Meath Forum

Meath Vs Westmeath - Leinster SFC Quarter Final

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Replying To royalcounty1:  "I dont doubt your sentiment but it is a bit of a myth. There is rarely subs suddenly ripping up trees going hammer and tongs above the first 15 standard, the first 15 will out perform the reserves. 9/10 times.

Championship has come too early for jones, gray, kinlough, the 3 of them are fighting with eachother to even make the squad at this stage.

So realistically there is three two men who can/will come into the team and that is banty or costello and Ryan. The innovation or change will come in how he lines them out and who starts. I dont think we get both banty and costello starting together. I think mcbride,costello,lynch, banty will never all start together.

Say we have a scenario where our last first 15 are the ones driving training on, we will all frame it as brennan is just going with tried and trusted.

I just hope oconnor, morris, menton, caufield, coffey return to their league form, they were all pasengers in terms of impact against WM."
Has Gray had niggly injuries all year or why has he not had at least some minutes? There is lots of football in him and he had a really good club championship last year. Expected him to push on. Wouldn't say championship has come too early for anyone as its effectively a restart in possibly 5 weeks time. Okay expect 10-12 of same team that started against Westmesth to feature next day out and probably about 22 of the 26 to be renamed too but there has to be lots of places up for grabs and the best performing players to meet the team needs should be picked.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 983 - 27/04/2026 19:18:15    2669346

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Replying To winatallcost:  "Has Gray had niggly injuries all year or why has he not had at least some minutes? There is lots of football in him and he had a really good club championship last year. Expected him to push on. Wouldn't say championship has come too early for anyone as its effectively a restart in possibly 5 weeks time. Okay expect 10-12 of same team that started against Westmesth to feature next day out and probably about 22 of the 26 to be renamed too but there has to be lots of places up for grabs and the best performing players to meet the team needs should be picked."
No arguing with that. Plenty of places up for grabs especially after the last day.
Personally I just don't see him changing from his core 16 lads. Costello/banty have the ability to bench someone. But do we actually expect any of the other subs to dislodge any of the 15?. Cathal hickey/Adam oneill probably could start and do a good working type job.id welcome it. But is that just from frustration of the last day? Maybe. i just feel like costello/banty aside he's no choice but to keep going with the strongest side which he's been picking for basically every game this year.

royalcounty1 (Meath) - Posts: 77 - 27/04/2026 21:14:13    2669363

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Replying To royalcounty1:  "No arguing with that. Plenty of places up for grabs especially after the last day.
Personally I just don't see him changing from his core 16 lads. Costello/banty have the ability to bench someone. But do we actually expect any of the other subs to dislodge any of the 15?. Cathal hickey/Adam oneill probably could start and do a good working type job.id welcome it. But is that just from frustration of the last day? Maybe. i just feel like costello/banty aside he's no choice but to keep going with the strongest side which he's been picking for basically every game this year."
I do think we'll see a couple of changes from the starting 15 the last day - banty or Costello will start and someone will come into defence - one of Ryan/o'neill/smyth. Could also see some positional changes in defence. I'm not a fan of the "strongest 15" notion - any team with serious ambitions should have 20+ players they can use interchangeably based on form, opposition, tactics etc. Am I right in saying that the draw for the all-Ireland series will happen on the Monday after the last provincial final so Monday 18 May? That's d-day really in terms of when we're back in the game and can move on!

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 150 - 28/04/2026 09:29:33    2669425

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It's a rare time for Meath in that we now seem to have plenty of options up front, but very few options for defenders who are tight as wet jeans. We've had some great defenders come and go down through the years, and we could do with them now. Where are the likes of David Toner, Eoin Harkin, Gavin McCoy?

Fursey Blake had a great championship for Dunshaughlin last year and there's no sign of him. Hes so tight he'd get double glazed windows on the house so his kids wouldnt hear the ice cream van. I'm a big fan of RB, but not bringing in a few more options for inside defenders may have been an oversight.

RegionalsGuru (Meath) - Posts: 49 - 28/04/2026 10:22:00    2669442

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Replying To gwanyagudthing:  "I do think we'll see a couple of changes from the starting 15 the last day - banty or Costello will start and someone will come into defence - one of Ryan/o'neill/smyth. Could also see some positional changes in defence. I'm not a fan of the "strongest 15" notion - any team with serious ambitions should have 20+ players they can use interchangeably based on form, opposition, tactics etc. Am I right in saying that the draw for the all-Ireland series will happen on the Monday after the last provincial final so Monday 18 May? That's d-day really in terms of when we're back in the game and can move on!"
The draw for the All-Ireland is next Monday May 4th, I believe. If you remember from last year they did the same before the Leinster Final, and all provincial finals, with everyone complaining about why they did it so early. So who we'll playing will be narrowed down to 2 come Monday.

NYRoyal (USA) - Posts: 108 - 28/04/2026 11:08:59    2669454

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I am looking at all the so called shock results lately and I am of the opinion that the new game is now a forwards dream.with forward marks the three up rule defenders having to push out to defend the two point arc defenders not being able to touch the forward illegal screening etc etc .the defender has no chance in the modern game.if some of the posters here had there way every defender would be dropped.remember donegals backs were cleaned out and armagh backs conceded 1.24 but are mcguiness andmcgerney going to panic and drop all round them.not a chance.meath have had a very good year and yes they had a disappointing result against westmeath.thrse players got us to division one and that's no mean feat.this is not a time for panic.the fact of the matter is that rafferty coffey caulfield o halloran smith flynn frayne O'connor etc are the future .this meath team must be supported and not ridiculed.finally some posters putting players up for selection that are not even on the panel.enough said

Meathnut (Meath) - Posts: 3 - 28/04/2026 17:21:45    2669600

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Replying To Meathnut:  "I am looking at all the so called shock results lately and I am of the opinion that the new game is now a forwards dream.with forward marks the three up rule defenders having to push out to defend the two point arc defenders not being able to touch the forward illegal screening etc etc .the defender has no chance in the modern game.if some of the posters here had there way every defender would be dropped.remember donegals backs were cleaned out and armagh backs conceded 1.24 but are mcguiness andmcgerney going to panic and drop all round them.not a chance.meath have had a very good year and yes they had a disappointing result against westmeath.thrse players got us to division one and that's no mean feat.this is not a time for panic.the fact of the matter is that rafferty coffey caulfield o halloran smith flynn frayne O'connor etc are the future .this meath team must be supported and not ridiculed.finally some posters putting players up for selection that are not even on the panel.enough said"
It's a forwards dream in some cases because defensive coaches have been used to the old rigid 3 full 3 half back positioning and they're slow to adapt to the new rules. Defensive coaches might improve a system by having defenders better able to play the game in front of them and being able to think on their feet when opposition up and at them. The day of standing touch tight to a forward when the ball is still in the other half of the pitch is over.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8541 - 29/04/2026 11:07:29    2669709

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "It's a forwards dream in some cases because defensive coaches have been used to the old rigid 3 full 3 half back positioning and they're slow to adapt to the new rules. Defensive coaches might improve a system by having defenders better able to play the game in front of them and being able to think on their feet when opposition up and at them. The day of standing touch tight to a forward when the ball is still in the other half of the pitch is over."
The one on one is just something that modern defenders have not had to overly deal with but go back 20 plus years and before the blanket, defending was much more man on man and there were always good forwards but there were also some very good defenders. I think it is too easy an excuse the blame the new rules. There is definately areas where defending teams can improve individually and collectively. There seems to be very limited situations where there are clean dispossesions, blocking or intercepts through reading of the game. Of course none are easy where teams handpass most of the time but some of the scoring is under very little pressure.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 983 - 29/04/2026 11:35:49    2669717

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