Meath Forum

Meath V Tyrone

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Replying To gwanyagudthing:  "Job done - got the win! Started very slowly and looked off the pace but felt like we stepped it up when we needed to. JOC on fire, he's going to be a big player for us as said before. Lynch looked really sharp too and Frayne, Coffey, Menton, Caulfield, Kinsella & Rafferty stepped up when needed. Very bad day on the kick outs but Brennan did make some big saves. We have an attack that will trouble a lot of teams so just need to tighten up at the back and get our kickouts away. Thought it was telling that Jones did a half time interview basically saying we just needed to get it into the forwards quicker."
Played well, we missed chances in second half which would have made it easier.
Brennan's kickouts not great yesterday but were good in the Kildare game.
It's a close call between the 2 goalies, I prefer Bill under a high ball but Brennan's long range free taking is a plus.

GreenMan1987 (Meath) - Posts: 130 - 15/03/2026 07:57:28    2661209

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With promotion chances on the line, a job well done. Absolutely tore them apart at times and with leinster a couple of weeks away, I think that's our stall set out now. Loose at times but on paper that's a very good Tyrone team and I don't think you're going to have it all your own way against con kilpatrick, Bryan Kennedy and the canavans. I thought Tyrone done well on Flynn and morris, so it was great to see O'Connor, lynch and Kinsella(as always) step up.

First team selection is getting interesting now,Aaron Lynch and Jack O'Connor have to start now and obviously Costello has to come into the side but we seem to like a working half forward like O'Neill or mcbride. I would say lynch,mcbride, O'Neill, Conlon and O'Connor are fighting for one spot.

It's such a shame Connor duke has gone off the boil. He has such a high ceiling I hope they don't just let him fade away now.

Championship is realistically going to come too soon for kinlough, jones, gray to put their hand up for selection. Sub spots for them unless we go on a run into the championship.

royalcounty1 (Meath) - Posts: 55 - 15/03/2026 09:23:52    2661217

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Jones when match fit is a great addition. He works his socks off, and he was a driving force for the team last year until he got injured against Cavan. Midfield were more or less wiped out yesterday. Need a ball winner in there.

atta (Meath) - Posts: 711 - 15/03/2026 10:56:35    2661227

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Excellent win. The game is almost turning into basketball with these scoring "runs" both teams go on. 12 points up at one stage and it still was almost not enough. Mental stuff.
As an aside is there a new home jersey being released this year? I see they have released a new 2nd strip.

edd (Meath) - Posts: 49 - 15/03/2026 11:37:09    2661237

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Replying To royalcounty1:  "With promotion chances on the line, a job well done. Absolutely tore them apart at times and with leinster a couple of weeks away, I think that's our stall set out now. Loose at times but on paper that's a very good Tyrone team and I don't think you're going to have it all your own way against con kilpatrick, Bryan Kennedy and the canavans. I thought Tyrone done well on Flynn and morris, so it was great to see O'Connor, lynch and Kinsella(as always) step up.

First team selection is getting interesting now,Aaron Lynch and Jack O'Connor have to start now and obviously Costello has to come into the side but we seem to like a working half forward like O'Neill or mcbride. I would say lynch,mcbride, O'Neill, Conlon and O'Connor are fighting for one spot.

It's such a shame Connor duke has gone off the boil. He has such a high ceiling I hope they don't just let him fade away now.

Championship is realistically going to come too soon for kinlough, jones, gray to put their hand up for selection. Sub spots for them unless we go on a run into the championship."
Saw Jones was there with the team yesterday and maybe a great thing about next week is that we don't have to risk him now and he can get an extra few weeks to get back to 100%.

We were very poor on our own kick outs but for the tyrone kick outs Menton broke an every single ball that went to the middle, was obviously asked to do this job and did it perfectly. It meant in the second half Tyrone had to start so many of there kick outs down at the corner of the hogan stand, slowed up a lot of the play. It was Great to see other players step up for scores when morris and Flynn were well marked and Conlon only getting only ten minutes. Flynn did a lot of driving forward and laid off plenty of passes for other lads to pick their scores and morris created good space and set up lynch beautifully. It's good to know that even if there not able to get on the scoreboard there not anonymous in games.

Royal.1 (Meath) - Posts: 46 - 15/03/2026 11:57:03    2661240

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Replying To royalcounty1:  "With promotion chances on the line, a job well done. Absolutely tore them apart at times and with leinster a couple of weeks away, I think that's our stall set out now. Loose at times but on paper that's a very good Tyrone team and I don't think you're going to have it all your own way against con kilpatrick, Bryan Kennedy and the canavans. I thought Tyrone done well on Flynn and morris, so it was great to see O'Connor, lynch and Kinsella(as always) step up.

First team selection is getting interesting now,Aaron Lynch and Jack O'Connor have to start now and obviously Costello has to come into the side but we seem to like a working half forward like O'Neill or mcbride. I would say lynch,mcbride, O'Neill, Conlon and O'Connor are fighting for one spot.

It's such a shame Connor duke has gone off the boil. He has such a high ceiling I hope they don't just let him fade away now.

Championship is realistically going to come too soon for kinlough, jones, gray to put their hand up for selection. Sub spots for them unless we go on a run into the championship."
Totally agree on Kinlough, Jones and Gray. Baring injuries (and Adam O'Neill did hobble off injured yesterday, hopefully not serious) The only player who is guaranteed to get back in is Matt Costello. Heard matt is back running and targeting 1st round of championship. Such a hard team to break into now, which is exactly how Robbie wants it. Kinlough has had a bit of a set back with his recovery so I'd be surprised if he plays any championship with Meath. Gray played for Dunshaughlin on Friday, and while Jones did warm up with Meath yesterday, I still feel he's a good bit off selection.

Sheridan2010louth (Meath) - Posts: 305 - 15/03/2026 11:59:36    2661241

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Great win but we need to manage games better when we've commanding leads, better teams will punish us if we don't get a handle on it, kickouts the nucleus of the problem again. Jack O'Connor was immense, kept us in the game in the first half

LowerHogan (Meath) - Posts: 88 - 15/03/2026 12:35:55    2661247

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Replying To GreenMan1987:  "Played well, we missed chances in second half which would have made it easier.
Brennan's kickouts not great yesterday but were good in the Kildare game.
It's a close call between the 2 goalies, I prefer Bill under a high ball but Brennan's long range free taking is a plus."
Energy, energy, energy!

Its great stuff from meath,long time (20 years?) since a meath win vs tyrone and another ulster scalp. Think Brennan was missing his big target man (McBride) and lack of movement at times to give options.

Meath are a nightmare for opposition managers! What's most gratifying is this teams ability to win an arm wrestle. Relishing the summer ahead

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1847 - 15/03/2026 13:01:28    2661249

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Excellent result but, again, took the foot off the pedal towards when we had the chance to completely kill the game. We seem to look unbeatable at times during games before then sitting back and letting the opposition back into it. Three brilliantly taken goals which has been one of our weaknesses until now. I think we are on the cusp of having incredible depth in the forward line with O'Connor, Morris, Frayne, Kinsella, Costello, Lynch, Conlon etc. all with the ability to cause any defence problems. This means that, when one forward is kept quiet, it opens up space for others (like O'Connor and Lynch yesterday). Defence, of course, remains a big worry.

We still need some sort of result against Offaly next weekend to guarantee promotion (unless Cork lose to Tyrone). Offaly will almost certainly be down at that point, but we cannot afford to go into the game thinking we have it won before the ball is thrown in. My mind still goes back to Wexford Park in 2007 when we nearly threw away promotion by losing by 7.

Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1464 - 15/03/2026 13:13:22    2661251

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Replying To royalcounty1:  "With promotion chances on the line, a job well done. Absolutely tore them apart at times and with leinster a couple of weeks away, I think that's our stall set out now. Loose at times but on paper that's a very good Tyrone team and I don't think you're going to have it all your own way against con kilpatrick, Bryan Kennedy and the canavans. I thought Tyrone done well on Flynn and morris, so it was great to see O'Connor, lynch and Kinsella(as always) step up.

First team selection is getting interesting now,Aaron Lynch and Jack O'Connor have to start now and obviously Costello has to come into the side but we seem to like a working half forward like O'Neill or mcbride. I would say lynch,mcbride, O'Neill, Conlon and O'Connor are fighting for one spot.

It's such a shame Connor duke has gone off the boil. He has such a high ceiling I hope they don't just let him fade away now.

Championship is realistically going to come too soon for kinlough, jones, gray to put their hand up for selection. Sub spots for them unless we go on a run into the championship."
Management are probably at the stage where they have to go off what they're seeing in training. Interesting that O'Connor was the first man in yesterday followed by Hickey. So they look to have moved ahead of McBride and Duke in the pecking order. Kinlough, Jones & Gray will have to fight for game time and I'm sure they will. Would still like to see more options in defence - it's the same 6/7 players all the time. Not sure how much cover there is if we got a couple of injuries.

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 116 - 15/03/2026 14:03:14    2661258

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If Jones is fully fit, I can't imagine any scenario where he doesn't start.

Spoofer (Meath) - Posts: 63 - 15/03/2026 17:14:32    2661299

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Replying To Spoofer:  "If Jones is fully fit, I can't imagine any scenario where he doesn't start."
Start in place of who? This meath team is stacked with talent.

Costello is back running, so he'll obviously be back in the team come championship.

Menton Flynn is clearly the midfield

Costello kinsella Jack O'connor is most likely the half forward line.

Maybe he'll get some minutes off the bench but this is a serious meath team, not sure it's a given he starts at all. Even for bench minutes he'll be competing with the likes of Cian McBride, Adam O'Neill and Charlie O'connor who have had uninterrupted pre seasons and are not coming off a hamstring surgery.

Sheridan2010louth (Meath) - Posts: 305 - 15/03/2026 18:44:54    2661341

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Replying To LowerHogan:  "Great win but we need to manage games better when we've commanding leads, better teams will punish us if we don't get a handle on it, kickouts the nucleus of the problem again. Jack O'Connor was immense, kept us in the game in the first half"
While I agree we could manage the game slightly better the more weekends that go by and the more games that we see the more I'm convinced that "game management" as we knew it is more or less dead.

Against any half decent team particularly one with good attacking players which in fairness to Tyrone have it so almost impossible to manage the game out. Also there is more than enough evidence to show that a 10/12 lead is pretty much the equivalent of a 4/5 lead in old money. This weekend alone we have seen 10/12 point leads in the Meath V Tyrone Dublin V Armagh Roscommon V Donegal . All 3 games the leads were chipped away on and the team behind either won or got very close to to winning. Throw in games like Galway V Kerry Meath v Louth a few weeks back as well as many other examples.

If you are 10/12 up after a few minutes of the 2nd half the game is no longer over as a contest and unless the team you are playing against are not very good.

The new rules and the new game is an absolute breath of fresh air and has nullified the ability of teams to manage games out like they could in the old days

Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1095 - 15/03/2026 19:25:04    2661357

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Really important win yesterday and a very entertaining game as well. Jack O'Connor was on fire in 1st half but did something similar albeit against a stiff breeze in Newbridge last time out in 1st half but wasn't getting the two's like this time around. The new game suits him perfectly. Actually think maybe Tyrone over focussed on Morris and Flynn and space opened up for others which is great. Kinsella playing great stuff in creating and scoring. Thought Menton was really solid, won crucial hard balls close to sideline and broke Tyrone kickout really well, and works hard defensively. He is a hugely important cog in this wheel. Competetion for places now great but with the pace of new game and to play a certain way, really quality 5 subs impacting or improving what is there already so lads coming in nearly as important as lads starting. Think we are getting there. A fully fit Jones when available would be hugely impactful. Hopefully a win next week and a very competitive league final in Croker would be another great audition for championship.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 944 - 15/03/2026 20:06:53    2661363

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A fantastic win and looks like we are heading back to Division 1. The big plus was the speed we attacked from defence and I thought our forwards were very efficient. We certanly look a better team this year and certainly showing last year wasnt a flash in the pan. Still concerned our kickouts are very predictable and teams seem to have worked us out. The other concern is that we still look open at the back. Which is hard to understand as we look to be defending well individually and the defence looks so connected when we run the ball out. Could be an issue when we meet a Kerry Donegal or an Armagh.

Northroyal55 (Meath) - Posts: 23 - 15/03/2026 20:14:00    2661364

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Replying To Blackspot09:  "While I agree we could manage the game slightly better the more weekends that go by and the more games that we see the more I'm convinced that "game management" as we knew it is more or less dead.

Against any half decent team particularly one with good attacking players which in fairness to Tyrone have it so almost impossible to manage the game out. Also there is more than enough evidence to show that a 10/12 lead is pretty much the equivalent of a 4/5 lead in old money. This weekend alone we have seen 10/12 point leads in the Meath V Tyrone Dublin V Armagh Roscommon V Donegal . All 3 games the leads were chipped away on and the team behind either won or got very close to to winning. Throw in games like Galway V Kerry Meath v Louth a few weeks back as well as many other examples.

If you are 10/12 up after a few minutes of the 2nd half the game is no longer over as a contest and unless the team you are playing against are not very good.

The new rules and the new game is an absolute breath of fresh air and has nullified the ability of teams to manage games out like they could in the old days"
I agree with what you say completely regarding the worth of a lead nowadays. It's great for the game as a spectacle and encourages teams to go for the spectacular shots.

I think the spirit of what the poster was saying in relation to game management is that bit of the cuteness to keep a lead going. Manufacture those moments that take the wind out of the sails, slow things down, play around with the ball, draw a free, kill the momentum. I'd like to think that Meath would work on this as part of a set play because sometimes we seem to panic and snatch at shots in desperation which in turn make heads drop and breath life into opposition.

Apart from the Kildare game where we kept plugging away, Meath has really failed to keep the foot down when on top to close the door on a teams comeback.

8, 10, 12 points is a nothing lead particularly with the elements. But evidently against Louth, Tyrone, Cavan (and even for 10 minutes against Kildare when we kicked 5-6 wides in a row) we just couldnt seem to break the oppositions momentum and stop the rot.

Well done to the team, good character on display and encouraging to get another win against Ulster opposition. Few things like our own kickouts and arc zonal marking were poor but I felt we were quite slick in transition and we didnt make too many silly errors. I was delighted that when Flynn and Morris were wrapped up that others stepped up and took on the scoring - maybe that's added to by Tyrone's naivety but lads still had to step up and chip in.

March on to Tullamore and finish out with a strong, dominant performance. Hopefully the result can be put to bed early and we see some minutes from returning players and the wider squad who havent got a share of football this campaign.

I'm glad that lads returning from niggles and bigger injuries haven't been rushed back when championship comes around squad depth is going to be required in all positions. Good headaches to have when it comes to selection.

Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 823 - 15/03/2026 22:27:38    2661391

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Might be a horses for courses scenario with Jones - good man to bring in if we need another target man. We're going to have injuries over the course of the season so great to have options at midfield and in the forwards.

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 116 - 15/03/2026 22:34:08    2661393

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Replying To Northroyal55:  "A fantastic win and looks like we are heading back to Division 1. The big plus was the speed we attacked from defence and I thought our forwards were very efficient. We certanly look a better team this year and certainly showing last year wasnt a flash in the pan. Still concerned our kickouts are very predictable and teams seem to have worked us out. The other concern is that we still look open at the back. Which is hard to understand as we look to be defending well individually and the defence looks so connected when we run the ball out. Could be an issue when we meet a Kerry Donegal or an Armagh."
Our concession of goals is fairly low tho, 5 goals in 6 games is it, in the new rules isn't bad, a couple of them weren't as a result of bad set up, brennan dropped one in and the Tyrone goal was a lucky rebound off post..... we tend to defend the arc quiet well too, so forcing teams too shoot in 1 point areas is a good way to go about it, but we still concede a fair bit yea.

southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 1060 - 16/03/2026 08:26:15    2661418

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Great to win a tough game, the lapses early on and when 12 points up where worrying.

Bit like v Donegal last year we seemed intent on going for two pointers but at least Menton showed experince when boxing over.

Wasnt at the game but taking off O'Connor and Lynch seemed a bit strange after 50 minutes or so. I thought maybe Frayne or even Morris despite him working hard and passing well he seemed well marshalled.

We really need Jones back as while again Menton is a very steading ship Flynn is very erratic at times and thinking again about Donegal last our midfield back up once injuries kicked in was not good enough. I feel Jones and possibility McBride give us extra Ariel power that Grey and Charlie OConnor not just at that level yet.

While I like Brennan and think he should be No. 1 his kickouts so good v Kildare struggled on Saturday but Tyrone middle third was way better than a weak Kildare side and I suppose v the better teams we are not going to get everyone away and perhaps I'm a bit harsh there

Brownepat (Meath) - Posts: 533 - 16/03/2026 09:14:50    2661427

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Replying To Royalio11:  "I agree with what you say completely regarding the worth of a lead nowadays. It's great for the game as a spectacle and encourages teams to go for the spectacular shots.

I think the spirit of what the poster was saying in relation to game management is that bit of the cuteness to keep a lead going. Manufacture those moments that take the wind out of the sails, slow things down, play around with the ball, draw a free, kill the momentum. I'd like to think that Meath would work on this as part of a set play because sometimes we seem to panic and snatch at shots in desperation which in turn make heads drop and breath life into opposition.

Apart from the Kildare game where we kept plugging away, Meath has really failed to keep the foot down when on top to close the door on a teams comeback.

8, 10, 12 points is a nothing lead particularly with the elements. But evidently against Louth, Tyrone, Cavan (and even for 10 minutes against Kildare when we kicked 5-6 wides in a row) we just couldnt seem to break the oppositions momentum and stop the rot.

Well done to the team, good character on display and encouraging to get another win against Ulster opposition. Few things like our own kickouts and arc zonal marking were poor but I felt we were quite slick in transition and we didnt make too many silly errors. I was delighted that when Flynn and Morris were wrapped up that others stepped up and took on the scoring - maybe that's added to by Tyrone's naivety but lads still had to step up and chip in.

March on to Tullamore and finish out with a strong, dominant performance. Hopefully the result can be put to bed early and we see some minutes from returning players and the wider squad who havent got a share of football this campaign.

I'm glad that lads returning from niggles and bigger injuries haven't been rushed back when championship comes around squad depth is going to be required in all positions. Good headaches to have when it comes to selection."
Will be interesting to see how Offaly approach it - they have literally nothing to lose so they could throw caution to the wind. We should have too much for them though if we have the right mindset. Would like to see some fresh legs getting some minutes.

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 116 - 16/03/2026 10:23:52    2661442

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