Meath Forum

Meath V Fermanagh

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Great to see the panic buttons being hit already. Brennan is getting criticised for doing very little wrong. As a defence they conceded 1-9 yet people are focusing on the negative. Conceding 1-9 would give you a good chance in every game, get the man marking issue sorted and all of a sudden it becomes less.

Now I'm not blind either, there was many unforced errors and poor decisions which need to be ironed out but that is as a collective and not just solely on players or management.

There is still an issue of who is at center back if Harnan is out.
Not sure if O Connor is a starter going forward, he seems to have a better impact off the bench and Hickey has to go back to wing back.

There is a lot of small tweeks which could improve that performance but if we go with the same team and game plan against Armagh, its goodnight.

UsernameInvalid (Meath) - Posts: 409 - 29/01/2024 21:43:53    2523179

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Replying To Young_gael:  "I had the same "sinking" feeling after 10/15 minutes as well. I have had it many times over the past 10 or so years. It's just a sudden realisation of "oh sh*t, this is not the plan". And the longer it goes on, and the closer the scores are, the worse it gets. It has set in with Meath supporters the past while, they expect to lose in those types of games, or else scrape through with a dodgy goal or a moment of brilliance from a Keogan run etc. I remember we met Sligo in Navan in a qualifier 4/5 years ago and only for a big move from Mickey Burke to set up a clincher point with a minute to go, we were in big trouble. Only for a scrappy goal from a wayward high ball against Offaly in the Leinster championship in 2019, we were the second best team that day too.

It was bad last weekend, however the worst I ever felt was in Pearse Park in 2018 when Meath met Longford in the Leinster Championship first round. 15/20 minutes in, I knew we were goosed. I have never been so depressed so suddenly. And the ground packed with Meath supporters too. The Longford fans were bemused, but the Meath fans all collectively knew... If we could break out of that cycle of performance against teams we ought to be beating on paper, Id be thankful!"
I'd agree with that. The worst feeling for me was v Westmeath in Leinster. The one thing about the Longford game was that we went on to perform very well that year against Tyrone that I think was the game that laid the foundation for the super 8 and division 1 year. Let's be honest we were undone that day by ref in navan after Ben was clearly fouled and we not given free. But I am going off on a tangent. I'd rate up there with those performances the one in Limerick and particularly v Kildare in league last year. I'd nearly rate that worse than v Offaly. But we have had too many games like that.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 29/01/2024 22:00:43    2523184

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "Great to see the panic buttons being hit already. Brennan is getting criticised for doing very little wrong. As a defence they conceded 1-9 yet people are focusing on the negative. Conceding 1-9 would give you a good chance in every game, get the man marking issue sorted and all of a sudden it becomes less.

Now I'm not blind either, there was many unforced errors and poor decisions which need to be ironed out but that is as a collective and not just solely on players or management.

There is still an issue of who is at center back if Harnan is out.
Not sure if O Connor is a starter going forward, he seems to have a better impact off the bench and Hickey has to go back to wing back.

There is a lot of small tweeks which could improve that performance but if we go with the same team and game plan against Armagh, its goodnight."
I think people are genuinely concerned. It wasn't the performance on its own. It was the performance against that opponents the amount scored against would have been a lot more I think against any other team in division. It smacked a bit of limerick last year. Yea we got a draw. But we got a draw against a team that had already decided to sack their manager and a team who ended up having the worst scoring difference of any team in the 4 divisions. Now maybe Fermanagh will go on and be the louth of this year and push for promotion if they do then we have overreactted and I'll be so happy and delighted I was worrying over nothing

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 29/01/2024 22:53:21    2523196

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "Great to see the panic buttons being hit already. Brennan is getting criticised for doing very little wrong. As a defence they conceded 1-9 yet people are focusing on the negative. Conceding 1-9 would give you a good chance in every game, get the man marking issue sorted and all of a sudden it becomes less.

Now I'm not blind either, there was many unforced errors and poor decisions which need to be ironed out but that is as a collective and not just solely on players or management.

There is still an issue of who is at center back if Harnan is out.
Not sure if O Connor is a starter going forward, he seems to have a better impact off the bench and Hickey has to go back to wing back.

There is a lot of small tweeks which could improve that performance but if we go with the same team and game plan against Armagh, its goodnight."
Conceding 1-9 against likes of Fermanagh only means better teams would score a lot more like Fermanagh aren't a top 10 side probably aren't even top 15 if we can't beat them and we haven't beaten a top team in years I don't think people being negative is wrong we should demand better standards

9774739191637399 (Meath) - Posts: 18 - 29/01/2024 23:35:15    2523210

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Replying To Roger:  "There is some awful biased negativity on here. I suppose that's what happens on an anonymous forum, people feel they can say things that they wouldn't say to a person's face.
Colm was asked about Sigerson yesterday and there are 15 Meath players involved in college football this week. Fermanagh have two involved.
That means those 15 won't be involved in training this week fully and won't get the opportunity to prepare for the Armagh game the way an older player would.
It's just an issue given the age profile of the squad and the rebuilding work that is taking place.
It's not an excuse, it's just a fact.
And yet we have people coming on here saying 'I don't want to hear any excuses about Sigerson' and complain that our preparations are not good enough."
It is an excuse, end of story, and by the sounds of it, it was getting the excuses in early ahead of the Armagh game. Mayo's two best forwards, Tommy Conroy and Ryan O'Donoghue are also playing sigerson cup this week, and I haven't heard Kevin McStay whinging about it. Tyrone and Monaghan all have a large contingent of sigerson players as well. The sigerson cup wasn't the reason Meath couldn't beat Fermanagh at home and couldn't score for the final 8 minutes of the game (Fermanagh didn't manage to score for the final 20 minutes of the game) with a gale force wind at their backs. If their is no response this weekend against Armagh, the first decent team Meath have faced since Dublin in the league last year, then people should be worried.

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 30/01/2024 14:39:42    2523321

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Replying To Roger:  "There is some awful biased negativity on here. I suppose that's what happens on an anonymous forum, people feel they can say things that they wouldn't say to a person's face.
Colm was asked about Sigerson yesterday and there are 15 Meath players involved in college football this week. Fermanagh have two involved.
That means those 15 won't be involved in training this week fully and won't get the opportunity to prepare for the Armagh game the way an older player would.
It's just an issue given the age profile of the squad and the rebuilding work that is taking place.
It's not an excuse, it's just a fact.
And yet we have people coming on here saying 'I don't want to hear any excuses about Sigerson' and complain that our preparations are not good enough."
Agree fully with your post, COR just stating facts, this is really getting under the skin of some posters. They rely on emotive words like whinging, excuses, should be beating the "likes of Fermanagh" no other manager complains (not true)and so on, without any willingness to respect the facts. In reality we have played one league game against a team operating in same division as us. Apart from DK our backs are very raw at this level and badly need the more experienced lads back. Dublin, Kildare, Kerry, Galway all "should" have won if we apply same logic. Time enough to judge Meath when we have full access to all players.

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2196 - 30/01/2024 15:17:09    2523327

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Replying To seadog54:  "Agree fully with your post, COR just stating facts, this is really getting under the skin of some posters. They rely on emotive words like whinging, excuses, should be beating the "likes of Fermanagh" no other manager complains (not true)and so on, without any willingness to respect the facts. In reality we have played one league game against a team operating in same division as us. Apart from DK our backs are very raw at this level and badly need the more experienced lads back. Dublin, Kildare, Kerry, Galway all "should" have won if we apply same logic. Time enough to judge Meath when we have full access to all players."
Agreed. Whether people like it or not a mid table finish and a strong championship including competing strongly with the Dubs would be deemed a success. Meath traditionally never played at their best in the early months of the year and I suppose that doesn't help given league is congested into first quarter of the year. I think there are some reasons to complain especially not identifying many new defences players since the Tailteann Cup win but here were are. Playing Campion at centre back is quite the experiment for such an important position. We appear to be well stocked in goals, midfield and a number of forward positions but there are quite a few of our forwards extremely inconsistent with frees and general play. This has to change while a few have trouble staying fit.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 30/01/2024 22:17:09    2523409

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It's February lads. By all means rant away about Colm and backroom teams in April if needs be. Let's see how we get on. Wins are possible v Louth, Kildare and Cork. Cavan and Donegal are bonus games. The latter will probably be home and hosed by the final round of fixtures too, so there's still every chance of ending up with 7/9 points.

For context, if we judged Colm after two rounds of the league last year, we'd have won the All Ireland. The long and broken up nature of IC football means that it's very difficult to play at a high level through league, provincials and AI round Robin.

Spoofer (Meath) - Posts: 51 - 05/02/2024 10:16:05    2524482

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Replying To Spoofer:  "It's February lads. By all means rant away about Colm and backroom teams in April if needs be. Let's see how we get on. Wins are possible v Louth, Kildare and Cork. Cavan and Donegal are bonus games. The latter will probably be home and hosed by the final round of fixtures too, so there's still every chance of ending up with 7/9 points.

For context, if we judged Colm after two rounds of the league last year, we'd have won the All Ireland. The long and broken up nature of IC football means that it's very difficult to play at a high level through league, provincials and AI round Robin."
It's February could be a valid reason to cut some slack in the old championship structure, but not anymore. The Leinster Championship begins on April the 8th and one would not want to be taking Longford for granted at this stage. Relegation to division 3, and more than likely dropping back to the Tailteann Cup would be an absolute disaster and would do Meath absolutely no favours.

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 05/02/2024 22:18:33    2524657

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