Meath Forum

Meath V Offaly

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Time to move on and consign this episode to history. We have a real chance now to be completive in a competition that suits our current position and standard of football.

latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 25/04/2023 11:45:05    2473637

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "'Orouke has brought an average midtable division two team down to a poor lower level division 3 team. That is a fact.'.
That's not a fact. It's not even an opinion as it blatantly contradicts an actual fact (we stayed in division 2 in the only year O'Rourke has managed so far).
Will you think before you write stuff like this when it's obviously blantly wrong."
Ok I'll put in like. We are playing LIKE a low division 3 team. That is A FACT.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 11:47:39    2473640

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "'Orouke has brought an average midtable division two team down to a poor lower level division 3 team. That is a fact.'.
That's not a fact. It's not even an opinion as it blatantly contradicts an actual fact (we stayed in division 2 in the only year O'Rourke has managed so far).
Will you think before you write stuff like this when it's obviously blantly wrong."
Now can you address the other points I raised. Honestly who will we beat next year if cb allows this disaster to continue?? I'm not having a go at you here. We all want what's best for Meath. Colm while trying is clearly not up to the job. The players aren't playing for him that can be seen by everyone, he has no game plan and looks bewildered on the sideline with no enthusiasm or passion. I idolised him growing up. But they do say great players don't always make great managers. That is not anything personal. But the pathetic excuses after the game were cringey beyond words. We are where we deserve to be. No we are not, we are where he brought us to be. Let him finish out the year. But we need a manager in before league or we will be in division 3 and probably division 4 afterwards if he remains. He is out of his depth and I am sure he knows this and will gracefully walk away at years end. If not then he must be removed.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 11:58:16    2473649

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "'Orouke has brought an average midtable division two team down to a poor lower level division 3 team. That is a fact.'.
That's not a fact. It's not even an opinion as it blatantly contradicts an actual fact (we stayed in division 2 in the only year O'Rourke has managed so far).
Will you think before you write stuff like this when it's obviously blantly wrong."
It's not blatantly wrong. I would say he has brought us to a Div 3 standard alright, Probably not lower Div 3. Staying up in div 2 is a fluke. A couple of freak results went our way. We should have went down. O' Rourke has made serious personell changes to this squad, and it has backfired spectacularly. The squad is now less Fit. Has as low a confidence level, if not worse, than last year. Has very little hunger/drive/fight etc. This has happened on O' Rourke's time. It's nearly as bad as the Paddy Carr situation.

All you O' Rourke Fanboys would want to cop yourselves on. He very little inter County Management pedigree or aptitude. We were blinded by his legendary status and nostalgia when this appointment was made. We look like saps now and the country is laughing at us..

Selwyn (Meath) - Posts: 387 - 25/04/2023 12:24:01    2473666

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Replying To latouche25:  "Time to move on and consign this episode to history. We have a real chance now to be completive in a competition that suits our current position and standard of football."
Who will we beat. We will be top seeds. But who will fear us ? Would we beat Wicklow Laois cavan Offaly Limerick Down or Antrim ? Can't see it.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 12:59:49    2473685

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We are set up and playing like a junior B club team …fact

I was looking at Louth and Westmeath match , there was high quality of football played between the two teams on Sunday , Louth have made a unbelievable improvement over last few years at county level . The Meath and Offaly match was absolutely awful match , Meath have lost 6 games in two months , I would say any team could beat Meath because of the way we are set up , if we get Wicklow in the Tailteann cup , Wicklow will probably win .

WhyTheLongFace (Meath) - Posts: 934 - 25/04/2023 13:07:36    2473687

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I agree with Latouche lads, the best thing for Meath football now is to park the loss to Offaly, park the league campaign and focus on the Tailteann Cup. It really is the only way forward. Every other question can be addressed in due course.

On RD's point about COR taking the standards down to a mid- Div.3 side, I think there is truth in it in the sense that the way he has this side set up makes them very beatable. However we've been sliding since 2020-2021 and the results have been getting worse. And in all seriousness, bar a few good years weve been sliding for the previous 5/6 managers right the way back to the late Boylan years. Right now we've an aging hardcore who were always limited anyway, and a few new faces, and a lot of kids under 23/24, and he has them set up to play rockstar football. They just arent good enough for that. Defensive solidity and tactical nous are the foundations for any team, its not pretty and its desperate to watch, but thats reality, and since AMcE moved to Antrim I feel we've lost that. However I wouldnt be advocating a change of manegement right now, itd be a desperate knee-jerk reaction and would further destabilise the panel. Stick with COR, give the man time. Thats what Meath need at the moment, time. As Ive often said, you could get Jock Stein, Alex Ferguson, Mourinho, Guardiola in on a billion dollar contract but they wouldnt get much better results. Might keep you in Sam Maguire and might get you over against the likes of Offaly or Limerick alright... but its a band aid on a gunshot wound.

On the Tailteann Cup, I'd be very worried about the potential for ambushes, this point goes back to the way Meath are set up to play atm. Id be very fearful of any Ulster team having too much in-game IQ for Meath at the moment, and fearful of Fermanagh, Cavan in particular, and ironically AMcE's Antrim. In fact If I was to be honest I wouldnt be confident playing anyone at the moment unless certain things are ironed out and the selection improved.

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 25/04/2023 13:20:58    2473694

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Replying To Selwyn:  "It's not blatantly wrong. I would say he has brought us to a Div 3 standard alright, Probably not lower Div 3. Staying up in div 2 is a fluke. A couple of freak results went our way. We should have went down. O' Rourke has made serious personell changes to this squad, and it has backfired spectacularly. The squad is now less Fit. Has as low a confidence level, if not worse, than last year. Has very little hunger/drive/fight etc. This has happened on O' Rourke's time. It's nearly as bad as the Paddy Carr situation.

All you O' Rourke Fanboys would want to cop yourselves on. He very little inter County Management pedigree or aptitude. We were blinded by his legendary status and nostalgia when this appointment was made. We look like saps now and the country is laughing at us.."
That was my point. And yes The sneering on social media etc is depressing. But they are right we are a laughing stock.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 13:43:23    2473706

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Replying To Young_gael:  "I agree with Latouche lads, the best thing for Meath football now is to park the loss to Offaly, park the league campaign and focus on the Tailteann Cup. It really is the only way forward. Every other question can be addressed in due course.

On RD's point about COR taking the standards down to a mid- Div.3 side, I think there is truth in it in the sense that the way he has this side set up makes them very beatable. However we've been sliding since 2020-2021 and the results have been getting worse. And in all seriousness, bar a few good years weve been sliding for the previous 5/6 managers right the way back to the late Boylan years. Right now we've an aging hardcore who were always limited anyway, and a few new faces, and a lot of kids under 23/24, and he has them set up to play rockstar football. They just arent good enough for that. Defensive solidity and tactical nous are the foundations for any team, its not pretty and its desperate to watch, but thats reality, and since AMcE moved to Antrim I feel we've lost that. However I wouldnt be advocating a change of manegement right now, itd be a desperate knee-jerk reaction and would further destabilise the panel. Stick with COR, give the man time. Thats what Meath need at the moment, time. As Ive often said, you could get Jock Stein, Alex Ferguson, Mourinho, Guardiola in on a billion dollar contract but they wouldnt get much better results. Might keep you in Sam Maguire and might get you over against the likes of Offaly or Limerick alright... but its a band aid on a gunshot wound.

On the Tailteann Cup, I'd be very worried about the potential for ambushes, this point goes back to the way Meath are set up to play atm. Id be very fearful of any Ulster team having too much in-game IQ for Meath at the moment, and fearful of Fermanagh, Cavan in particular, and ironically AMcE's Antrim. In fact If I was to be honest I wouldnt be confident playing anyone at the moment unless certain things are ironed out and the selection improved."
Look on the point of cor remaining, do you not think he has made huge mistakes, errors in judgement and is just not up to the job of managing a ic team ? My fear if we continue for another year of this mess then we will be in a worse situation. Probably after been relegated, beaten early in Leinster and doing nothing in tailteann cup.
Look I hope I'm wrong but looking at who we may play in it there isn't many I would fancy beating. We should /could beat London Leitrim and Carlow, Waterford and Wexford. After them I see very little hope Fermanagh ? No. Down ? No , cavan no , Offaly# no Kildare# no ,Laois 50/50 and let's be honest we just know that we will be drawn in same group as Antrim and that would be a huge game for them, and them players would love nothing more than saying thanks lads for the manager. I just don't see a run of results happening yes we will get the 3 games and probably a 4th but after that unless the draw is very kind to us we nowhere near to winning it. It would be hard to say Meath are in to 20 counties at present. Now let me be clear. I hope we execute this unbelievably well and win the damn thing and secure all ire football next year. But I have seen zero evidence to suggest that thus far

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 13:55:37    2473711

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Who will we beat. We will be top seeds. But who will fear us ? Would we beat Wicklow Laois cavan Offaly Limerick Down or Antrim ? Can't see it."
We are capable of beating all of them. But depends on what the attitude of the team is. Going be the first half on Sunday I'd fear New York but on the second half performance I'd give them a chance

latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 540 - 25/04/2023 14:05:56    2473719

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I think Colm is unfortunate , he fell between two stools of still been a pundit and not been the good manager he can be !

He is practicing what he has been preaching for all these years and the unfortunate thing being a county manager and a pundit is two different animals.

His ideology was for teams to shake off the defensive shackles and give it a lash , the tactic and the system we are playing is " give it a lash "

That's it in a nutshell nothing more , he just needs to be a manger and not the pundit anymore , win at all cost that's the way of the jungle and he knows that better than anyone else out there !

WhyTheLongFace (Meath) - Posts: 934 - 25/04/2023 14:10:45    2473720

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The message the players aren't good enough is just lazy. Why was this 'excuse' not thrown around when Andy was getting attacked ON here last year.If we are basing it of how our club teams do in Leinster, Ratoath beat rhode, so by that rationale we should be beating Offaly. Of course that is not how it works but you'd swear it does by some of the comments on here. Dunshauglin also reached the leinster final, if they had another go they probably would have won and castletown reached the all ireland semi final. O' Rourke said when coming into the job, Dublin was the benchmark, an absolutely ludicrous comment as we are clearly a million miles away, he stated that we are going to kick the ball in long which simply won't work in today's era as has been shown since the Cork game. Every team in the Tailteann cup will want to face us because we are so easy to play against, stop us scoring goals and you will be 75% on your way in beating us. We have no style of play, we played with a sweeper on Sunday but the sweeper just stood in the hole trying to eliminate the kick pass inside, Offaly realised that fairly quickly and decided to run the ball at us, not once did our sweeper engage with their runners hence why they could keep the ball at ease. Up front, we all know we don't have shooters, but neither do the likes of Louth, they get their scores of structured plays, whether it is cuts as illustrated in their second goal against Westmeath, or a series of weaves and set plays they have worked on training. This all comes back to the management, Garigan is a top class coach and has won everywhere he's gone, there is absolutely no way he would want a team set up like this. Final point, if the players like Sean Coffey who done well on Sunday, were deemed good enough to play championship football well then why were they not playing league football for us, it is suicidal to say to a lad you're starting in the first round of championship after having no inter county experience whatsoever. The reason will be they were on the development panel, but that isn't half the intensity senior championship is.

contributingtoamelee (Meath) - Posts: 55 - 25/04/2023 14:34:31    2473730

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Replying To Selwyn:  "It's not blatantly wrong. I would say he has brought us to a Div 3 standard alright, Probably not lower Div 3. Staying up in div 2 is a fluke. A couple of freak results went our way. We should have went down. O' Rourke has made serious personell changes to this squad, and it has backfired spectacularly. The squad is now less Fit. Has as low a confidence level, if not worse, than last year. Has very little hunger/drive/fight etc. This has happened on O' Rourke's time. It's nearly as bad as the Paddy Carr situation.

All you O' Rourke Fanboys would want to cop yourselves on. He very little inter County Management pedigree or aptitude. We were blinded by his legendary status and nostalgia when this appointment was made. We look like saps now and the country is laughing at us.."
What was blatantly wrong was calling an opinion a fact.
Putting in the word fact in a post is like saying your opinion is indisputably true and can't be argued with.

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1402 - 25/04/2023 17:11:53    2473801

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Replying To WhyTheLongFace:  "We are set up and playing like a junior B club team …fact

I was looking at Louth and Westmeath match , there was high quality of football played between the two teams on Sunday , Louth have made a unbelievable improvement over last few years at county level . The Meath and Offaly match was absolutely awful match , Meath have lost 6 games in two months , I would say any team could beat Meath because of the way we are set up , if we get Wicklow in the Tailteann cup , Wicklow will probably win ."
Only saw highlights of WM v Louth, in truth Louth were in same position as us at h/t with WM playing all the football and scoring at will against the much vaunted Louth defence. What looked like a soft penalty got them back into game and they took over from there. They have some vg players Mulroy is top class. Westmeath were already qualified so maybe that did not help their cause. Quality wise, was there a whole lot of difference between the games, dont think so. Fair play to Louth, so far having a good season, but big tests ahead.

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2196 - 25/04/2023 17:13:48    2473802

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Now can you address the other points I raised. Honestly who will we beat next year if cb allows this disaster to continue?? I'm not having a go at you here. We all want what's best for Meath. Colm while trying is clearly not up to the job. The players aren't playing for him that can be seen by everyone, he has no game plan and looks bewildered on the sideline with no enthusiasm or passion. I idolised him growing up. But they do say great players don't always make great managers. That is not anything personal. But the pathetic excuses after the game were cringey beyond words. We are where we deserve to be. No we are not, we are where he brought us to be. Let him finish out the year. But we need a manager in before league or we will be in division 3 and probably division 4 afterwards if he remains. He is out of his depth and I am sure he knows this and will gracefully walk away at years end. If not then he must be removed."
In Andy McEntee's second year in charge (2018) Longford beat us (who were in division 3 at the time and this is the only time in the last 35 years they have reached a Leinster semi). Meath finished fifth in division 2 that year.

Had the current system been in place back in 2018 the 2 lower division teams who reached a provincial final that year (Laois and Fermanagh) would have talken the place of the 5'th and 6'th placed Division 2 teams places in the main championship meaning we would have had to play Tailteann cup that year.

Back then I defended Andy (as did you) against similar criticisms as Colm O'Rourke is getting now (he's in his second year and he can't get simple basic stuff like kick out strategies/ selection of a free takers right/ he has no man management skills so players won't play for him/ he can't control himself on the sideline so the players don't respect him etc. etc.)
Based on the fact that that was Andy's second year you could argue that there was more of a case back then for getting rid of Andy.

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1402 - 25/04/2023 17:15:59    2473804

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Replying To Jack L:  "'Insulting your past glories'. Cannot live in the past.

Down and Cavan can make the same case. Cavan accepted their fate and qualified for final last year.

In hurling Offaly fell from the Liam McCarthy right down two levels to Christy Ring. Again they accepted their fate and are battling back.

When you look at the population of Meath compared with other counties, you have to wonder why they cannot field a decent and competitive team. It is not as if Meath are a dual county or facing competition from other sports. Football is number one sport in the county."
Valid points and that is the question everyone is asking "why they can't field a decent team" !!
Some say we don't have the players!
Others say that some of our tlaented players don't want to play county.
Other theory is that the right players aren't being picked.
There are some dcent players on Sundays team, McGill and Menton are huge absences, maybe Aaron Lynch, BUT I'm not sure there's much else available talent in the county.

At a high levle, there is a failure of investment and planning by CB to promote the game.
IMO, one of the critical things that needs to change for GAA to compete with other sports in the county, is the scheduling! Players are expected to commit from November to the following August with no idea of when actual games will be played unitl a week beforehand. In 2023, that's not acceptable. These guys commit so much already, they should be able to plan thier lives outside of the GAA.

I'll be open to cristicism here but why can't we follow the rugby or soccer schedules and have games fixed (with the exception of an infrequent hail/snowstorm/hurricane)!

Tweety (Meath) - Posts: 31 - 25/04/2023 17:24:24    2473808

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "In Andy McEntee's second year in charge (2018) Longford beat us (who were in division 3 at the time and this is the only time in the last 35 years they have reached a Leinster semi). Meath finished fifth in division 2 that year.

Had the current system been in place back in 2018 the 2 lower division teams who reached a provincial final that year (Laois and Fermanagh) would have talken the place of the 5'th and 6'th placed Division 2 teams places in the main championship meaning we would have had to play Tailteann cup that year.

Back then I defended Andy (as did you) against similar criticisms as Colm O'Rourke is getting now (he's in his second year and he can't get simple basic stuff like kick out strategies/ selection of a free takers right/ he has no man management skills so players won't play for him/ he can't control himself on the sideline so the players don't respect him etc. etc.)
Based on the fact that that was Andy's second year you could argue that there was more of a case back then for getting rid of Andy."
The difference was andys teams had a game plan they tried to work to. More often than not it didn't work for them. A, they weren't good enough to implement it. Or B they hadn't got a plan B. I said that many times and was critical of Andy for solely relying on the running game. They also had some resemblance of a structure. I'm trying to remember here but was that the same year we were robbed by the ref v Tyrone in navan ? And didn't they progress well enough that year. I mean if we could take Tyrone even now as they have regressed to extra time and have a few bad ref calls cost us I'd 100% back Colm. It's that we have done nothing since he came in. We have outscored 1 team , Carlow. In obc that's it . We didn't outscore cork same with Clare. We got lucky goals that got us over the line. We went man to man up in Derry. We went man to man with dubs. And when Cora Staunton pointed this out Colm had a hissy fit. Who gives a **** what she said, that should be none of his concern least of all to bring it up after loosing an entirely different game to Kildare. He called her a liar and said he didn't go man to man. Which was a blatant lie. He did we all saw it. Things like that prove to me he is not suitable to the position. Put him on cb, make him chair or over advancing players or something but he is not a manager. And the longer we continue to bury our heads in the sand the worse it will get. Again I'm not having a go at you or him personally. I have said many times growing up he was my idol. And that will never change. But he is not suited to this position

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 25/04/2023 17:46:55    2473813

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Replying To contributingtoamelee:  "The message the players aren't good enough is just lazy. Why was this 'excuse' not thrown around when Andy was getting attacked ON here last year.If we are basing it of how our club teams do in Leinster, Ratoath beat rhode, so by that rationale we should be beating Offaly. Of course that is not how it works but you'd swear it does by some of the comments on here. Dunshauglin also reached the leinster final, if they had another go they probably would have won and castletown reached the all ireland semi final. O' Rourke said when coming into the job, Dublin was the benchmark, an absolutely ludicrous comment as we are clearly a million miles away, he stated that we are going to kick the ball in long which simply won't work in today's era as has been shown since the Cork game. Every team in the Tailteann cup will want to face us because we are so easy to play against, stop us scoring goals and you will be 75% on your way in beating us. We have no style of play, we played with a sweeper on Sunday but the sweeper just stood in the hole trying to eliminate the kick pass inside, Offaly realised that fairly quickly and decided to run the ball at us, not once did our sweeper engage with their runners hence why they could keep the ball at ease. Up front, we all know we don't have shooters, but neither do the likes of Louth, they get their scores of structured plays, whether it is cuts as illustrated in their second goal against Westmeath, or a series of weaves and set plays they have worked on training. This all comes back to the management, Garigan is a top class coach and has won everywhere he's gone, there is absolutely no way he would want a team set up like this. Final point, if the players like Sean Coffey who done well on Sunday, were deemed good enough to play championship football well then why were they not playing league football for us, it is suicidal to say to a lad you're starting in the first round of championship after having no inter county experience whatsoever. The reason will be they were on the development panel, but that isn't half the intensity senior championship is."
Indeed that same excuse, players are not there, was trotted out by posters in support of Andy,some of these posters now seem to think, county is overflowing with talent. COR made a stick for his own back when he said Dublin are the benchmark and beating them was a goal. In fairness he was taking about the future and where he wanted to see us. On reflection he may have phrased it differently. I doubt if Colm overides Garrigan on the way he wants to set up, little point of having a dog and barking yourself. Coffey proved himself with development squad and was rightly promoted to senior team. It shows others the squad is not an afterthought but if your good enough you will be rewarded. Many of Sundays panel have little or no experience of championship intensity and the experience they gain in county championship is of limited use in intercounty games.

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2196 - 25/04/2023 18:30:00    2473828

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Replying To Tweety:  "Valid points and that is the question everyone is asking "why they can't field a decent team" !!
Some say we don't have the players!
Others say that some of our tlaented players don't want to play county.
Other theory is that the right players aren't being picked.
There are some dcent players on Sundays team, McGill and Menton are huge absences, maybe Aaron Lynch, BUT I'm not sure there's much else available talent in the county.

At a high levle, there is a failure of investment and planning by CB to promote the game.
IMO, one of the critical things that needs to change for GAA to compete with other sports in the county, is the scheduling! Players are expected to commit from November to the following August with no idea of when actual games will be played unitl a week beforehand. In 2023, that's not acceptable. These guys commit so much already, they should be able to plan thier lives outside of the GAA.

I'll be open to cristicism here but why can't we follow the rugby or soccer schedules and have games fixed (with the exception of an infrequent hail/snowstorm/hurricane)!"
I was surprised that Lynch was not brought on on Sunday. He scored a couple of nice points when he came on against the Dubs and then was starting the next day only got injured early on.

If he was fit then surely he was an option at some stage?

Let's hope he and other panel members get a run in the Tailteann Cup or, if I was them, I'd be heading back to my club. It's not like you are part of a Leinster winning panel!

stillaroyal (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 25/04/2023 19:02:36    2473834

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Replying To Tweety:  "Valid points and that is the question everyone is asking "why they can't field a decent team" !!
Some say we don't have the players!
Others say that some of our tlaented players don't want to play county.
Other theory is that the right players aren't being picked.
There are some dcent players on Sundays team, McGill and Menton are huge absences, maybe Aaron Lynch, BUT I'm not sure there's much else available talent in the county.

At a high levle, there is a failure of investment and planning by CB to promote the game.
IMO, one of the critical things that needs to change for GAA to compete with other sports in the county, is the scheduling! Players are expected to commit from November to the following August with no idea of when actual games will be played unitl a week beforehand. In 2023, that's not acceptable. These guys commit so much already, they should be able to plan thier lives outside of the GAA.

I'll be open to cristicism here but why can't we follow the rugby or soccer schedules and have games fixed (with the exception of an infrequent hail/snowstorm/hurricane)!"
1000÷ is the talent in the county is not there. But we are not good enough to also not start lynch and McGill, so o rourke has to take some sort of blame. The decision to start 4 debutants is bewildering, Come on lads, we have to fight

Meathgaalad (Meath) - Posts: 171 - 26/04/2023 03:00:27    2473861

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