Meath vs Derry, Owenbeg. It's on today at half two. Bring tae & a few ceapairí

[Wildweasel74]

yes O`Sullivan,  that lad going to be a good one

[JoG2]

Was Cillian O'Sullivan not no.11?  Long haired lad.

Yes

One observation I took from the teams (I was sitting only a couple of rows back and close to the action),  Meath,  as a whole,  conditioning wise, look like a team from 10 years, ago ie very  muscular.  Footballers today would be more lean and able to cover the ground faster and more often.   Maybe this was a factor in the 2nd half (on top of the wind)  and against Dublin

[thejuice]

yeah he is, and to think he's missed the last two years of senior football due to an ACL injury. I'm hopeful that there is something there to build on in terms of talent. Our physical and mental fitness isn't up to the required level obviously.

[Wildweasel74]

Meath have 3 good forwards, decent enough midfield but they have problems in defence, if they can rectify that, they could be fairly good

[Maroon Manc]

How did MOD managed to get a 4th year on the back of his first 3 years?

[thejuice]

How did MOD managed to get a 4th year on the back of his first 3 years?

Only GOD, MOD and the county board know why.

[Il Bomber Destro]

How many Derry players have left the panel since the Tyrone game?

Are Sean Leo McGoldrick, Kevin Johnston, Dermy McBride, O'Boyle still involved or are they injured. Derry really need to target an All Ireland quarter final this year.

[rrhf]

The whole thing is pointless anyway. I didn't really give a toss whether we won today or not. I'm not interested in "a good run in the qualifiers", which was the very best we could have hoped for.

Why not Boylan?

[seafoid]

I think I'll gave it a go. Where do I send my CV?

I've come up with a slogan for my candidacy

Make Meath Great Again7

My first act will be to deport all Dubs out of Navan, Ashbourne, Rathoath, Dunseaghlin and Dunboyne. Its all their fault anyway.

Take back control of the ball is a winning statement of intent

Down and Meath are cat 25 years on from the 91 all Ireland

[seafoid]

Watching Meath execute another second half collapse in Round 2 the day before the Connacht Final after your own county  dumped Mayo out is like going back in good health to a hospital where you stayed for a long time and seeing one of the patients you knew well struggling.  There is no pleasure in it even though the hoors beat us with a jammy goal in 2007 and a cruel point in 2011. Something like a bogey team in purgatory. Meath haven't been doing much underage afaik either.
Woebegone.

Meath has a different illness to Mayo.   

[Ard-Rí]

O'Dowd resigning is very good news, but there are deeper problems in terms of county board and finance as well.
Whoever takes over from O'Dowd will probably find themselves having to do almost as much of a re-build as he did, considering they presumably won't follow his blueprint of a team "built for Croke Park", picked on speed alone.

[seafoid]

O'Dowd resigning is very good news, but there are deeper problems in terms of county board and finance as well.
Whoever takes over from O'Dowd will probably find themselves having to do almost as much of a re-build as he did, considering they presumably won't follow his blueprint of a team "built for Croke Park", picked on speed alone.

Meath need a 5 year plan.
Incorporating underage

I was just looking at Galway there. We were in the same boat as Meath for a good while.
Since the loss to antrim in the qualifiers in 2012 there has been slow and steady progress.
Helped by u21 all Irelands.
It is going to take time to turn Meath around

[From the Bunker]

Watching Meath execute another second half collapse in Round 2 the day before the Connacht Final after your own county  dumped Mayo out is like going back in good health to a hospital where you stayed for a long time and seeing one of the patients you knew well struggling.  There is no pleasure in it even though the hoors beat us with a jammy goal in 2007 and a cruel point in 2011. Something like a bogey team in purgatory. Meath haven't been doing much underage afaik either.
Woebegone.

Meath has a different illness to Mayo.   

You still taking them pills Seafoid?

[Ard-Rí]

O'Dowd resigning is very good news, but there are deeper problems in terms of county board and finance as well.
Whoever takes over from O'Dowd will probably find themselves having to do almost as much of a re-build as he did, considering they presumably won't follow his blueprint of a team "built for Croke Park", picked on speed alone.

Meath need a 5 year plan.
Incorporating underage

I was just looking at Galway there. We were in the same boat as Meath for a good while.
Since the loss to antrim in the qualifiers in 2012 there has been slow and steady progress.
Helped by u21 all Irelands.
It is going to take time to turn Meath around

Yes that's definitely the case. I think for quite a while, O'Dowd managed to get by because people gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was doing the behind the scenes work for long term gain. The problem with making steady progress is you have to leave a man with it for a relatively long time and more or less hope that he is putting the correct structures in place. But then again, it's not all the manager's fault either so you can only hold him to account to a limited degree. Underage, as you say, must be a key part of any plan to improve the county's senior performance. I doubt, unfortunately, that our county board has the organisation or ability to put that kind of plan in place. As an example of how badly things are being run at the minute (though this is not entirely the co. board's fault), earlier this year, club delegates passed motions changing the club championships and then appealed and overturned their own decisions because they realised it would result in more relegations. Farce.

[thejuice]

Well I think at underage things are slowly improving but we won't know what fruit it will bear in the long term.

However financially we need to think of new ways of coming up with funds as we aren't getting enough as it is through sponsors and the supporters club membership numbers is only about 250-300 per year.

The county board have had a few mishaps over the years with the restructuring and floodlights that it makes you wonder about whether they are up to the task. I'm not suggesting it's an easy job by any means but we need the right people in there if we are to make any progress.

I don't know what training our lads do but perhaps the balance between physical size/strength/stamina has gone askew. You can't have lads carrying any extra weight around the field but we can't sacrifice too much in strength either. We've had Sean Kelly(?) and Trevor Giles (I think) but looking after that department over the last few years, don't know about who after TG left. But we've never got that quite right from what I could see.

People were mooting James Horan as a potential outside candidate for the job which I don't think would be bad at all.

Most seem convinced Andy McEntee is the man but he has mend fences with the county board first so we'll see what comes out in the coming weeks.