|
If you look at the player injured its serious list, its being in the double figures for both games. Its not an excuse, the panel is not good to take it. But it is an injury crisis. Maybe I am wrong to label it that. Just look at list, its a serious of some of our best footballers.
Meath Players Injured Today
Niall kane
Dara Campion
Seamus Lavin
Shane Gallagher
Padraig Harnan
Mickey Newman
Shane Walsh
Donal Lenihan
Andy Colgan
Shane McEntee
Thats our goalkeeper, our two corner backs. our centre back, Menton midfield partner last year and our three best forwards and 3 best freetakers and couple of more players also.
Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 02/02/2020 21:19:20
2264667
Link
20
|
|
Replying To MillerX: "Cannot possibly agree with Thomas O'Reilly at 11, if he was playing there today we would possibly only got 4 points. Thomas is a finisher, who can also win his own ball so you simply have to play him as close to the goals as possible, would you have put Bernard Flynn or Ollie Murphy on the 'forty'? I doubt it." But Thomas O Reily has played allot of club football at 11 and underage football at 11 and he has played underage football for Meath at centre forward, thats the reason I thought he could there. Ok fair enough then if you think he couldnt play on the 40 how about Newman on the 40 as a srot of playmaker, many times people have mentioned him as centre forward. For me it seems when everyone is fit, our 4 best forwards who can score from play would be Walsh, Lenihan, Newman and O Reilly. So its all about getting those scoring forwards on the field. So Newman at 11 and O Reiily in the corner, how about this
10 Sullivan 11 Newman 12 Campion
13 Lenihan 14 Walsh 15 O Reilly
you would have as options of the bench McMahon, two Wallaces, Costello, O Connor, Toibin and Devine. Campion could be replaced by Devine. But Walsh, Newman, Lenihan and O Reilly are 4 forwards who can win ball and score. O Reilly form has been excellent in both games. Its like with Newman and lenihan hes took responsibility in the full forward line. Which is a great sign for him as a player. He has been inconsistent up to this year, showing signs of potential, but this year he is really maturing and showing leadership. He works and works. Only 23 24, I think he can really develop even further.
Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 02/02/2020 21:43:14
2264676
Link
18
|
|
Replying To southmeathgael: "Some waffle there. Traditional meath way?? Kick it in to who like? That was poor today and management have to take a proportion of the blame, but how many balls were kicked wide or into keepers hands from scorable possitions?? At least 6/ 8 id say. Sure thats no managements fault....Even if ya don't like Andy, there is literally no other alternative within the.county and nobody outside the county that would come near us with a barge pole." Southmeathgael. Maybe you are not old enough to remember how Meath used to play when winning Leinsters and All-Irelands regularly. Kick it into who? How about a full forward line that should be there. Isn't this what the likes of Dublin and Kerry do and what Meath were always renowned to do. I actually thought Thomas Reilly did well with quick ball and took scores well but nowhere near enough ball kicked. The lads were in scorable positions but with short passing, they are surrounded and under pressure. Never mentioned about replacing Andy but with a county the size of Meath, we should have greater ambitions.
winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 02/02/2020 22:00:52
2264684
Link
2
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "But Thomas O Reily has played allot of club football at 11 and underage football at 11 and he has played underage football for Meath at centre forward, thats the reason I thought he could there. Ok fair enough then if you think he couldnt play on the 40 how about Newman on the 40 as a srot of playmaker, many times people have mentioned him as centre forward. For me it seems when everyone is fit, our 4 best forwards who can score from play would be Walsh, Lenihan, Newman and O Reilly. So its all about getting those scoring forwards on the field. So Newman at 11 and O Reiily in the corner, how about this
10 Sullivan 11 Newman 12 Campion
13 Lenihan 14 Walsh 15 O Reilly
you would have as options of the bench McMahon, two Wallaces, Costello, O Connor, Toibin and Devine. Campion could be replaced by Devine. But Walsh, Newman, Lenihan and O Reilly are 4 forwards who can win ball and score. O Reilly form has been excellent in both games. Its like with Newman and lenihan hes took responsibility in the full forward line. Which is a great sign for him as a player. He has been inconsistent up to this year, showing signs of potential, but this year he is really maturing and showing leadership. He works and works. Only 23 24, I think he can really develop even further." You will find this year that Thomas will most likely be in full forward line for Tones who under a new positive manager will aim to get the best from his abilities. He is a threat close to goal and if Meath were to be more direct and take a bit more risk then himself and Walsh inside would be a handful for any side. People need to be realistic about div 1 football, we will do well to take any points but the experience will be invaluable to players.
Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1494 - 02/02/2020 23:06:48
2264702
Link
18
|
|
Replying To Talking_Sense: "Seadog I agree . We have good players and if we take goals out we kept Donegal to pretty low score, same with Tyrone but Christ we are paralysed by the management team's tactics. Mad stuff playing so negatively up front and on their Kickouts and us with the wind.
What is the point in playing hard runners like the Wallace brothers (who are very good players) if you setup so defensively that you let the opposition also have tonne of players behind the ball. We should have pushed and kept 4 up and 2 up inside all day so keeping their defenders honest and busy and creating space for the Wallace's and McMahon etc. But we setup so many behind the ball and let Donegal do the same and it was impossible to find space and as I said we had no inside forwards when we attacked . Absolute mad tactics.
We won't win a game in the league this way.
Mayo won't be defensive but if Meath park the bus , in effect they will leave Mayo with load of spare men back too for R3 and it will be more of the same. I mean is this that difficult to figure out." What about the great coach from Dublin who is all over twitter but can't seem to coach a team.
ryan (Donegal) - Posts: 747 - 02/02/2020 23:22:31
2264705
Link
1
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "But Thomas O Reily has played allot of club football at 11 and underage football at 11 and he has played underage football for Meath at centre forward, thats the reason I thought he could there. Ok fair enough then if you think he couldnt play on the 40 how about Newman on the 40 as a srot of playmaker, many times people have mentioned him as centre forward. For me it seems when everyone is fit, our 4 best forwards who can score from play would be Walsh, Lenihan, Newman and O Reilly. So its all about getting those scoring forwards on the field. So Newman at 11 and O Reiily in the corner, how about this
10 Sullivan 11 Newman 12 Campion
13 Lenihan 14 Walsh 15 O Reilly
you would have as options of the bench McMahon, two Wallaces, Costello, O Connor, Toibin and Devine. Campion could be replaced by Devine. But Walsh, Newman, Lenihan and O Reilly are 4 forwards who can win ball and score. O Reilly form has been excellent in both games. Its like with Newman and lenihan hes took responsibility in the full forward line. Which is a great sign for him as a player. He has been inconsistent up to this year, showing signs of potential, but this year he is really maturing and showing leadership. He works and works. Only 23 24, I think he can really develop even further." Yes I think Newman or Campion at 11 but on this year's evidence O'Reilly has to be played as close to the goals as possible. Remember the Tones have that old warrior Cian Ward in their full forward line and Thomas being younger may be seen by their management as more of a worker. Also remember that in club football it is that bit easier for an outside forward to work his way into the scoring zone.
MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1080 - 02/02/2020 23:23:23
2264707
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "If you look at the player injured its serious list, its being in the double figures for both games. Its not an excuse, the panel is not good to take it. But it is an injury crisis. Maybe I am wrong to label it that. Just look at list, its a serious of some of our best footballers.
Meath Players Injured Today
Niall kane
Dara Campion
Seamus Lavin
Shane Gallagher
Padraig Harnan
Mickey Newman
Shane Walsh
Donal Lenihan
Andy Colgan
Shane McEntee
Thats our goalkeeper, our two corner backs. our centre back, Menton midfield partner last year and our three best forwards and 3 best freetakers and couple of more players also." I know this is not popular to say , but we do have the worst injury list in the div by a mile. Its not excuse, we are not good enough. But it would be a massive concern for any div 2 team to have well over half first team starters missing while they try and break into div 1.
Injury Div 1 Teams in descending order
Dublin 3 injuries
Mayo 4 injuries
Galway 6 injuries
Donegal 6 injuries
Meath 11 injuries.
11 - Lavin, Kane, Gallagher, Harnan, Colgan, McEntee, Lenihan, Newman, Walsh, Campion, Kennelly.
Meath have more injuries then Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Monaghan put together. Kerry are pretty much first 15 team starters. Dublin and Mayo have 7 missing together. I think Monaghan are pretty much full strenght.
Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1067 - 03/02/2020 00:18:51
2264714
Link
18
|
|
We had 19 shots on goal scoring only 7. Whatever about the injuries we had the chances to be a lot closer to Donegal.
LoyalRoyal (None) - Posts: 464 - 03/02/2020 06:38:29
2264721
Link
0
|
|
I feel sorry fot players being held back by cowardly tactics.negative ideas what they are i dont know.we go to these workshops with these coaches and they tell us all Bout transition play and depth in forward line.but here we are with no inside forward line back to 2 years ago.god almighty why we doong this again.
Borderroyal (Meath) - Posts: 496 - 03/02/2020 07:38:34
2264724
Link
4
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "If you look at the player injured its serious list, its being in the double figures for both games. Its not an excuse, the panel is not good to take it. But it is an injury crisis. Maybe I am wrong to label it that. Just look at list, its a serious of some of our best footballers.
Meath Players Injured Today
Niall kane
Dara Campion
Seamus Lavin
Shane Gallagher
Padraig Harnan
Mickey Newman
Shane Walsh
Donal Lenihan
Andy Colgan
Shane McEntee
Thats our goalkeeper, our two corner backs. our centre back, Menton midfield partner last year and our three best forwards and 3 best freetakers and couple of more players also." Would you take the blinkers off and get real. The only player on that list that would make any real impact is Walsh. Harnan, Mc Entee have never produced and never will. Colgan very average. The rest are on a par with what is there. You remind me of the delegates at a co board meeting. Refusal to see the obvious. We simply don't have the footballers to compete at the top level. We don't have a plan to produce any, or a structure in place to produce any.
latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 03/02/2020 08:05:22
2264726
Link
4
|
|
Replying To winatallcost: "Southmeathgael. Maybe you are not old enough to remember how Meath used to play when winning Leinsters and All-Irelands regularly. Kick it into who? How about a full forward line that should be there. Isn't this what the likes of Dublin and Kerry do and what Meath were always renowned to do. I actually thought Thomas Reilly did well with quick ball and took scores well but nowhere near enough ball kicked. The lads were in scorable positions but with short passing, they are surrounded and under pressure. Never mentioned about replacing Andy but with a county the size of Meath, we should have greater ambitions." The quality of inside forwards is what I meant. If we are gonna go back to long balls in, we need guaranteed ball winners and accurate scorers, or at least lads that will guarantee you the above 80% of the time,........ we didn't have anybody close to that today or against tyrone, with the exception of TOR who tried his best. No point kicking it in when you have alot less then 50 % chance of your man winning it. The return of Walsh and possibly newman and lenihan should improve that, and hopefully they are utilised in that way, cause like everyone else, I don't want to be looking at that rubbish yesterday too much longer.
southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 938 - 03/02/2020 08:44:37
2264731
Link
18
|
|
Replying To LoyalRoyal: "We had 19 shots on goal scoring only 7. Whatever about the injuries we had the chances to be a lot closer to Donegal." It was the same the last day against Tyrone. Oisin McConville was reporting for RTE radio on it and his assessment was that we don't have the firepower up front. I know we are missing quite a few with injuries but even last year in the league we were relying on our half backs and midfield to contribute scores. It's funny, after the super 8s I think most of us were focussed on the goalie and midfield but it seems getting scores will be our biggest challenge.
gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 88 - 03/02/2020 09:54:46
2264747
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "But Thomas O Reily has played allot of club football at 11 and underage football at 11 and he has played underage football for Meath at centre forward, thats the reason I thought he could there. Ok fair enough then if you think he couldnt play on the 40 how about Newman on the 40 as a srot of playmaker, many times people have mentioned him as centre forward. For me it seems when everyone is fit, our 4 best forwards who can score from play would be Walsh, Lenihan, Newman and O Reilly. So its all about getting those scoring forwards on the field. So Newman at 11 and O Reiily in the corner, how about this
10 Sullivan 11 Newman 12 Campion
13 Lenihan 14 Walsh 15 O Reilly
you would have as options of the bench McMahon, two Wallaces, Costello, O Connor, Toibin and Devine. Campion could be replaced by Devine. But Walsh, Newman, Lenihan and O Reilly are 4 forwards who can win ball and score. O Reilly form has been excellent in both games. Its like with Newman and lenihan hes took responsibility in the full forward line. Which is a great sign for him as a player. He has been inconsistent up to this year, showing signs of potential, but this year he is really maturing and showing leadership. He works and works. Only 23 24, I think he can really develop even further." Thanks for your contribution and your ongoing positivity.
I think what you are missing in your ideal team selections for when players come back from injury is that you are not factoring in the possibility of more players becoming injured in the meantime, a longer recuperation rate, a loss of form or even suspensions. Dónal Lenihan for instance hasn't played for Meath in a couple of years. He has had a very much in out relationship with this management team. I am not sure if he will be able to come in at this level and suddenly shoot the lights out.
Another issue is that we do seem to be struggling with a consistent and effective game plan. I don't want to be negatively depressed about it but it does look as though we will be relegated - I can't say too much as I missed the game as I was away but, based on posts here, it looks as if we are really struggling to get a game plan that will be effective at this level.
It is really difficult to see how these players you mention could suddenly come together for the championship and be competitive after not having done it at this level before and built up the confidence. It may be enough to get through a couple of rounds but Kildare, Dublin, Westmeath and Laois in Leinster and many others elsewhere in the country.
Also, if we have more injuries than other teams them maybe there is a fundamental reason behind this? If we don't figure out why this is and address it then it will probably continue to occur.
Hopefully, hopefully I am wrong and we end up being very competitive in Leinster and all Ireland's but I am not holding out major hope.
oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 03/02/2020 09:57:33
2264749
Link
0
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "I know this is not popular to say , but we do have the worst injury list in the div by a mile. Its not excuse, we are not good enough. But it would be a massive concern for any div 2 team to have well over half first team starters missing while they try and break into div 1.
Injury Div 1 Teams in descending order
Dublin 3 injuries
Mayo 4 injuries
Galway 6 injuries
Donegal 6 injuries
Meath 11 injuries.
11 - Lavin, Kane, Gallagher, Harnan, Colgan, McEntee, Lenihan, Newman, Walsh, Campion, Kennelly.
Meath have more injuries then Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Monaghan put together. Kerry are pretty much first 15 team starters. Dublin and Mayo have 7 missing together. I think Monaghan are pretty much full strenght." Just wondering how do you know that Meath have more injuries than Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Monaghan put together. You wouldn't know and wouldn't be expected to know the detailed panels for these counties and who is out. It would take a serious amount of research to determine just how many injuries each of these counties when we are looking at the detail of our own county. You could be right and I do think we above the norm in our county but that statistic is seriously stark but it is a statistic that look to me anyway to be very hard to stand over.
oldsam_newsam (Meath) - Posts: 638 - 03/02/2020 10:09:20
2264753
Link
1
|
|
Replying To Furlong1949: "I know this is not popular to say , but we do have the worst injury list in the div by a mile. Its not excuse, we are not good enough. But it would be a massive concern for any div 2 team to have well over half first team starters missing while they try and break into div 1.
Injury Div 1 Teams in descending order
Dublin 3 injuries
Mayo 4 injuries
Galway 6 injuries
Donegal 6 injuries
Meath 11 injuries.
11 - Lavin, Kane, Gallagher, Harnan, Colgan, McEntee, Lenihan, Newman, Walsh, Campion, Kennelly.
Meath have more injuries then Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Monaghan put together. Kerry are pretty much first 15 team starters. Dublin and Mayo have 7 missing together. I think Monaghan are pretty much full strenght." Yes and the biggest problem is that a lot of the guys we are bringing in aren't as experienced as the replacements the likes of Dublin, Kerry etc can bring in. Right now we can ill afford to be missing big target men like Newman and Walsh, being honest we can ill afford any injuries and need a full strength squad to tackle the league but you can only play with the hand your dealt, there is no shortage of commitment, workrate or endeavour but we are missing some quality and right now I think confidence up front, the likes of the Wallace's, McMahon, Conlon can feed off the big men like Newman and his loss in particular is felt, I'm not saying at all that we would be nailed on to win if these injuries weren't there but we would look an awvful lot better than what we have
Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3744 - 03/02/2020 10:22:32
2264756
Link
17
|
|
This is the way I see it:
- we had a decent Div 2 campaign last year where our pure heart and desire saw us scrape over the line in tight wins against likes of Armagh and Kildare. We have 4 home games too to set us up.
- we put together a tenacious full back line and an excellent half back line which formed the basis of our promotion and subsequent decent enough performance in the super eights after a disaster v Dublin where we just couldn't put the ball over the bar no matter how hard we tried
…so you'd at have thought at the end of last year - great, lets just unearth 3/4 more decent players and surely we'll be competitive in Div 1 and we'll progress?
- Wrong. We'd need to be at our absolute fullest strength to be competitive and would absolutely have to keep our 6 backs on the pitch along with at least two of Newman, Walsh and Lenihan in the full forward line.
- instead of that however we have a patched up defence with two untried corner backs at intercounty level (they are doing well in fairness but its a huge ask) and a makeshift forward unit. The likes of McMahon and T O'Reilly have gone from being a bit part players who were in and out of our Div 2 league team last year to now being our main forwards in our Div 1 team. Is it any wonder we are being well bet and in danger of having a campaign that would put some a long way back?"
- in addition, it seems that McEntee and management team have re-discovered their bizarre and rubbish no conviction half in half out tactics of two years ago that saw us beat by Longford after a hugely inconsistent league campaign.
- how did it happen that when we needed our players fit, they have fallen like flies in such spectacular fashion? Again, questions need to be asked about the S&C coaching? Is a rugby coach really what is required for GAA? What qualifications does he have? Personally, I wouldn't have huge confidence in rugby sports science so why was this guy picked? The proof is in the pudding and we've literally about third of the team we should have out for our most important league campaign in nearly 20 years.
The boys look well beefed up anyway -but then what is the point in putting on even more muscle on the lads when they should be doing shooting drill after shooting drill? It wasn't muscle we lacked against Dublin (although Conlon was bet around the place) - its likes of Ben Brennan not practicing his frees, and Cillian O Sullivan and McEntee running into cul de sacs again and again and again, balls being constantly dropping into Cluxton's hands, players not making right options, lack of kickout strategy, lack of composure on the ball, lack of attacking strategy etc etc.
Overall a lot bad luck but then are we making our own luck with our training processes and leadership decisions?
Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1352 - 03/02/2020 10:27:50
2264758
Link
17
|
|
The absolute tripe that gets posted on this site and other social media outlets about management and players is just behold outrageous at this stage. Players and management are giving everything they have for the county seven days a week, 24 hours a day practically, and then you have gutless key board warriors slating everything from top to bottom without a single idea about what they are even talking about and if put in the same position as any Meath player or mentor wouldn't know where to start. Also I very much doubt if any key board warrior came across any player or member of management face to face they wouldn't even look at them never mind say anything to them as they are complete cowards. Luckily for all of the air heads on social media and this site non of the players/management (or at least they shouldn't) pay one bit of attention to the crap that comes out of peoples heads and onto their phones. If you have something constructive and helpful to say and actually know what you are talking about, then say it, but if you have nothing but a barrage of insults and personal comments without any foundation to it then you should keep it to yourself. Yes Meath are struggling, especially in the forward unit at the minute, but it is certainly not for the lack of effort, we just do not posses at the minute the same level of player as the likes of Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone and Donegal or even Galway. And the injury list is very hard on the squad that is only new into division one. Also if you are so concerned about Meath football and seem to know it all,why don't you go down to your local club, get yourself qualified as a coach and start bringing through the next generation, or get involved in the administration side of things. But no I would say it is much easier for them to sit on their phones and insult from a distance.
BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 03/02/2020 10:49:33
2264767
Link
2
|
|
Replying To Crinigan: "This is the way I see it:
- we had a decent Div 2 campaign last year where our pure heart and desire saw us scrape over the line in tight wins against likes of Armagh and Kildare. We have 4 home games too to set us up.
- we put together a tenacious full back line and an excellent half back line which formed the basis of our promotion and subsequent decent enough performance in the super eights after a disaster v Dublin where we just couldn't put the ball over the bar no matter how hard we tried
…so you'd at have thought at the end of last year - great, lets just unearth 3/4 more decent players and surely we'll be competitive in Div 1 and we'll progress?
- Wrong. We'd need to be at our absolute fullest strength to be competitive and would absolutely have to keep our 6 backs on the pitch along with at least two of Newman, Walsh and Lenihan in the full forward line.
- instead of that however we have a patched up defence with two untried corner backs at intercounty level (they are doing well in fairness but its a huge ask) and a makeshift forward unit. The likes of McMahon and T O'Reilly have gone from being a bit part players who were in and out of our Div 2 league team last year to now being our main forwards in our Div 1 team. Is it any wonder we are being well bet and in danger of having a campaign that would put some a long way back?"
- in addition, it seems that McEntee and management team have re-discovered their bizarre and rubbish no conviction half in half out tactics of two years ago that saw us beat by Longford after a hugely inconsistent league campaign.
- how did it happen that when we needed our players fit, they have fallen like flies in such spectacular fashion? Again, questions need to be asked about the S&C coaching? Is a rugby coach really what is required for GAA? What qualifications does he have? Personally, I wouldn't have huge confidence in rugby sports science so why was this guy picked? The proof is in the pudding and we've literally about third of the team we should have out for our most important league campaign in nearly 20 years.
The boys look well beefed up anyway -but then what is the point in putting on even more muscle on the lads when they should be doing shooting drill after shooting drill? It wasn't muscle we lacked against Dublin (although Conlon was bet around the place) - its likes of Ben Brennan not practicing his frees, and Cillian O Sullivan and McEntee running into cul de sacs again and again and again, balls being constantly dropping into Cluxton's hands, players not making right options, lack of kickout strategy, lack of composure on the ball, lack of attacking strategy etc etc.
Overall a lot bad luck but then are we making our own luck with our training processes and leadership decisions?" Give Andy a ring there and tell him you will take the team for the rest of the league, you seem to have all the answers in terms of team tactics, selection and Strength and Conditioning.
BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 03/02/2020 10:54:23
2264770
Link
1
|
|
Hard to point out the issues without slating people which i don't want to do but our Tactics for our forwards are all wrong and to obvious for the opposition. We also needed a captain to get a hold of the game, I honestly cant remember the last time Menton Fielded a ball in the middle of the park , He like a few others just drift in and out of games. Its obvious that we need a full team to be any bit competitive but we need to mix up the game a bit and be a lot quicker when we are breaking from the backline. Time and time again in both games we broke out from the backs so slow that all the Donegal /Tyrone players were able to get back in their own 45 and eventually after sideways kicking and hand passing we lose the ball. If we are a running / Counter team we need to break quicker and sometimes leave a couple forwards where they are supposed to be to mix things up. It was a very depressing game worse then last weekend i thought. On a positive note Cos and James McEntee ran all day, i thought the Brennan did well a few kick outs went astray but mostly down to no one looking for it. TOC was helping the backline quite a bit.
SheridansTry (Meath) - Posts: 180 - 03/02/2020 11:04:39
2264775
Link
1
|
|
A bad performance overall yesterday. Andy Mac has done a great job over last few years in getting us back to Div 1 and into Super 8s. That doesn't make him immune from criticism however. It is bizarre that we don't seem to know who the best 2/3 keepers in the county are. Brennan done okay mostly yesterday, bar a couple of bad kickouts, but it just seems like a panic selection. No forward planning involved there at all.
The kickout strategy overall is badly lacking. There seems to be a lack of options available. We should have a several 'set-plays' to call on in these situations. You see this with other counties, and at club level all the time. Proper calls, dummy runs etc. all to create space for someone to comfortably receive a kickout. Instead, we seem panicked and under pressure on our own kickout. We seem to be so far behind the top teams on this.
On the Donegal kickout, there seemed to be uncertainty as to whether we were pushing up on them or not. On a few occasions, 4/5 of forwards pushed up, leaving 1/2 Donegal backs free, giving them an easy way out. it's pointless only half committing to the press. if they pick out the free man, it takes our 4/5 players out of the game straightaway, leaving Donegal free to break up-field. Playing with the wind, we should have been pushed right up, man on man, and try and put them on the back foot. Very rarely did this happen. We were far too risk adverse when we had that wind behind us in the first half. Should have taken the game to them far more than we did. Apart from Toner's excellent long-range point, we rarely tried to use the wind effectively with our shooting either. We shouldn't be relying on our corner back to be brave enough to take a shot on from this distance.
Selection wise, the 2 Wallace's have had enough chances at this level without doing enough to justify selection. I appreciate that they had excellent seasons last year at club level, but that form has rarely been replicated in the county jersey. Joey perhaps deserves some more time. Eamon kicked possession away numerous times and ran into dead ends multiple times as well. Cillian needs to get the head up and stop taking the ball into contact blindly as well. There's a good footballer in him, but he's obsessed with trying to burst through gaps that just aren't there.
Sean Tobin is not good enough to start, and he rarely has much of an impact off the bench.
Menton seems to be struggling for form a bit but will hopefully get back to his best soon. Potential is there for him and Jones to from a good partnership. Ben Brennan is running out of chances. Don't think he adds enough in general play, and his free conversion is not up to scratch at this level. In the absence of Walsh, Newman and Lenihan, Jack O'Connor must be in contention for a place in the team for free taking ability. Has the potential to make a positive impact in general play as well. Costello was a bit unlucky to be taken off at HT yesterday. Done very little wrong in my opinion. O'Reilly showed well and was our most effective forward. Kicked some nice scores as well.
It's been a bad start to the league. But as others have mentioned, we are missing 7/8 lads that are likely starters from what would be deemed as our strongest team. Time for some of the fringe players to step up and show they have what it takes at this level. But they will need more help from the line as well. Still a lot of work to be done on kick outs and general gameplan from Andy and the team. Still time to turn things around. Mayo/Galway/Monaghan are not streets ahead of us by any means so lets hope we can iron out some of the issues we have and pick up a few points in these games.
Royal55 (Meath) - Posts: 1 - 03/02/2020 11:19:28
2264784
Link
2
|