first time to see the team live this year. wasn't a bad game, ref let a bit of edge in it which helped. gale of a wind straight down the pitch made it tough at times. both seemed more comfortable against it as it allowed them to put the ball through the hands and use runners, its a pity more long kicking wasn't used as there was space inside at times. meath started with the wind but for some reason would not shoot to the annoyance of their crowd. when they did, a lot of wides and drop shorts, we were doing ok but there scores came from our mistakes especially the goal.we seemed to have problems generally tracking runners and they overloaded a lot on the wings. We came into it well in the last 15 minutes of the half when evan in particular kicked some great scores from frees especially and play. We really slowed the game down at this time. thought we were more economical with our shooting.
i was hoping after half time with the strong wind and that they were far more experimental than us that we would pull ahead of them. they were well on top of us for most of this half, again the hand passing and running game suited them and we couldn't win a ball in midfield. a bit of indiscipline in the backs which possibly was down to the fitness of players didn't help conceding soft frees. there was a period of a lot of changes and meath probably thought they were over the line but the subs we brought in had a bit more zip and we kicked the last few points to get an unlikely draw.
a bit of work to do before the league, todays team barring injuries is probably the league starting team. osborne will probably be the keeper, i think Piggott is wasted in the corner and he looked to go over on his knee, collins will probably stay at full, greene is a battler but i don't know whether he is a corner man. not a great day for the half back line, the positioning of timmons was baffling so deep, his man was an outlet most times, both wing men had there moments but are not the greatest markers. midfield will probably see lillis and finn as unfortunately damon larkin looked like a hamstring which was a pity as he offered mobility, young doyle has a good bit to go to be considered an option. in fairness swayne did a lot of work but i don't think he is a midfielder. the forwards at times were sluggish, i would prefer o sullivan in the backs but evan was probably the most consistent doing a lot of work. bar walker who brought a bit of zip it looks like the same set of forwards mostly last year, colm murphy i think is a more central player than been in the corner isolated.
in the end 16 points is a good score as we mostly are around 12 scores in the last few years, again goals or even goal chances are a problem. as i said good bit of work to do before the league and hopefully the injuries aren't too bad before the difficult opener in sligo.
