I think we can all agree, it was not a glorious year for our hurlers.
How would you improve our prospects for this year? We know Johnny Grenville is a good manager. What does he need to be successful?
Personally, I believe we have plenty of talent in Meath. How do we get buy-in from these players?

Why do some of our best players prefer to be in the fringes of the meath football panel, realistically getting no real game time.
Why is this more attractive than playing Hurling?
What can we do to change this mindset?

There are a lot of good young players in the county.
In my opinion, we need to start building from there. Hurling needs to be able to access the same resources as the football. Where we can, we should be sharing resources.

It is not Hurling v Football, it should be Hurling and Football. We can have 2 successful codes.

What are your thoughts?
Where do changes have to be made?
It's easy to be negative and stare why we can't move forward. That is not very constructive feedback. Give us some positive, tangible and realistic ideas that could see us make a consistent improvement.
There are plenty of lads in the county who live and love hurling.

Blueyellowandwhite (Meath) - Posts: 20 - 12/10/2024 10:44:33    2574308

start with championship structures, there is too many meaningless champioship games with no bite, when the football championship was a league type around 25 years ago where there were 8 teams in a group and 7 championship matches after a few years of that the county team began to decline badly from 2002 onwards and they started putting in very spineless perfermonances in games in the last few years of sean from 2002-2006. same thing with the county hurling team, 2 years ago Ratoath got to a county final having won one group game to qualify out of 5 games. the hurling championship first round should be as close to do or die as you can get. 6 teams in senior A, top team straight to final, 2nd and 3rd in semi final. 5th and 6th relegation pplay off. same with all the championships. probabaly no need to start hurling cups til around paddys day til the weather is better and more daylight. make the cup competitions groups of 3 with top team progressing for more games if they want 4 groups of 3 to get to 4 teams in semis. played april, may june along with the league. championship structure is killing the bite.

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 790 - 13/10/2024 12:53:37    2574500

I like the sentiment of your post Blueyellowandwhite but I think you're a bit overly optimistic when describing the talent in the county at the moment, particularly with underage and young players.

I think ultimately for meath to become more competitive in hurling there needs to be proper coaching and S&C put in at underage. Too many meath underage hurling appointments are parents of players and not necessarily qualified coaches. The reality is the county board just won't spend the money to resource development squads properly when there are parents willing to do it for free.

As a result of the above you're getting very average players coming through our underage who lack basic fundamental skills of the game with the very odd exception like a James Murray. Meath need to be getting at least 2 or 3 players of that caliber progressing to adult hurling a year.

begining (UK) - Posts: 313 - 14/10/2024 08:30:24    2574700

begining (UK) - Posts: 313 - 14/10/2024 11:10:55    2574749

Really good discussion and action needed for definite.
The standard of the club championship was poor at best. For sure it will take as re-structure to make it more competitve and increasing jeopardy in the ealier runds is the way to go.
If you are looking at no of games played throughout the year, then increase the teams in the league or cups and add games there. But no. of games played shouldn't be to the detriment of the quality / competiteness of the championship.

In any case - will a club championship re-structure improve the intercounty team? I'd say no.
More important issues exist - player commitment being an obvious major?

The comment above about football AND hurling is at the centre.
We have different sponsors, facilities and standards existing between the two codes.
2 simple examples I am aware of; players 'lounge / building' in Dunganny, not for use by hurlers; food after training for footballers in Knightsbrook, food in hand for hurlers - maybe that changed recently?

Underage is a huge issue and development squads - we see minor and u20 success in football. Surely hurling must fight to be given the same resources regards S&C and recognised hurling coaches at a minimum.

The big hurling counties imo have 1 huge difference in common - hurling in 2nd level.
Limerick - Ard Scoil
Tipp - Roscrea, Thurles, Cashel
Cork - Midleton, Colmans, numerous city schools
Kilkenny - Kierans, Kilkenny college
Clare - Flannans

Those schools teach hurling. Some of the great coaches are not good teachers by coincidence. Those player learnings feed into the club game. Those teachers improve the better players to give hem a stab at intercounty hurling.
Any schools in Meath offering a decent hurling 'education'? Would a 'Meath schools' hurling team be entertained? Logistically very difficult, but it has worked in Dublin a few years ago and produced many hurlers that went on to win a Leinster championship.

hurlingcowboy101 (Meath) - Posts: 17 - 14/10/2024 11:23:42    2574751

The point about the schools is spot on. In Limerick, most secondary schools have access to a gym of some form and "dedicated" teachers arrive in early to help and facilitate students with s & c.
This was started years back and other counties are only catching up now.

Trim was always the home of hurling and years back a meath colleges amalgamation entered the Leinster A competition at U14 level only to lose to St kierans by a cricket score. Something that would be brilliant if tried again going forward.

Another huge issue is go to any traditional hurlong county and lads are out hurling from morning to night, they are fanatical about the game, football is the chosen game of the county here.

bountyboy22 (USA) - Posts: 38 - 14/10/2024 12:15:32    2574774

off_the_wall (Roscommon) - Posts: 72 - 14/10/2024 12:34:27    2574780

hurlingcowboy101 (Meath) - Posts: 17 - 14/10/2024 12:42:54    2574782

I'm sorry the B Championships are a farce. You are rewarding the 7th best team in the championship and its embarrassing if a team is calling that a successful year. The championship is crying out for restructure from top to bottom.

I'd first start with 8 senior teams and 2 groups of 4. This would mean of course the hurling board would lose 2 rounds of fixture and their fear that this would then be taken over by football. The hurling board should stand strong on retaining those weekends for other hurling activities.

I also hear a lot of people complaining about the standard. I'll say one thing the players have never been fitter or stronger.

Rickoshay (Meath) - Posts: 33 - 14/10/2024 13:52:35    2574800

off_the_wall (Roscommon) - Posts: 72 - 14/10/2024 16:29:15    2574870

begining (UK) - Posts: 313 - 14/10/2024 16:49:36    2574878

Rickoshay (Meath) - Posts: 33 - 14/10/2024 17:07:23    2574888

Agree, don't see the point of the "B championship". Get hockied in 5 group games and still be in with a chance of silverware. Does not improve the quality of hurling in Meath.

I see in U21s; there are 10 teams in 1 group.
BUT, teams only play 3 matches each. The teams who end up 5,6,7 & 8th play for "B Championship"

Has someone from the Champions League embedded themselves onto the CCC?

The draw, structure and fixtures completely changed from last week. WHY?

Is this increasing the quality of hurling in Meath?

Can anyone throw a positive slant on this?

Blueyellowandwhite (Meath) - Posts: 20 - 15/10/2024 12:57:07    2575043

I think we need an injection of youth onto our senior hurling team,we need promising young talent coming up,for example young joshua henrick who burst onto the scene last year with a starring role in na fiannas division 2 championship success

rashermcgee (Meath) - Posts: 1 - 05/11/2024 14:09:14    2578462

bountyboy22 (USA) - Posts: 38 - 05/11/2024 17:13:43    2578494

I don't buy the idea that creating a B "championship" is some form of success story.

The strong teams are still light years ahead of the weak ones, only now one of the weak teams gets handed a trophy. What improvement does that bring to Meath hurling?

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1668 - 06/11/2024 11:41:55    2578562

off_the_wall (Roscommon) - Posts: 72 - 06/11/2024 13:36:18    2578582

Means a lot to lads from Longwood or any of the clubs that played for the B. Na fianna very young team who will take a lot from losing that game. Longwood where just that bit better on the day but Na fianna on last few games up to that played excellent hurling and from taking to lads that they under performed by a lot of players standers who didn't get to that level they had been at.
That can happen on the day but for me Longwood just that bite more experience and cleverness to get over the line.
We need a senior A and a Senior B.
Do it the same as Westmeath.
If we saying it's about carrying the name tag of just wanting to say your a senior club that's nonsense. Sure we could say the same about some football clubs if that's the case.

Sportsman2024 (Meath) - Posts: 9 - 06/11/2024 19:21:17    2578667

Does anyone know of many new additions to the county panel for the year ahead?
Surely the drop back to Christy Ring will entice a few more lads into the squad?

bountyboy22 (USA) - Posts: 38 - 07/11/2024 10:55:59    2578746

Let's just hope it is a long term vision rather than a short term CV builder. Management should not feel under any pressure to win a Christy Ring or a league this year, focus need to build a young squad and their physique that will backbone a push into Joe McDonagh and be able to compete. Saw what happened with Bulfin, zero appetite shown by the squad who won the Christy Ring to go and compete a higher level.

off_the_wall (Roscommon) - Posts: 72 - 08/11/2024 09:23:23    2578893