Meath Forum

Meath V Cork NFL Div. 2

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To Royalroyal97:  "When did raf break the bone in his hand? Looking at 6-8 weeks for that from the time of the break is it? Costello gone for the league huge loss but good that Banty played and seems to be over his niggle and hopefully get Jones back and a few more bodies. Jones would be a good number 6 too for size and physicality. Don't think Coffey gets the help from midfield with runners coming through at the minute"
Rafferty has a good chance to play this weekend

contributingtoamelee (Meath) - Posts: 88 - 24/02/2026 15:42:32    2658391

Link

Replying To contributingtoamelee:  "Rafferty has a good chance to play this weekend"
Great, we will need him! Hopefully McBride is recovered too and can put in a shift. Expect Jack O'Connor will get a start. Would be more confident of beating Kildare than Cork. Would like to see us really going after it in the first half and avoid having to pull it out of the fire at the death.

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 100 - 24/02/2026 16:53:57    2658409

Link

Replying To contributingtoamelee:  "Rafferty has a good chance to play this weekend"
Great, we will need him! Hopefully McBride is recovered too and can put in a shift. Expect Jack O'Connor will get a start. Would be more confident of beating Kildare than Cork. Would like to see us really going after it in the first half and avoid having to pull it out of the fire at the death.

gwanyagudthing (Meath) - Posts: 100 - 24/02/2026 17:07:16    2658414

Link

The points about our defense getting exposed is more a of system issue than individuals. We've never played a zonal type defense with safety first and our defenders play one on one a lot but I think that's RBs risk/reward game plan where by our midfield wins the battle and our forwards kick the lights out with 2 pointers. Jack O'Connor looks to be getting match sharpness which is a positive and hopefully Banty Conlon can stay fit.

Every game gets bigger from here, and we'll see what this team is made of away to an improving Kildare. Win and we've still got promotion in our own hands and Cork will just be a bump in the road. Lose and then we've seen that we're still lacking something. I do believe we have what it takes to win if our midfield at least hits parity.

NYRoyal (USA) - Posts: 77 - 24/02/2026 19:56:21    2658453

Link

Replying To Thunderstruck:  "I would agree with all the points in here, I was sure we would have seen a bit from some of the following: Mc Carrick, Adam Mc Donnell, Rian Mc Connell, Jamie Murphy, Campion and maybe even O' Regan and Emmanual at this stage with view to blooding them (with the exception of Campion) at this level and having them as genuine options come championship."
With injuries there was very little back up for midfield on Sunday, when O' Neill came on for McBride (who didn't look right) there was no one to come on for Menton. Very unfortunate for Charlie O' Connor (on a day when he was needed) having been unused on the bench for the last few games had to be replaced on the starting match day 26 because of a knock he picked up a knock at training on Thursday and was replaced by Conor Gray who is only coming back from injury and wasn't ready to play, so there were no other midfield options as both Kinlough & Jones are still out injured. McGowan was togged out but wasn't considered to come in for Menton. Anyone know what is the story with Adam McDonnell, is he still in the squad?
Considering we were cleaned out at midfield, we did very well to only lose the game by 2 points.
A lot of our attacking options are only able for half a game still, like Lynch, Conlan & Jack O' Connor.
Frayne is improving and has a bit to go to get back to where he was.
Duke needs to rediscover his form last year and hopefully he will as we need him knocking over 2 pointer's again.
Training must be hell for leather with the amount of players picking up injuries in training.

madmeath (Meath) - Posts: 110 - 24/02/2026 20:47:32    2658457

Link

Replying To madmeath:  "With injuries there was very little back up for midfield on Sunday, when O' Neill came on for McBride (who didn't look right) there was no one to come on for Menton. Very unfortunate for Charlie O' Connor (on a day when he was needed) having been unused on the bench for the last few games had to be replaced on the starting match day 26 because of a knock he picked up a knock at training on Thursday and was replaced by Conor Gray who is only coming back from injury and wasn't ready to play, so there were no other midfield options as both Kinlough & Jones are still out injured. McGowan was togged out but wasn't considered to come in for Menton. Anyone know what is the story with Adam McDonnell, is he still in the squad?
Considering we were cleaned out at midfield, we did very well to only lose the game by 2 points.
A lot of our attacking options are only able for half a game still, like Lynch, Conlan & Jack O' Connor.
Frayne is improving and has a bit to go to get back to where he was.
Duke needs to rediscover his form last year and hopefully he will as we need him knocking over 2 pointer's again.
Training must be hell for leather with the amount of players picking up injuries in training."
That seems to be the case but suspect McGowan could have contributed around the middle and if Gray was fit to make bench, he surely could have played some minutes. McDonnell a player not seen yet on senior squad. Possibly best player in club championship last year and very versatile as a middle 8 player. Maybe they are working with him and a few others with a view of using them further down the line but ability wise he would certainly be an addition if up to speed on fitness.
Wonder about Keoghan in half backline at this stage and would he be better utilised as a man marker. He is not really a scoring threat going forward and is expending alot of energy in the half backline. Hickey when availble is another utility middle 8 player with lots of energy so hopefully he will return soon.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 932 - 24/02/2026 21:27:31    2658463

Link

Replying To gwanyagudthing:  "I don't know but must have happened in training last week. Think you would be looking at 4-6 week minimum recovery time. Unless the podcast lads got it wrong. That's a good shout on Jones, move Coffey out to the wing as an attacking half back and Keogan back into the corner? I definitely think a change in lineup is warranted in defence as we seem to find it hard to lock down the opposition's attack at times. Think we have plenty of firepower in attack and around midfield."
Yeah my thoughts exactly. Keogie would do well in CB and I wouldn't be against giving Lavin a stint and FB just to see what he is like.

Royalroyal97 (Meath) - Posts: 33 - 26/02/2026 11:54:02    2658709

Link

Replying To paddyfong:  "Just seen a lot of post regarding defenders in this forum and the Meath 2026 forum again names like Brennan, McCarrick etc but one name that hasn't come up and has fallen away from the panel I noticed is Eoin Harkin. I thought he was solid and done what he had to do in games last year, is there any news regarding him injury, travel etc."
I agree a lack of depth in defense will cause Meath later down the line. It was talked about on the football pod and I think it was said by Paddy Andrews they need to build a panel. Players like Brennan in particular is needed for a panel, a fella you tell "dont let him get away from ya" you dont need a player like that every game but you do need them all the same. A player like that would have done the job on Chris Og. Maybe size is against him but there needs to be some depth in defnese before championship

Meathman4228 (Meath) - Posts: 3 - 26/02/2026 12:32:25    2658726

Link