Leinster Senior Football Championship 2017

[redsetanta]

Not ideal but in fairness to Kevin Meaney he wasn't the worst full back we ever had.

[Tony]

I'd put Begley in at Centre Back - probably the most important position in modern football. He's experienced, he's smart, he has a lot of stamina but most importantly, he's not slow. The likes of Shane Julian and Lillis failed there because of their pace. A good team will run right through the centre, if your centre back and wing backs can be exploited like that. Begley has to go there for me. It's no time to be putting Meaney in there just before a big championship match in my opinion. Maybe Meaney on the wing. Strong / Begley / Meaney. Attride in the corner. We really are filling positions with lads who are not naturally suited to that position, but we're short in strength in depth, clearly. Meaney, ideally, should be a back up midfielder after JOL / Brendan, not a make shift centre back or wing back. But we have to do whatever to make do.

[OTF]

I'd put Begley in at Centre Back - probably the most important position in modern football. He's experienced, he's smart, he has a lot of stamina but most importantly, he's not slow. The likes of Shane Julian and Lillis failed there because of their pace. A good team will run right through the centre, if your centre back and wing backs can be exploited like that. Begley has to go there for me. It's no time to be putting Meaney in there just before a big championship match in my opinion. Maybe Meaney on the wing. Strong / Begley / Meaney. Attride in the corner. We really are filling positions with lads who are not naturally suited to that position, but we're short in strength in depth, clearly. Meaney, ideally, should be a back up midfielder after JOL / Brendan, not a make shift centre back or wing back. But we have to do whatever to make do.

We have plenty of wing backs Dillon, O Connor,  O Reilly, Buggy all ahead of Meaney  leave him on the bench till the last 10mins.
Teams  are running through our halfback line because they're  up at the other end of the field getting turned over. Stay TF back and mark your man, if you'r  100% on top of him then and only then should you consider "bombing" up the field which in the case of most Laois backs at present is never.

[High Fielder]

And because we are low on man markers, we have to experiment. We may have to experiment our way through the next number of years because we don't have obvious candidates for defensive positions, and even the ones that are obvious have been found out on occasion. It's just where we're at now. You would hope it won't always be this way but we have to be honest - they are just not there for one reason or another. Someone said it a long time ago back on Laoistalk. We have our moment rarely. We're not lucky enough to be contending all the time. You have to enjoy when it happens and you have to find a way to get through when you're low. You also have to find a way to improve things so that hopefully, one day, the good days become more frequent. We should look at our club scene first and foremost. To my eye, it's very poor and not producing good footballers.

[High Fielder]

I'd put Begley in at Centre Back - probably the most important position in modern football. He's experienced, he's smart, he has a lot of stamina but most importantly, he's not slow. The likes of Shane Julian and Lillis failed there because of their pace. A good team will run right through the centre, if your centre back and wing backs can be exploited like that. Begley has to go there for me. It's no time to be putting Meaney in there just before a big championship match in my opinion. Maybe Meaney on the wing. Strong / Begley / Meaney. Attride in the corner. We really are filling positions with lads who are not naturally suited to that position, but we're short in strength in depth, clearly. Meaney, ideally, should be a back up midfielder after JOL / Brendan, not a make shift centre back or wing back. But we have to do whatever to make do.

We have plenty of wing backs Dillon, O Connor,  O Reilly, Buggy all ahead of Meaney  leave him on the bench till the last 10mins.
Teams  are running through our halfback line because they're  up at the other end of the field getting turned over. Stay TF back and mark your man, if you'r  100% on top of him then and only then should you consider "bombing" up the field which in the case of most Laois backs at present is never.

I don't think Meaney gets the respect he deserves. He lost his way under McNulty who saw a fine athlete and abused him. Prior to that, he was destroying midfielders in the Club Championship. He was class day after day. Those other players you mentioned wouldn't lace his boots on a going day, and I could well see how a coach would persist with Meaney. It's hard to defend his recent performances, but I could say that for all of them bar Donie. Whatever is in this current panel, and I don't think it's much to be honest, we should just let Creedon go for broke and see what he can do. If it doesn't work, we can spin the wheel again. I think a lot of the arguments on here and elsewhere are based on polar opposite ideas. Some lads see potential in this panel while I do not. I personally think we haven't a back to our name at the moment, so we're on the back foot before we even start. We have some 'nice' footballers out the field, but that's all they are. It would take a lot for this panel to take out the likes of Kildare for example, and that's hardly saying a whole pile.

[smcder]

Beating clare ina challenge means nothing ..

Division 4 team beating a Division 2 team? 

They are above us at the moment because of what they have done on the pitch.

[Unlaoised]

Beating Clare was a boost I think Clare had their strongest team out.

Quigley was suppose to have been very good!

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

It's better to win a challenge match than lose it but it's ridiculous to read anything into it ..

Great to hear Quigley is back though

I hope to see a fighting fit well organised team with a reactive mgmt team take the field on the 21st .. hope springs eternal

[OTF]

I'd put Begley in at Centre Back - probably the most important position in modern football. He's experienced, he's smart, he has a lot of stamina but most importantly, he's not slow. The likes of Shane Julian and Lillis failed there because of their pace. A good team will run right through the centre, if your centre back and wing backs can be exploited like that. Begley has to go there for me. It's no time to be putting Meaney in there just before a big championship match in my opinion. Maybe Meaney on the wing. Strong / Begley / Meaney. Attride in the corner. We really are filling positions with lads who are not naturally suited to that position, but we're short in strength in depth, clearly. Meaney, ideally, should be a back up midfielder after JOL / Brendan, not a make shift centre back or wing back. But we have to do whatever to make do.

We have plenty of wing backs Dillon, O Connor,  O Reilly, Buggy all ahead of Meaney  leave him on the bench till the last 10mins.
Teams  are running through our halfback line because they're  up at the other end of the field getting turned over. Stay TF back and mark your man, if you'r  100% on top of him then and only then should you consider "bombing" up the field which in the case of most Laois backs at present is never.

I don't think Meaney gets the respect he deserves. He lost his way under McNulty who saw a fine athlete and abused him. Prior to that, he was destroying midfielders in the Club Championship. He was class day after day. Those other players you mentioned wouldn't lace his boots on a going day, and I could well see how a coach would persist with Meaney. It's hard to defend his recent performances, but I could say that for all of them bar Donie. Whatever is in this current panel, and I don't think it's much to be honest, we should just let Creedon go for broke and see what he can do. If it doesn't work, we can spin the wheel again. I think a lot of the arguments on here and elsewhere are based on polar opposite ideas. Some lads see potential in this panel while I do not. I personally think we haven't a back to our name at the moment, so we're on the back foot before we even start. We have some 'nice' footballers out the field, but that's all they are. It would take a lot for this panel to take out the likes of Kildare for example, and that's hardly saying a whole pile.

McNulty abused him ? can you explain.

[Don Draper]

I'd put Begley in at Centre Back - probably the most important position in modern football. He's experienced, he's smart, he has a lot of stamina but most importantly, he's not slow. The likes of Shane Julian and Lillis failed there because of their pace. A good team will run right through the centre, if your centre back and wing backs can be exploited like that. Begley has to go there for me. It's no time to be putting Meaney in there just before a big championship match in my opinion. Maybe Meaney on the wing. Strong / Begley / Meaney. Attride in the corner. We really are filling positions with lads who are not naturally suited to that position, but we're short in strength in depth, clearly. Meaney, ideally, should be a back up midfielder after JOL / Brendan, not a make shift centre back or wing back. But we have to do whatever to make do.

We have plenty of wing backs Dillon, O Connor,  O Reilly, Buggy all ahead of Meaney  leave him on the bench till the last 10mins.
Teams  are running through our halfback line because they're  up at the other end of the field getting turned over. Stay TF back and mark your man, if you'r  100% on top of him then and only then should you consider "bombing" up the field which in the case of most Laois backs at present is never.

I don't think Meaney gets the respect he deserves. He lost his way under McNulty who saw a fine athlete and abused him. Prior to that, he was destroying midfielders in the Club Championship. He was class day after day. Those other players you mentioned wouldn't lace his boots on a going day, and I could well see how a coach would persist with Meaney. It's hard to defend his recent performances, but I could say that for all of them bar Donie. Whatever is in this current panel, and I don't think it's much to be honest, we should just let Creedon go for broke and see what he can do. If it doesn't work, we can spin the wheel again. I think a lot of the arguments on here and elsewhere are based on polar opposite ideas. Some lads see potential in this panel while I do not. I personally think we haven't a back to our name at the moment, so we're on the back foot before we even start. We have some 'nice' footballers out the field, but that's all they are. It would take a lot for this panel to take out the likes of Kildare for example, and that's hardly saying a whole pile.

McNulty abused him ? can you explain.

Id love to hear this too.

[High Fielder]

Do you not remember the whole full back experiment? I'm all for experimenting with a player you want to use but can't find a position for but no need when a lad is on top of his game in his favoured place. Meaney was too honest and went along with it and arguably never came back from it. It makes me laugh reading this McNulty love in. He sent a Laois team out against Louth who couldn't even run because the y were so over trained. And he didn't become a politician overnight after leaving Laois. Nobody came looking for him.

[Don Draper]

Do you not remember the whole full back experiment? I'm all for experimenting with a player you want to use but can't find a position for but no need when a lad is on top of his game in his favoured place. Meaney was too honest and went along with it and arguably never came back from it. It makes me laugh reading this McNulty love in. He sent a Laois team out against Louth who couldn't even run because the y were so over trained. And he didn't become a politician overnight after leaving Laois. Nobody came looking for him.

We had John O'Loughlin and Brendan Quigley at midfield. Meaney wasn't going to start there. He was asked to play full back, I don't recall him being chained to a stake on the edge of the square. Plenty of footballers have been asked to play out of position for the better of a team. If a Cormac McAnallen or Seamus Moynihan could do it, I don't think it was exactly an insult to try a Kevin Meaney there.

Never came back from it? Its not like he was winning All Stars before he moved back there.

[High Fielder]

Your opinions Don. I don't share them. I always rated Kevin highly. All Stars are like hen's teeth in Laois so your last point is out of context. McNulty gambled to suit himself and failed.

[GAA-SMART]

Your opinions Don. I don't share them. I always rated Kevin highly. All Stars are like hen's teeth in Laois so your last point is out of context. McNulty gambled to suit himself and failed.

Did O Loughlin play against Clare?

[Unlaoised]

mmm Meaney was playing well that year and I like digger as a player...I'd alway try and find a place for him I suppose Justin thought the same.

In hindsight it might not have done Kevin and favours but I don'r think it affected him after that season.

Still loads to offer if he keeps a cool head on the field.


I heard they played Limerick last night and Hammered them.Better than early in the year when the same Limerick team gave them a lesson in a friendly game.