Meath Forum

Meath V Dublin

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "If in Tailteann yes I would expect to win majority of games based on the fact that we are in division 2, most teams we play would be lower division."
Limerick imo would be division 3 quality and probably lower half of it. Yet the only point they got was against us.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 18:43:29    2464861

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "I'm amazed by some of the posts here. O'Rourke is only 6 competitive games into his stint as Meath manager. Things are bad in last few games but hearing people saying that there has been a huge drop off in standards are delusional, mid table in division 2 has been our typical standard for many many years.
Some of the criticisms managers take is over the top, I stood up for McEntee when he was on the receiving end but it is completely bizzare to see this level of criticism this early. O'Rourke is new to this level of management, I do think he is on a bit of a learning curve, I expect his game plan to evolve over time.
The disappointing thing at the moment for O'Rourke is that the promising start against Cork has proven, so far to be an outlier. It's not that we are worse than before he came in, more so far it's hard to see things have improved."
All I think we want to see is a game plan. And some degree of fitness. We are less mobile than we were. That's what worries me the most.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 18:45:44    2464862

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Replying To royaldunne:  "All I think we want to see is a game plan. And some degree of fitness. We are less mobile than we were. That's what worries me the most."
I agree on a lot of what you are saying but I disagree on a lack of fitness I don't see that unless it's physical fitness you are suggesting.
If it is that I agree it was like men against boys yesterday in the tackle and any physical exchanges but in fairness that has been the same over the last number of years we've came out second best every time .

mmc (Meath) - Posts: 281 - 19/03/2023 18:57:07    2464867

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Replying To mmc:  "I agree on a lot of what you are saying but I disagree on a lack of fitness I don't see that unless it's physical fitness you are suggesting.
If it is that I agree it was like men against boys yesterday in the tackle and any physical exchanges but in fairness that has been the same over the last number of years we've came out second best every time ."
Yes, we are well of the level of physicality when compared to many teams, fitness in general seems ok.There was a piece in one of last weeks papers that highlighted the high level of s/c of many young lads coming into county panels. Many counties seem to have system in place where transition from minor to u20 to senior is seamless. Not sure what happens in Meath, however our lads coming through always look a bit under developed, is it the best way forward for young lads? But once one team get success rest will follow, also this added value brings them to attention of rugby, so a double edged sword.

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2196 - 19/03/2023 19:55:36    2464894

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Replying To mmc:  "I agree on a lot of what you are saying but I disagree on a lack of fitness I don't see that unless it's physical fitness you are suggesting.
If it is that I agree it was like men against boys yesterday in the tackle and any physical exchanges but in fairness that has been the same over the last number of years we've came out second best every time ."
We don't have any speed. Dublin, Limerick louth clare we couldn't keep up with the runner in vast majority of cases.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 20:21:24    2464904

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Limerick imo would be division 3 quality and probably lower half of it. Yet the only point they got was against us."
Ye, the same can be said for Down last year. They lost every game except for drawing with us.

Maestro (Meath) - Posts: 584 - 19/03/2023 20:24:03    2464905

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Replying To seadog54:  "Yes, we are well of the level of physicality when compared to many teams, fitness in general seems ok.There was a piece in one of last weeks papers that highlighted the high level of s/c of many young lads coming into county panels. Many counties seem to have system in place where transition from minor to u20 to senior is seamless. Not sure what happens in Meath, however our lads coming through always look a bit under developed, is it the best way forward for young lads? But once one team get success rest will follow, also this added value brings them to attention of rugby, so a double edged sword."
Its time to swallow our pride and get help from outside the county to put in place the structures that are needed.

Meath are amateurs in a professional era.

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1807 - 19/03/2023 20:27:10    2464907

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Limerick imo would be division 3 quality and probably lower half of it. Yet the only point they got was against us."
You can pick Meath's worst league result to say Meath are bad but just as easily pick our best result (v. Cork) to say we are better than we seem. Generally teams are in the division they are in for a reason. Meath would start most games against division 3/ division 4 teams as favourites.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 53 - 19/03/2023 20:33:03    2464911

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Replying To bert09:  "Its time to swallow our pride and get help from outside the county to put in place the structures that are needed.

Meath are amateurs in a professional era."
This.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 21:01:25    2464925

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Replying To Maestro:  "Ye, the same can be said for Down last year. They lost every game except for drawing with us."
Down would have been safe last year if they had kilcoo lads. I don't think we'd beat Down in tailteann, think we'd struggle v Laois same v Longford Offaly, I think cavan would beat us. But I'd nearly bet on a draw pitting us against Antrim. And with Limerick I wouldn't be over confident either.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 21:06:21    2464928

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Replying To GreenMan1987:  "You can pick Meath's worst league result to say Meath are bad but just as easily pick our best result (v. Cork) to say we are better than we seem. Generally teams are in the division they are in for a reason. Meath would start most games against division 3/ division 4 teams as favourites."
We beat cork last year too. Actually have we lost to cork since we both in same division? And they lost today aswell.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 19/03/2023 21:07:39    2464931

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What annoys me is the fall off since the opening two matches we didn't kick on when the likes of Louth and Cork did. We got a setback and are stuck in a rut.

Reading into Louths league so far, they have been impressive and are now in with a chance of promotion to division 1 so there result against us wasn't a fluke.
They were unlucky against both Derry and Clare in their opening games

Cork also improved as the league went on, nearly beat Dublin and hammered Kildare after a set back against us

Limerick have been very poor to date but they did show moments against, Louth and Dublin in the second half so getting a point against us also isn't a surprise.

The teams we are playing against are all improving so we should be too.

UsernameInvalid (Meath) - Posts: 409 - 19/03/2023 21:23:49    2464941

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Limerick imo would be division 3 quality and probably lower half of it. Yet the only point they got was against us."
Yes we know that ! .Can you be more constructive about how we improve from where we started from a couple of months ago

nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1266 - 19/03/2023 21:32:37    2464942

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Replying To nobull456:  "Yes we know that ! .Can you be more constructive about how we improve from where we started from a couple of months ago"
We started as a midtable division 2 team with pace but only one game plan, the running game. So Colm had a base when he came in to build on.
Pace we are lacking pace all over the field , so fix that first and we can move on,
have a look again at some of the top clubs in county rathoath, summerhill, don/ash etc and see is there any player that could add to team, the divisional thing great idea but not including players from senior clubs in hindsight looks to have been a mistake.
Swallow pride have a meeting with Connor McGill, I don't like you, you don't like me, but we both want what's best for Meath. That backline needs his experience in it that is blatant to see to anyone.
Start lenihane if we going to be putting high balls in,
Have a designated free taker that can kick them over 80% of the time. If we going to have Harry coming up to kick from 45 line fair enough but bloody hell make him practice all week. Don't have one guy nail a 45, and then almost immediately tell him no you not taken the next one we bringing up gk to take it.
Play with heads up, it's such a simple thing but we don't do it.
Don't go man to man v the top teams, it's footballing suicide, put in a tight defensive structure for 35 minutes keep the score low and games not to be over by halftime particularly when playing against the wind.
Have a clear game plan for each game. If it's not working switch to back up plan.
Now some of the above may be in place but it is not evident at the moment, finally and most importantly stop making lame excuses about inexperience on team as a get out for bad performances. There is experienced players around, mix it up and do it gradually then we wouldn't have had the drop off in standards from when Colm came in. O'Dowds greatest fault was getting rid of the likes of ward O'Connor Farrell etc too soon, don't make the same mistakes again.
He has my full support in doing this. However I will call out when I see simple things not been implemented that would go a long way to
Rectifying our current problems. He is learning and perhaps needs more people to come in to back room team, I said earlier there was 5 dubs back room team behind me in pt with clipboards and they were all microphoned up to sideline, I'm sure cb would allow extra to come in to help. Have we anyone in a stand at any game ? I don't think so. I think in previous nally would sometimes go up ,
Really it's about getting to grips with the modern way of how football teams work . If we want to compete with the likes of Dublin we have to set up like them. Bective stud have put a lot of money into this by reports, let's use it wisely and put a professional set up that will help management.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 20/03/2023 07:52:17    2464962

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "What annoys me is the fall off since the opening two matches we didn't kick on when the likes of Louth and Cork did. We got a setback and are stuck in a rut.

Reading into Louths league so far, they have been impressive and are now in with a chance of promotion to division 1 so there result against us wasn't a fluke.
They were unlucky against both Derry and Clare in their opening games

Cork also improved as the league went on, nearly beat Dublin and hammered Kildare after a set back against us

Limerick have been very poor to date but they did show moments against, Louth and Dublin in the second half so getting a point against us also isn't a surprise.

The teams we are playing against are all improving so we should be too."
The most worrying thing re Limerick is they have the worst score difference in all 4 divisions even worse than London. And they got a draw with us.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 20/03/2023 07:55:43    2464963

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "What annoys me is the fall off since the opening two matches we didn't kick on when the likes of Louth and Cork did. We got a setback and are stuck in a rut.

Reading into Louths league so far, they have been impressive and are now in with a chance of promotion to division 1 so there result against us wasn't a fluke.
They were unlucky against both Derry and Clare in their opening games

Cork also improved as the league went on, nearly beat Dublin and hammered Kildare after a set back against us

Limerick have been very poor to date but they did show moments against, Louth and Dublin in the second half so getting a point against us also isn't a surprise.

The teams we are playing against are all improving so we should be too."
Louth have the fundamentals in place and that can go a long way. For me it's not in Derry that league form came off the rails, it was againt Louth when we let 5 point lead slip. We didn't recover from that.

But the positive is that we didn't get relegated, that was the realistic ambition from start of the year and fair play to them, they achieved it.

Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1352 - 20/03/2023 08:16:01    2464966

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Replying To Crinigan:  "Louth have the fundamentals in place and that can go a long way. For me it's not in Derry that league form came off the rails, it was againt Louth when we let 5 point lead slip. We didn't recover from that.

But the positive is that we didn't get relegated, that was the realistic ambition from start of the year and fair play to them, they achieved it."
Fair play to them for not getting relegated..... Good god.

Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1012 - 20/03/2023 09:46:13    2464990

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "What annoys me is the fall off since the opening two matches we didn't kick on when the likes of Louth and Cork did. We got a setback and are stuck in a rut.

Reading into Louths league so far, they have been impressive and are now in with a chance of promotion to division 1 so there result against us wasn't a fluke.
They were unlucky against both Derry and Clare in their opening games

Cork also improved as the league went on, nearly beat Dublin and hammered Kildare after a set back against us

Limerick have been very poor to date but they did show moments against, Louth and Dublin in the second half so getting a point against us also isn't a surprise.

The teams we are playing against are all improving so we should be too."
Yeh..........Maybe we expected too much too soon. I include myself in that !. This is a long haul job. . I expect Colm will have a good look after the next match to review the early stages of recovery. I expect areas like coaching and training sessions and how those 2 fit together will be top of the agenda . The starvation over the last nearly 20 years adds to frustration and impatience. However i cannot think of a better man to get this boat off the rocks than Colm O Rourke.

nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1266 - 20/03/2023 10:39:29    2465026

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The worrying thing is the amount of scores we conceded in every game. Not one player knows how to tackle. Just look at Harnans effort for the goal. It was abysmal then go back through his career and you will see ths same. You could pick similar efforts from every player throughout the league. Just look at Fentons first point took the ball from the kickout strolled forward and scored without any player coming within 5m of him. Colm needs to bring in someone who can teach them how to defend and tackle.

latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 20/03/2023 11:12:58    2465057

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Replying To latouche25:  "The worrying thing is the amount of scores we conceded in every game. Not one player knows how to tackle. Just look at Harnans effort for the goal. It was abysmal then go back through his career and you will see ths same. You could pick similar efforts from every player throughout the league. Just look at Fentons first point took the ball from the kickout strolled forward and scored without any player coming within 5m of him. Colm needs to bring in someone who can teach them how to defend and tackle."
He needs a lot of people who actually know how to do modern game. Colm is stuck in the 80s 90s mindset and as much as we hate to admit it that won't cut it at this time.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 20/03/2023 11:27:07    2465068

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