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Replying To Ratoath Royal: "Jesus we nearly threw that away. We could only have had ourselves to blame had we not won that. Should have been 7 or 8 up at half time with the number of missed opportunities. Should have put the game to bed after the penalty but let Cavan back in it once again. The equaliser near the end in particular was a comedy of errors, dispossessing the Cavan forwards twice only to hand them the ball back.
Nonetheless, great to get the win in Breffni. We always seemed to surrender easily there in previous years. Some of the attacking play was outstanding. Think it was Caulfield that pointed after two beautiful kick passes in the lead up. We just need to work on finishing the goal chances. Defence remains a worry as we were way too open for much of the game.
But two wins is not to be sniffed at in such a competitive league. Two week break now before we've the chance to end a poor run of results against Louth.
Early days yet, but 2026 could be the most competitive Leinster championship in a generation the way things are going so far." Caulfield was outstanding imo. Never gave up and his energy up and down is infectious. Morris showing his all-star form too. Poor shot selection up front, particularly from Costello at times. I agree our defence is the biggest worry. They basically danced that goal in. Again like my point last week we are too open at FB in my opinion. Rafferty didn't have his best game, would love to see him in the corner and see if we are tighter back there. Think Coffey is a great player but too exposed at centre at times too?
Royalroyal97 (Meath) - Posts: 18 - 01/02/2026 18:22:54
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Get down the M3 quick. Won ugly that is all that matters today.
We made it hard for ourselves with a lot of poor shooting and missed opportunities.
I felt we did both good and bad around the middle with a lot the breaking ball going to a blue jersey.
It was a heavy pitch and that does not feed into our style of play. Credit to Cavan they kept chipping away and were always in the game but it certainly would have been a game Meath threw away if Cavan had won. We gave away too many frees and it's easy to have green glasses on but shouldn't give the referee a chance to blow them.
Another 2 points on the board, rest up and go again against Louth in two weeks.
I hope that is our poor performance of the league out of the way as I doubt we will get away with another one.
Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 814 - 01/02/2026 18:37:21
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Replying To Royalio11: "Get down the M3 quick. Won ugly that is all that matters today.
We made it hard for ourselves with a lot of poor shooting and missed opportunities.
I felt we did both good and bad around the middle with a lot the breaking ball going to a blue jersey.
It was a heavy pitch and that does not feed into our style of play. Credit to Cavan they kept chipping away and were always in the game but it certainly would have been a game Meath threw away if Cavan had won. We gave away too many frees and it's easy to have green glasses on but shouldn't give the referee a chance to blow them.
Another 2 points on the board, rest up and go again against Louth in two weeks.
I hope that is our poor performance of the league out of the way as I doubt we will get away with another one." Think it is slightly harsh to describe theperformance as a whole as poor imo. We dominated the game looked miles the better team and should have won pulling up. Was a poor performance in front of goal but pretty much in every other department we were well on top. Certainly won't get away with as poor a shooting performance as that again but I thought the rest of it was pretty impressive.
Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1093 - 01/02/2026 18:50:24
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Replying To Royalio11: "Get down the M3 quick. Won ugly that is all that matters today.
We made it hard for ourselves with a lot of poor shooting and missed opportunities.
I felt we did both good and bad around the middle with a lot the breaking ball going to a blue jersey.
It was a heavy pitch and that does not feed into our style of play. Credit to Cavan they kept chipping away and were always in the game but it certainly would have been a game Meath threw away if Cavan had won. We gave away too many frees and it's easy to have green glasses on but shouldn't give the referee a chance to blow them.
Another 2 points on the board, rest up and go again against Louth in two weeks.
I hope that is our poor performance of the league out of the way as I doubt we will get away with another one." I genuinely dont think it was a poor performance, moments of poor play which youll always get, and really poor shooting, but also some brilliant attacking play that we didnt get reward for due to poor execution. Lets call a spade a spade, that game could have been win by 10 plus points pulling up, cavan had very few wides. 2 wins and all very fixable problems is possitive
southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 1047 - 01/02/2026 18:51:53
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A win is a win, but really poor at times and did our best to throw it away. Could have been 10 up at half time, and the wasted opportunities almost came back to bite us.
Brilliant from Jack Flynn to win it like he did with the 2 pointer. Poor clock management towards the end too, we were a point up with about 4 mins to go and, should have ran as much off the clock as possible.
But anyway, we looked good in transition, and we player some nice stuff at times. Just need to clean up the shooting. We'll take the 2 points and move on.
Cabbagepatch1667 (Meath) - Posts: 114 - 01/02/2026 18:53:21
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Funny game, could - and probably should - have got 3.27 rather than 2.17. Did great to dig it out at the end and won some great turnovers when Cavan got on top. But 1.18 is a lot to concede after dominating large spells. We won't win away to Cork or Kildare with that performance. Still, two weeks to work on things and a lot to look forward to.
MeathAbroad (Meath) - Posts: 174 - 01/02/2026 20:13:04
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Replying To Cabbagepatch1667: "A win is a win, but really poor at times and did our best to throw it away. Could have been 10 up at half time, and the wasted opportunities almost came back to bite us.
Brilliant from Jack Flynn to win it like he did with the 2 pointer. Poor clock management towards the end too, we were a point up with about 4 mins to go and, should have ran as much off the clock as possible.
But anyway, we looked good in transition, and we player some nice stuff at times. Just need to clean up the shooting. We'll take the 2 points and move on." Couldn't disagree more on your shot clock management opinion.
Trying to run the clock down with 4 minutes left when only 1 up would be madness and if the players did this and it backfired they and the management would be slated. If we were 3 or 4 up maybe but not 1 up with 4 minutes left .Too much time left to be doing that. You need to still go try win the game with better shot selection or execution.
Even if we did manage to keep it for 3 minutes which is an incredibly difficult thing to do at any level but in an inter county game at the end of a tough 70 minutes its even more difficult. All It takes is for one dropped short short or turnover with 50 or 60 seconds left they go up the pitch and bang over a 2 pointer and we've not enough time to get back up the pitch to score. In fact if he had done this and Banty dropped his short with 50 seconds or so left and they got their last score like they did we wouldn't have enough time to get Flynns 2 pointer.
Asking for trouble by trying to simply protect a 1 point lead with 4 minutes left rather to add to it and putting the game to bed
Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1093 - 01/02/2026 20:25:18
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Delighted with that, well done to Robbie and the lads. Thought it was a good performance, I wouldn't underestimate how tricky it was shooting into that Sun in the 1st half. Kinsella had 1-2 in the end but will probably be disappointed he didn't have about 1-6, Costello and Morris both had a few too many wides also. Duke and Frayne looked leggy, understandable after playing an 80 minute sigerson match on Wednesday. Glad sigerson is over for all meath players now. Great impact by banty off the bench but not sure about the other subs today. Heard Jack Kinlough is back training and could be available in the coming weeks, would be a big boost as the bench looks a little weak to me.
Sheridan2010louth (Meath) - Posts: 286 - 01/02/2026 20:50:27
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Replying To Blackspot09: "Couldn't disagree more on your shot clock management opinion.
Trying to run the clock down with 4 minutes left when only 1 up would be madness and if the players did this and it backfired they and the management would be slated. If we were 3 or 4 up maybe but not 1 up with 4 minutes left .Too much time left to be doing that. You need to still go try win the game with better shot selection or execution.
Even if we did manage to keep it for 3 minutes which is an incredibly difficult thing to do at any level but in an inter county game at the end of a tough 70 minutes its even more difficult. All It takes is for one dropped short short or turnover with 50 or 60 seconds left they go up the pitch and bang over a 2 pointer and we've not enough time to get back up the pitch to score. In fact if he had done this and Banty dropped his short with 50 seconds or so left and they got their last score like they did we wouldn't have enough time to get Flynns 2 pointer.
Asking for trouble by trying to simply protect a 1 point lead with 4 minutes left rather to add to it and putting the game to bed" Were you not at the Leinster final? Louth did exactly that to us when they had a one point lead and worked out pretty well for them.
Royaler89 (Meath) - Posts: 3 - 01/02/2026 20:58:00
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Replying To Blackspot09: "Couldn't disagree more on your shot clock management opinion.
Trying to run the clock down with 4 minutes left when only 1 up would be madness and if the players did this and it backfired they and the management would be slated. If we were 3 or 4 up maybe but not 1 up with 4 minutes left .Too much time left to be doing that. You need to still go try win the game with better shot selection or execution.
Even if we did manage to keep it for 3 minutes which is an incredibly difficult thing to do at any level but in an inter county game at the end of a tough 70 minutes its even more difficult. All It takes is for one dropped short short or turnover with 50 or 60 seconds left they go up the pitch and bang over a 2 pointer and we've not enough time to get back up the pitch to score. In fact if he had done this and Banty dropped his short with 50 seconds or so left and they got their last score like they did we wouldn't have enough time to get Flynns 2 pointer.
Asking for trouble by trying to simply protect a 1 point lead with 4 minutes left rather to add to it and putting the game to bed" You need to wise up if you don't think clock management is a massive part of the new game., did you not see what Louth did in the Leinster Final? It's even more important now the game ends on the hooter.
We had the ball with 4 minutes to go a point up. You keep the ball as best you can, and run as much time off the clock as you can. Cavan are going to push up because they have to, which will leave space in behind.
I'm not saying take the ball into the corner and hold it there, just spread it around, take time off the clock. Kick a score if you get the chance. Don't drop it short anyway, that's what we did and Cavan hit 2 scores out of it.
Cabbagepatch1667 (Meath) - Posts: 114 - 01/02/2026 21:25:16
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Replying To Royaler89: "Were you not at the Leinster final? Louth did exactly that to us when they had a one point lead and worked out pretty well for them." I was at it. And it did work out for them they did it brilliantly that day . 1 example of it working out well from dozens of games. It's not the right approach and will back fire more often than not. Thankfully we didn't take that negative approach today.
Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1093 - 01/02/2026 21:26:12
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Great win but A game we salvaged at the death after doing our best to throw it away .
We looked really good at times but the top teams would have Cavan dead and buried if they had the chances we got in the first 25 minutes .
We lost a lot of breaking ball around the middle to their half backs so I wasnt suprised to see both Duke and Costello coming off .
Costello still not firing very similar to last week but its early in the year yet .
Morris must be a nightmare to mark he can do unbelievable things with the ball probably at times takes the wrong option but at times today he was outstanding.
Great score from flynn to win the game he wasnt having the same influence as last week but had the balls to kick that 2 pointer.
Was surprised Brennan didn't kick more long balls in the 2nd half kept trying to find players and it wasnt really working but I do like him .
On the ref I thought he was extremely hard on Meath especially in the second half some of the frees he gave were ridiculous any hand in he was blowing a free .
Royalmc (Meath) - Posts: 19 - 01/02/2026 21:43:48
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