An Mhí Vs Gallimh,___19:00, 9/7/2011___Pairc Tailteann, An Uaimh

[johnpower]

Meath may learn a lot from this . Teams who come through the qualifier route dont always blow away the opposition every time .  The draw tomorrow will be interesting

[Orangemac]

Does this mean Banty is safe for another year or does he need a QF at least?

Hard to believe but Galway have only won 1 qualifier since wiining Sam in 2001.

[ross matt]

Hard luck Galway. Very low scoring match considering the quality of forwards on both sides. If Meath lost they would have kicked it away but Galway could and should have won it at the death. At least they exited the championship with a fight and some hope for the future with the younger players that saw action today. Sad way for Joyce to end his career if it was his last match like the GBFM commentators seemed to think.

[thejuice]

Joyce was still the best forward on the field by the sounds of it.

[johnpower]

Joyce was still the best forward on the field by the sounds of it.

Some player over the years . One of the best I have seen

[GalwayBayBoy]

Was working so couldn't make Navan so props to An Fear Marún agus Bán from An Fear Rua for his take on the game. Hope he doesn't mind me sharing it seeing as the game wasn't on the box.

Opted for Navan myself tonight, I felt our Footballers could've done with the support that bit more than the Hurlers.

We were very lucky to be only 4 points down at the break, the same old failings were there from the Mayo game, inability to win kick outs (I hate this "Primary Possession" buzzword invented by that eejit Kevin Mc Stay) or breaks, indecisiveness when we had possession, and just a huge lack of confidence running through the team. Meath came in to the game full of confidence, illustrated by their eagerness to kick for the posts from all sorts of stupid positions.

This trend continued early into the second half, but following wide after wide you could see the confidence begin to drain from the Meath forwards. Galway worked a few scores and all of a sudden they were back in the game. We then saw something from a Galway Football team that we hasn't been witnessed for quite a while. they began to dominate midfield and were first on to the breaks, Matthew Clancy worked his socks off in the half forward line and Blake began sweeping up in the half back line.

Unfortunately Galway didn't make the most of their period of dominance, after securing possession in midfield there was still a lot of indecision and a lack of imagination when it came to feeding the ball into the forwards. Nonetheless, the young lads like Fintan O Curraoin and Thomas Flynn, especially, began to play without fear and exert a huge influence on the game, and with less than ten minutes to go, not only had they Galway drawn level but had edged a point clear, (Matthew Clancy I think).

Meath had failed to kick a score in the second half up till this point, but tied it up with less than 5 minutes to go with a Graham Reilly point. Galway went back down the field and of all people, the corner back, Johnny Duane got on the end of a move to slot Galway one clear again. They held this lead into injury time, 4 minutes (inexplicably) of which was signaled by Ref Michael Collins.

Unfortunately, as we have seen too often in recent years, the momentum swung the way of the opposition when it came down to the crunch. Meath kicked two good points to edge a point clear with only a minute or two left. It all looked lost until Meath coughed up possession in their own half back line with seconds left, Paul Conroy, on as sub, made a strong run forward through a stretched Meath defence, the ball was worked inside to Cormac Bane, who was only yards out from goal. He failed to gather the ball at the first attempt, which allowed the Meath Keeper the time to come out and smother his shot for Goal...seconds later, the final whistle went. and a glorious chance of victory was lost.

Overall, while it was a another heartbreaking, one point defeat, there was a of encouragement to be taken from tonights performance. The younger lads came to the fore as the game wore on, and aided by excellent displays from Finian Hanley and Matthew Clancy, a shock win was very nearly achieved.

Without ever fully realising it, or a willingness to it admit it, Galway football has been on a serious decline for the last ten years...I am satisfied now that that we already have plummeted to our lowest ebb and are now in a position to start climbing back up towards the top.

Lads like Flynn, O Curraion, Duane and Forde, look like they will be top players. Hanley, Bradshaw and Clancy showed excellent leadership tonight, and still have a good few years ahead of them. If we could get Michael Meehan and Sean Armstrong back to full fitness and young lads like Michael Boyle, Peadar O Griofa, Shane Maughan to come through and even get Nicky Joyce back into the fray, then I think we'll have a team to challenge the best of them in a couple of years time.

Just a couple of final points about tonights game.

The 45s...why in the name of Christ is our Goalkeeper taking these.? Three more missed tonight on top of the ones missed against Mayo. I watched Mark Hehir kick these for fun in the U21 All Ireland, why wasn't he trusted with them? It was the losing of the game for us.

The standard of football by both teams will be written off tonight as atrocious by many, but in truth, it's no worse than every other team, bar Kerry and Cork when it comes down to it. People can rave on all they like about the Dubs and Kildare, but they're no great shakes, and rely on their superior fitness and physicality to make up for their lack of talent.

Finally, Padraig Joyce, what an absolute joy it has been to watch him for the last 14 years or so. I heard there were people raving on about the performance of the Meath full back tonight...why? Just because Joyce didn't score ten points off him as he did against Darren Fay in the 2001 All Ireland? Joyce still popped over a few tonight and won a couple of frees, besides, the best full back on the field was wearing a Galway jersey. Anyway, best of luck to P.J, no matter what he decides to do...he'll go down as one of the all time greats.


Gállimh abú...Beidh muid ar ais go lúath!

[agorm]

Just one point first on the previous post. As far as I recall it is an urban myth that Joyce scored 10 points off Darren in that game. He was being marked by Mark O'reilly for at least half that game. That said, Joyce is a modern legend of the game, one of my favourite non-meath players of the last 20 years.

Regarding the game, there were a number of positives and also negatives from a Meath point of view. Leaving the game there were a few people giving out yards saying that it was such a poor performance etc. however  we already KNOW that this group of players are not as good as previous panels that won leinsters, All-Irelands etc. I was happy about some aspects of the performance & unhappy at others.

The performances of Kevin Reilly & Shane McAnarney was very positive. Two crucial positions. Hugely hardworking backline and they have also played well enough that it facilitated moving Seamus Kenny up to the half forwards without an adverse impact in the backs. So full marks to Banty & his selectors on that.....I think they have made a good impact on the backs.

Our forward line are still strggling to score points from play and they are not playing to a method. I think some are nearly afraid to take their scores. nine different Meath players scored last evening. The number of wides from our forwards was unacceptable and they seem to have lost confidence and either take pot shots from too far out or try to work unrealistic chances in for goals. Joe gets one good score and then goes for everything and misses ones that he should be distributing.

We should be getting towards a settled team at this stage but Banty needs to look at the full forward position. Possibly bring Joe back in there. not sure who to put in as CHF. Even though Shane O'Rourke had a quiet game at midfield he probably will be given more time there. Mark Ward did ok when he came in. Possible option of playing him in there with Shane at CHF but that may be more changes than the management want to do at this stage.

[Jinxy]