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Well let's see how this goes. Will be very interesting to see who starts out of the 32 that played in the OByrne Cup. Definitely think we can win this one. if we don't win all our home games, it'll be hard to see us in the battle for promotion.

Can't see anything but a Meath win here.

I can't see anything at all.  8)

Ceapaim gur é an leagan ceart ná "Fir na Mí agus fir na G...."

More or less that's what I was trying to say.

I hope Galway continue with the progress they made last year when they dumped a heavily favoured and deeply dysfunctional Armagh out the door mid July.  Some good young lads coming through.
Meath are something similar, without the underage success  ;)
A good way from the glory days of Meath- Kerry-Galway- all Ireland  iterations, no longer fixated on manager messiahs, little bit of humble, little bit of cautious.
 

Quote from: thejuice on January 28, 2014, 11:11:01 AM
More or less that's what I was trying to say.

Hi no wonder people get nervous speaking Irish, you made a decent effort and get criticised. Coinnigh ag dul!

I hate everything about Galway.

Quote from: Jinxy on January 28, 2014, 12:00:49 PM
I hate everything about Galway.

I am not mad about the accent but I love Meath especially at 2 to 1 on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mftE3kDIYBk

Great matches really

Especially the sight of a Donnellan in full flow and the green waves parting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE_maOQWTOk

No Meehan for the first 2 league games anyway. Maybe more. Inflicted with 4 away games yet again this year. Very tight looking division 2 as you could make a decent case why nearly every side could get either promoted or relegated. Meath away and Donegal at home first up for us. Really need to win one of those games or else you are really battling to stay up after.

Quote from: GalwayBayBoy on January 28, 2014, 01:26:19 PM
No Meehan for the first 2 league games anyway. Maybe more. Inflicted with 4 away games yet again this year. Very tight looking division 2 as you could make a decent case why nearly every side could get either promoted or relegated. Meath away and Donegal at home first up for us. Really need to win one of those games or else you are really battling to stay up after.

GBB - tuigim ach..

Meath are up from DIVISION THREE FFS.

They won't be used to the dignity, technical expertise and elegance of D2 .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCge-suZLWw


Last year they were getting beaten around the head by Roscommon and Fermanagh.
They'll still be traumatised by their treatment at the hands of the other teams and they never went so low before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVJi2QLQfgc
there may be some residual self esteem issues as well.

Both Galway teams, (but the hurlers in particular), are  to me starting to resemble the Irish soccer team; you look at them and you suddenly wonder what exactly is there of any use (with 1 or 2 exceptions of course). Neither managers inspire confidence also, as both have been unable to settle on a fixed team, especially with the central positions. JC, like his wonderful sibling Ollie, looks destined never to win the big prize.

Quote from: Fear Bun Na Sceilpe on January 28, 2014, 11:51:02 AM

Quote from: thejuice on January 28, 2014, 11:11:01 AM
More or less that's what I was trying to say.

Hi no wonder people get nervous speaking Irish, you made a decent effort and get criticised. Coinnigh ag dul!

Maith thú!

Quote from: mouview on January 28, 2014, 04:10:44 PM
Both Galway teams, (but the hurlers in particular), are  to me starting to resemble the Irish soccer team; you look at them and you suddenly wonder what exactly is there of any use (with 1 or 2 exceptions of course). Neither managers inspire confidence also, as both have been unable to settle on a fixed team, especially with the central positions. JC, like his wonderful sibling Ollie, looks destined never to win the big prize.

Sometimes Mo you remind me of Statler and Waldorf   ;)
JC was minor in 06 so he has a while left
Cunningham reminds me of Horan.
A few game plans and the ability to change as needs dictate would go a long way

I think the fuballers made a reasonable stab at it last year but D2 redux is most likely   

Quote from: muppet on January 28, 2014, 05:54:11 PM

Quote from: Fear Bun Na Sceilpe on January 28, 2014, 11:51:02 AM

Quote from: thejuice on January 28, 2014, 11:11:01 AM
More or less that's what I was trying to say.

Hi no wonder people get nervous speaking Irish, you made a decent effort and get criticised. Coinnigh ag dul!

Maith thú!

I didn't realise I was being criticised.  :o

I'm outraged!!

TÁ MO GAELIGE MUCHO FOIRFE!   >:( >:( >:( >:(

Meath? Self-esteem issues? Haaaaaaardly ...

I have a plan for this game. 6 Donal Keoghans in defence. If we score once that'll be enough.

What would the vocative of 'fir' be?  .. 'a fheara' .. ?

Quote from: Ard-Rí on January 28, 2014, 11:51:55 PM
Meath? Self-esteem issues? Haaaaaaardly ...

I have a plan for this game. 6 Donal Keoghans in defence. If we score once that'll be enough.

What would the vocative of 'fir' be?  .. 'a fheara' .. ?

We all dream of a team of Donal Keoghans....

Quote from: Ard-Rí on January 28, 2014, 11:51:55 PM
Meath? Self-esteem issues? Haaaaaaardly ...

I have a plan for this game. 6 Donal Keoghans in defence. If we score once that'll be enough.

What would the vocative of 'fir' be?  .. 'a fheara' .. ?

Muintir na h idirlione?

Think we should have the measure of them. At our lowest ebb they only beat us by a point at home in the league and in the championship we still beat them despite not turning up until the 65th minute. Good football folk though in Galway. Much better at taking their beating than their neighbours

Meath fans can be very capricious

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=22659.msg1196266#msg1196266

O ye of little faith.
And of course they were going to do it on the last day.

I suppose the main benefit for them of being out of D3 is that they don't have to listen to the insufferable Syfin. That must have interfered with the point scoring.

    http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=22659.0

I know I missed all of pre-season. Didn't show up for the FBD, but I'm back now for the start of the league.

It'll be very interesting to see how counties adapt to the black card. I worry a small bit of how we changed our game last year to moderate success by becoming quite defensive and slightly cynical against Armagh. I don't think we'll go too far if we continue down that route, but it certainly brought us a bit more stability.

There's no team in our division that I'd fear, but there are no teams that I'd be full confident of us beating.

I found my copy of the 2001 AIF programme there and it seems the only time Meath beat Galway in a serious fuball match was in the 1970 AISF.

Meath were put to the sword in the 66 and 01 finals and beaten in semis in 40 and 64

(Coming out the winner by one point in a titanically lethargic early QF only to be steamrolled in the next round  by some other no hoper doesn't count).

Quote from: Rossfan on January 28, 2014, 10:38:36 AM
Ceapaim Sílim gurb é an leagan ceart ná "Fir na Mí agus fir na G...."

Fixed that for you.

You'd miss that division 3 thread all the same.
It was like a pub lock-in down the country, compared to the wine & cheese reception that is the division 2 thread.

Gaeil na gramadaí cirte, salt of the earth.


Hard to know what way to pick the team for this one, I'd try the following:

Quote from: Jinxy on January 29, 2014, 11:11:44 PM
You'd miss that division 3 thread all the same.
It was like a pub lock-in down the country, compared to the wine & cheese reception that is the division 2 thread.

But the new arrivals were on Xanax tablets for the first few weeks before they felt they could clear their throats and say what they really thought.

Quote from: Jinxy on January 29, 2014, 11:11:44 PM
You'd miss that division 3 thread all the same.
It was like a pub lock-in down the country, compared to the wine & cheese reception that is the division 2 thread.

You miss Syferus that much?!?

Is Séamus Kenny still on the Meath panel?

I don't think he is,

He's about 34 years old at this stage and he's got a few knee surgeries done in the last few years. Mick O'Dowd is also most definitely focusing on youth and building up a team to compete for silverware in the coming years.

A great player though, really gave his all to the jersey even though he would have been smaller than a good few of his opponents. His catch on the edge of square in the 2010 Leinster final (which lead to "that goal") was something else.

Meath (NFL V Galway) - Paddy O'Rourke; Donal Keogan, Kevin Reilly, Michael Burke; Padraic Harnan, Bryan Menton, David Dalton; Conor Gillespie, Shane O'Rourke; Cillian O'Sullivan, Damien Carroll, Graham Reilly; Eamon Wallace, Stephen Bray, Michael Newman

That's a very strong side.
This is when I start getting hopeful.
Hope is a dangerous thing.

It's sad that Meehan's ankle is still forcing him to miss games, particular after showing real echoes of his class last year. Dunno what to make of Galway this year, like ourselves they have a lot of unproven talent. Not being relegated to D3 should be the base goal but given Westmeath got promoted going the other direction can't be yet ruled out. Would like to see Ian Burke getting a good run in the league.

That Meath line-up is probably the strongest side Mick O'Dowd has available to him. 12 of those players started against Tyrone and Dublin last year. The 3 new faces are Davy Dalton, Shane O'Rourke and Cillian O'Sullivan all of whom have been impressing. No disrespect to Galway but with the Meath are targeting this League campaign, you'd be very disappointed if we didn't start off with a win.

Well? Any reports?

We won Hardy!!  ;D

Sounds like a scoreline from an under-10 game. Was there any tackling?

Some big hits during the warm-up apparently.

How did Kavanagh play for Galway? Did he score much. Sounds like terrible luck by Galway to score 4-11 and still lose.

Not really.
From what I've heard they could have conceded another 4/5 goals and we kicked a heap of wides.

First of all, a message to Hardy. After our varying discussions on the relative merits of recent management teams it does seem as if the current management team under Mick O'Dowd do seem to have got their act together and have a definite plan and focus on the league. Good introduction of new players with a style of play that should be effective once some aspects of play are improved.
It was one of the most entertaining league games in a long time. It was a far cry from some of the league games in recent years in which we said afterwards "can it get any worse " etc. You could tell that all of the players and management were up for this one.

Meath had huge possession in the first half but wasted an awful lot as the players got into good positions but then didnt finish off the scores. There were about 10 wides in the first half and the same post hit 3 times. O'Sullivan and Wallace skinned their men but we often failed to capitalise. Let's hope that this is an area that can be improved as the speed of these guys and the general movement is impressive.

However, and credit to Galway, they kept in the game for much of the first half and Kavanagh was instrumental in much of what they did. They took their goals very well and, but for an outstanding penalty save by O'Rourke, could have gone in 5 points up when Meath had most of the play.

We kind of expected Meath to improve in front of goal in the second half and try and be calmer shooting etc. however it was Galway that started best and carved Meath open with another goal to go 5 points up. However the turnaround was great with a calmer approach. Graham Reilly go a crucial score and, in general, the conversion rate was much improved. We turned it around to a 6 point lead but let them in for another goal which left the end a bit more uneasy than it should have been. Some super moves for scores and Mickey Burke, David Bray, Newman, Tormey, Wallace all got in on the action. Keoghan dummied his man and got a lovely point.

In the end a great result but the big issue must be the concession of the goals. The management will look a that. We also need to convert more chances but that will come in time. Shane O'Rourke is still a bit away from full fitness. Tormey did well and should keep his place even if Gillespie is back. Donal Keoghan and Cillian O'Sullivan also very good. David Bray did well when he came on so there are a lot of positives and a good start to the league.

Hopefully we can shore up the defence for the forthcoming games and, if we do that, I think that we have a great chance of promotion.

Thank Christ the GAA season is back. It gets awful boring between October and January.
Soccer doesn't go anywhere near it for me.

Thanks for the report, agorm. I'm back in good humour now that the nightmare is over and we seem to be doing things right again.