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6347 - 07/02/2011 19:59:15    862672

Lads seriously you's are joking, I love Meath and I love football but god........... that Meath team are not going to win anything for a long time,

they have to pick the best panal of players in meath and not the players that are still playing of there rep from minor or so.

SS6 (Meath) - Posts: 149 - 07/02/2011 20:06:40    862687

Fair point Tailteannpark, I think he might have put out what he felt was his strongest team to make a determined effort to win his first league game, with a view to possibly trying some new players as the league progresses, unfortunately it didn't work out. I also don't think we have the calibre of players to turn things around in one season but I would dearly love to be proven wrong on this one. If its worth getting, its worth waiting for and if it takes two years then I'm prepared to wait.

Ex_Pat (USA) - Posts: 186 - 07/02/2011 20:12:18    862703

Fellow Royalers - while its hard to know what to make of performances at this time of year, there are some encouraging signs for me.
Big Joe, Crawford, and Graham Reilly all seem to be in fine fettle already.
I also think both the much maligned Mark Ward & Brian Farrell have shown some decent form too.

I like the fact Banty is trying some things in defence, even if we are yet to be convinced. We still give away far too many easy frees.

Anyway, my main disappointment about yesterdays result to Leix, was that it was yet another loss on the road.
Down, Tipp, Donegal, Cork, Armagh, Monaghan, Westmeath, Dublin have all beaten us in consecutive away league games over the past 3/4 years.
The only bright spot was a draw against Roscommon a couple of years ago.
We have to go back to the old league structure in 2007 to find our last away win, when we beat Sligo in Divison 2B

There has been a lot of coverage in the papers recently about how Dublin, Cork , Tyrone and Kerry, ground out away wins in various away venues in the League, which stood to them come their recent championship successes.

We have 3 more tricky away trips to come - Antrim, Kildare & Derry (where we always seem to lose).
I think Banty & Co need to aim at winning 2 of these.... and hopefully we can maintain our good home form on top of that (including V Tyrone)


On a different note.... and apologies if this has been covered on another thread - whats the story with James Queeney at the moment?
I thought he was ready for big things last Summer, but EOB seemed to get cold feet with him, which was bound to have affected his confidence.

Jinxy (Meath) - Posts: 29 - 07/02/2011 22:00:52    862877

Believe Jamie Queeney is just back from Australia,was over there since last Autumn.Has re joined the squad but obviously fitness levels etc might be a bit behind the rest of the group.Think he is a great addition to the panel eventhough the best he will probably get is a job as an impact sub.

JD1677 (Meath) - Posts: 68 - 08/02/2011 09:27:32    862900

I think meath fans went down to laois with to much confidance. Look at the great teams boylan led, very rare we got a win there, i have to agree with jinxie. mark ward and brian farrell both played very well. kevin reilly is a great edge of the square full back, but when he,s on a roaming full foward he really strugels. The same problem is there for the last few years, are half foward line cant defend. Our full foward line is good but lacks pace. Banty has a huge job,

Kellsfig (Meath) - Posts: 41 - 09/02/2011 20:27:59    864286