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Meath V Dublin

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dont think we need any real change in management , need to keep unearthing forwards, graham reilly a huge loss so we need to replace him, i think the moral for all leinster counties is to aid developmemnt in football avoid playing dublin at all costs, even if that means throwing games. stick out u20 team v longford or carlow owhoever next summer get put out of leinster and go backdoor and develop a team. maybe leinster teams shouldnt fulfill the dublin fixture it would actually be hugely more benefical than playing them dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 790 - 21/11/2020 22:18:01 2312369 Link
Replying To winatallcost: "What level has Andy brought us to? That is worst Leinster Final performance from memory." The bottom couple of lines covers what level he has brought us to. In other words not getting by westmeath limerick fermanagh and wexford . Hope that's clear? Harnan6 (Meath) - Posts: 35 - 21/11/2020 22:19:53 2312371 Link
Replying To Timmy86: "I wudnt b this harsh lads on yer team ,the €€€ dublin are getting is a disgrace ,compared to the rest of the counties ,they v full time coaches in every club!!!e.g dwn ere we v 2 r3 in the hole county ,the divide will only get bigger ,10-20 years ago the playing field €€€€wise was some way level now its a complete cap ,and its showing on the field" Lads, we always get the funding argument on forums like this. Did the county boards of the underfunded teams (which appears to be 31) actually approach Croke park and communicate their dis-satisfaction. Until all county boards go to Croke park and display their dissatisfaction as a united group the situation will remain the same. meath87889699 (Meath) - Posts: 41 - 21/11/2020 22:20:06 2312372 Link
Replying To Timmy86: "I wudnt b this harsh lads on yer team ,the €€€ dublin are getting is a disgrace ,compared to the rest of the counties ,they v full time coaches in every club!!!e.g dwn ere we v 2 r3 in the hole county ,the divide will only get bigger ,10-20 years ago the playing field €€€€wise was some way level now its a complete cap ,and its showing on the field" Completely agree,you dont look at dublin in awe of the individual players but as a collective the strength and conditioning of them is off the scale,and everybody knows where that has come from,the funding has backfired on the gaa,sure it was obvious to anyone with a brain,(you give more money to one county than all other counties combined for 20 years,a county that has a population of a province, they will more than likely dominate),if they don't split dublin now,the interest in county football will disappear ,and the gaa have only themselves to blame Utdroyal (Meath) - Posts: 65 - 21/11/2020 22:20:22 2312373 Link
Replying To Harnan6: "Ridiculous post. Only issue I have with management is goalkeeper situation. Think they are doing great job progressing team. Dubs are just way superior. Regarding Cillian double hop and addressing it, pressure from the opposition causes these mistakes,he is a county footballer not a under 12 player, give it a rest. Sometimes you just have to admit that a team is just a level above. Take out the top 3 or 4 teams and we can compete with the rest, Andy had brought us back up to that level." This reply post is spot on. Tonight was hard, we did not play well, Dublin a great team and they were on fire tonight but we have progressed in Andy's time as manager. Kickouts are the one blackspot Andy should have done better with. But ridiculous to call for Andy's head. bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1402 - 21/11/2020 22:33:50 2312386 Link
What went wrong tonight? 1. Farcical kickout strategy and a goalkeeper with no shot stopping ability or presence. 2. We took to the field in a Leinster final with no free taker whatsoever yet presumably expected to compete. 3, Tactically set up all wrong seemingly, huge gaps down the middle of the pitch and Dublin destroyed us on their kickouts. 4. Zero aggression. No hits, no belts, no fights. Paid huge respect and were very very passive. At least 3 of the above lie at managements door ( I've no idea what Colm Nally does but the evidence of his work isn't encouraging). We can talk about good young players coming through and teams developing but don't they deserve a manager who gives them a chance with the above basics in place? McEntee can be very hard on his players and is very intense... don't see why we can't ask him serious questions. For me the goalkeeping and free taking situation after 4 years means it's the end of the road, I'm sorry to say. It's simply unacceptable. Any ideas who should take over? Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1352 - 21/11/2020 22:37:02 2312388 Link
Replying To TobinsBeard: "You are wrong about that. Meath are miles ahead of where they were in 2017." Miles ahead of 2017 well you got your answer tonight latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 21/11/2020 22:41:11 2312395 Link
Replying To Royalio11: "I was expecting Dublin to be superior and win today but I really didn't believe that things could have been worse than the result last year. I refuse to drive a boot in on the lads tonight. Not one of those players went out representing Meath to ship a score like that and no one of could have felt worse than the lads on the pitch tonight. What needs to be looked at on reflection of this season is - has the achievments over the last 18 months really changed us? Are we any closer to beating a Division 1 side? Are we any closer to Dublin? The answer is no. However, we are developing a squad of young players and we have showed character this year and certainly have the foundations of becoming a top 8 side when you see the ever growing gap. The worst outcome of all of this is the total failure of management to sort the goalkeeper situation out, to sort the kickout plan out, and, to sort the free taker situation out. These issues have been identified by all and sundry for at least 3 seasons and have not been addressed. It did not cost us the game tonight but I made our task impossible and inconceivable. Next year will be the critical year for this squad. Have they got what it takes to get out of Division 2 and win the division. Can they get back to a Leinster final and attempt to remedy these displays against Dublin. Save the drama of removing the Management team and knocking individuals. All supporters are hurting." Very well said. Hurt is horrid tonight, but as a team, squad and county we need to regroup and unite. Definitely the Kickout strategies and position HAS to be addressed if the team can build. I don't think the free taking is as drastically in need of major addressing. IMO the missed frees tonight were down to the confidence drained out of players. Psychologically Dublin shattered some players early on. David (Meath) - Posts: 567 - 21/11/2020 22:45:43 2312397 Link
Hard to watch that tonight and really felt for the players. Its easy to critise them but they put the hard work in like every other county and it must be demoralising to be beaten like that. So looking for positives in that game is not easy but i suppose they kept trying to the end. Apart from that theres nothing. This year is so strange, and football is not really that important anyway in the year thats in it, so I for one am just writing it off. There are positives based on this years form. They were competitive in Division 1 despite not winning a game, and I think to be fair. there were signs of improvement. Tonight, some issues that have been evident for a long time came to the forefront once again. The goalkeeping issue is a problem. It is so important to have a good kickout strategy but ours is a disaster. As well as that the type of kicks that are ballooned in the air and hang, are just meat and drink to the attacking team. This was not addressed and it needs to be. Paddy O'Rourke had his faults, but christ could we do with him now. Before people get annoyed with me on that comment, yes I know all about his interview and what he said, but in reality he was spot on. If any player on that team had a chance to travel, and assessed what lay ahead of him if they stayed, then how could they justify putting so much work in, knowing what lay ahead of them against Dublin. Watching on television is difficult as its hard to assess what is happening off the ball in terms of positional switches etc so not sure what happened McGill and Keoghan but they were not at the races. O'Callaghan and Kilkenny ran riot. Most of the Dublin team were able to dominate, humiliate and emasculate their opponents and so for the second year in a row, we were embarrassed. I enjoy reading Furlong's posts but as I watched that game i could not help but think of some of his quotes such as We are Meath and the rest of the country doesnt realise what it means to us to take on and beat Dublin (Sorry Furlong, I know I am paraphrasing and i am not being critical at all as those thoughts do resonate with me), and i realised tonight that while maybe thats how us older supporters think, the reality is so different. A lot of these players were born in the late 90's and i think Walsh in 2000, so they never knew the Meath we knew. They dont realise that Meath was once not just a suburb of Dublin, but that as a county we had our own identity and our own raw attitude to everyone else. I know football has moved on and we need to master some of the new tactics etc, but i long to see a Meath team go out and stamp their identity on a game. where they target for example the Small bothers where we know they will lose their head if provoked. Those days are gone. We dont have the players with that mindset any more and it is depressing. We did not lay a glove on Dublin tonight. Anyway this is too long a post and it would be churlish not to give due credit to this Dublin team, who are exceptional. It was a classy moment at the end when they laid the wreath in the corner and I wish them well. ROYALOPTIMIST (Meath) - Posts: 179 - 21/11/2020 22:46:51 2312401 Link
Replying To Timmy86: "I wudnt b this harsh lads on yer team ,the €€€ dublin are getting is a disgrace ,compared to the rest of the counties ,they v full time coaches in every club!!!e.g dwn ere we v 2 r3 in the hole county ,the divide will only get bigger ,10-20 years ago the playing field €€€€wise was some way level now its a complete cap ,and its showing on the field" This is rubbish and a cop-out. People love to make the excuse of Dublin getting all the money. The Dublin CC is very professionally run they are capable of attracting big sponsorship. Our CC is a shambles, as colm Parkinson says only there for the free t shirt and jacket. They are incapable of attracting sponsorship. When we get this sorted out then we can move forward with some confidence. Just look at the mess in Pairc Tailteann and Dunganny. Instead of progressing we are drifting further back. latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 21/11/2020 23:03:07 2312405 Link
Replying To winatallcost: "What level has Andy brought us to? That is worst Leinster Final performance from memory." The level of consistently competing with every county in Ireland not named Dublin. It used to be a compliment that Meath were judged on how they played against Dublin. It's now an anchor tying us down. We need to forget about Dublin as hard as that is for us to stomach. We need to just get back to division 1 of the league and stay there. For perspective Matt Costello who started for us today had only seen Dublin lose twice since he was a 10 year old. And unfortunately it's only getting further way. It's not a Meath problem but a GAA one LeitrimRoyal99 (Meath) - Posts: 1527 - 21/11/2020 23:08:16 2312410 Link
Replying To Harnan6: "Ridiculous post. Only issue I have with management is goalkeeper situation. Think they are doing great job progressing team. Dubs are just way superior. Regarding Cillian double hop and addressing it, pressure from the opposition causes these mistakes,he is a county footballer not a under 12 player, give it a rest. Sometimes you just have to admit that a team is just a level above. Take out the top 3 or 4 teams and we can compete with the rest, Andy had brought us back up to that level." Obviously you didn't watch the Kildare game. They had the same scoring chances as Dublin tonight in the first half, the only difference is Dublin took theirs, Kildare didn't. We were cleaned out in midfield again. We love to blame the goalie and the kickouts. Put yourself in his place. No matter where he went we couldn't win it, the same in the Kildare game. In my view we have gone backwards under Andy. latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 21/11/2020 23:11:57 2312411 Link
Replying To royaldunne: "Deflated no doubt. But we move on. We have improved and will continue to do so. That was a harsh lesson. Dean puck in goal from now on. No other option. Keep with Morris for the frees. Wallace is also now a certain starter for me for league. Andy has one more year, and anyone saying to change him now is going way over board. We have done this before with knee jerk reactions. We can't allow it to happen again" I told you 4 years ago Andy was the wrong man for the job and stick by that. While he is not to blame for the standard of footballer coming through to senior level he is totally to blame for the organisation, coaching, tactics game plan, or lack of. He is out of his depth at this level. It's one thing to be shouting at a club team it's another to be looking after an intercounty team. He hasn't addressed the spine of the team, no goalie, full back cleaned out again today, no centre back, midfield very poor, no centre forward. So what has he done. Time to move on. latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 21/11/2020 23:24:23 2312415 Link
Replying To Harnan6: "Ridiculous post. Only issue I have with management is goalkeeper situation. Think they are doing great job progressing team. Dubs are just way superior. Regarding Cillian double hop and addressing it, pressure from the opposition causes these mistakes,he is a county footballer not a under 12 player, give it a rest. Sometimes you just have to admit that a team is just a level above. Take out the top 3 or 4 teams and we can compete with the rest, Andy had brought us back up to that level." So going backwards is progress. At least last year there was a glimmer of hope at halftime, tonight it was all over at halftime. And that was after having a year in Division 1. Sorry but something else must be tried and we must learn from mistakes. MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1080 - 21/11/2020 23:40:01 2312424 Link
I was sneered at a few weeks ago when I suggested Joe Sheridan should be begged back to go in goals and I stand by that. Joe could have got the ball 68.5 yards up the field and stopped us inviting the Dubs upon us. Again I was proved right some awful awful refereeing decisions. Second goal was a throw pass for the Dubs but as usual let it go. Some very late hits on Meath lads let go too. Of course Dublin Joe Mc Quillan on the line so that was never a good omen, at one stage you could see him interfere through the mic with the ref and umpires when there was an incident with one of the Dub players but Joe got him off it. Some anonymous performances tonight from our so called Leaders on the pitch. We could have done with Mickey Burke there today and Biggy to help keep the heads after the first 15 min onslaught. But we'll learn , same as we learnt from the last 4 or 5 complete and utter humiliating hammerings we received by Dublin. Anyways we regroup and go again for the Qualifiers. If we get a good draw this year could still end up doing something in the Super Eights. Hon the Royal, Keep the Faith! Evernal (Meath) - Posts: 74 - 21/11/2020 23:52:20 2312427 Link
Replying To latouche25: "This is rubbish and a cop-out. People love to make the excuse of Dublin getting all the money. The Dublin CC is very professionally run they are capable of attracting big sponsorship. Our CC is a shambles, as colm Parkinson says only there for the free t shirt and jacket. They are incapable of attracting sponsorship. When we get this sorted out then we can move forward with some confidence. Just look at the mess in Pairc Tailteann and Dunganny. Instead of progressing we are drifting further back." You said it very professionally run because they have a full-time professional CEO and a full-time marketing manager in their commercial department. You mention the mess we have with Dunganny and Pairc Tailteann and you are right they are financial nooses around our necks. Now wouldn't it be handy if we got to train in a taxpayer-funded centre of excellence like DCU's sports campus. Or if we got to play in a beautiful stadium with an immaculate pitch where we not only got to play our league games but if we were lucky enough would also get to be at home for every championship game bar 1 or 2. It's not a cop-out. Our county board does do a lot wrong. But it's wrong to compare a professional county board gift wrapped massive assets and having the advantage of 25% of the country as their target market (plus a lot of invaders in counties like our own) to our county board which is a bunch of volunteers LeitrimRoyal99 (Meath) - Posts: 1527 - 22/11/2020 00:04:22 2312430 Link
Wow...lose by 21pts and all you take from it is mcquillan on the line?, Regroup for super 8's, qualifiers!!! Joker.. jacktheDub (Dublin) - Posts: 944 - 22/11/2020 00:15:41 2312434 Link
To say I'm deflated, annoyed, frustrated, angry, upset etc etc would be an understatement but we must try and look at the realities of tonight. Firstly Dublin were awesome, they played with a relentless intensity and football flair that no one would live with let alone a young team like ours, they also played like a team that knew Kerry, the one team they would look at with a raised eyebrow, were out of the championship and that realistically no one else left in the field has a chance of beating them, they know 6 in a row is now firmly in their grasp and their play tonight showed that belief. We needed a good confident start but fluffed our lines in front of goal, too slow and taking too much out of the ball led to giving up decent goal chances in the early going, Dublin get a goal to go 1-2 to 0-2 up and the blue wave rises and we are drowned beyond saving in the 10 or so minutes thereafter. Dublin are not Kildare or Wicklow and you will not retrieve a situation against them when you give them a sufficient lead in championship football. Now we done ourselves no favours, we gave them oceans of room and never put any intensity into out tackles and at times our ball handling was terribly poor, our kick outs were a disaster and we lost/gave away possession far too easily, I expected to see fight and determination but by the 20 minute mark we were a sinking ship and confidence was shot, to say it was sobering viewing was an understatement. So where now? Change management? Personally I don't think so, the one grace is that we have a short off season, the league will start in some shape or form in late January or early February, you won't feel it coming, and training will I presume continue towards that date, changing management would be no benefit now in fact I think it would be a detrimental move. We can either wallow in self pity or continue working and the importance of our league campaign in 2021 now takes on even more importance, promotion is a must and is achievable, Division 2 is a dog of a division as always but look there are no world beaters in there either and we must pick ourselves up for that challenge, Dublin are just different gravy right now and I think the other 5 teams left in the race will be reassessing their opinions after tonight, Donegal included, yes our own performance level was a long way off what we wanted but Dublin were utterly outstanding tonight and are a unique and possibly a one off team, we must bear that in mind. Lastly let us not kick our own, these players have sacrificed a lot to play for the county, through normal and abnormal times, I don't doubt their work rate, effort or desire for one minute nor do I doubt it of management either, they will collectively be physically and mentally drained tonight and they do not need us to inflict more pain upon them via a keyboard, that is not the right thing to do, they need support and encouragement to keep working, keep training and keep believing that they will see reward of some sort for their efforts, it's very hard to have any optimism tonight I know but there is a squad there that I still believe can bring us to a more competitive level with Dublin, we as supporters must encourage that also. Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3744 - 22/11/2020 00:17:36 2312435 Link
Replying To latouche25: "This is rubbish and a cop-out. People love to make the excuse of Dublin getting all the money. The Dublin CC is very professionally run they are capable of attracting big sponsorship. Our CC is a shambles, as colm Parkinson says only there for the free t shirt and jacket. They are incapable of attracting sponsorship. When we get this sorted out then we can move forward with some confidence. Just look at the mess in Pairc Tailteann and Dunganny. Instead of progressing we are drifting further back." Dublin GAA recently bought 23 acres of land at Hollystown Golf Course, which was bought by Glenveagh Homes two years ago for €15 million, to develop a training facility to go with land they also bought at the Spawell in Lucan costing €9 million, we are talking millions here, comparing any county board with Dublin is the ultimate definition of chalk and cheese, Kerry and Cork even with their substantial sponsorships pale in comparison, we have developed what we can afford to develop and admirably haven't gone into deep hoc and needed financial rescuing like some county boards, cutting cloth to suit the measure is the reality here, don't get me wrong I'm not an advocate for our county board and I would have many different views personally but any comparisons with Dublin's officialdom are not really fair, it's a different league and the money available to them is beyond our wildest dreams, and they haven't even had to consider flogging Parnell Park. Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3744 - 22/11/2020 00:36:25 2312443 Link
Replying To MillerX: "So going backwards is progress. At least last year there was a glimmer of hope at halftime, tonight it was all over at halftime. And that was after having a year in Division 1. Sorry but something else must be tried and we must learn from mistakes." Backwards? It is a lot easier to be critical at these times, for me we have improved considerably . Andy brining us into super 8s and also back to Division 1, where we were competitive. With the players available I think that is a great achievement. Plenty of good young footballers coming through. Once again I say Dublin different level, hopefully someday soon we can reach Harnan6 (Meath) - Posts: 35 - 22/11/2020 00:40:03 2312446 Link