Messages

Zulu - The GPA is the voice of the inter county player. There is nothing stopping them going out tomorrow morning and making an issue of fixture scheduling for example. It would not cost the GPA a cent to say we are not happy, we demand change, etc. Basically all back to Colm O'Rourke's article, are they radical or redundant, are they happy to cosy up to the GAA and say quiet on the major issues?

Saying it is up to the county boards and the GAA to sort out the fixtures controversy is ignoring the last 10 years. They are not sorting it out and that's the problem, somebody needs to hold them to task over it, i.e. the GPA. Again back to Colm O'Rourke's article, what is the point of the GPA? By the way I'm fully aware of the all the good stuff they do - but if they're going to hide away voicing their thoughts on the major issues, are they really a Gaelic player's association, or is there a need for another body who won't stay so quiet.

Ard Ri, you could be right about Cillian O'Sullivan. He could turn out to be a great footballer but I'd be a bit more cautious. He is no impressive than Graham Reilly or Damian Carroll were at their age. You might also have watched him for years but you haven't watched much of him in the last 2 because he was in Australia a lot of last year and injured since the middle of February this year. Again another reason to be cautious when rating him. He's missing a lot of football at a crucial age.

I agree with you there's no obvious evidence of progress and yesterday had a touch of the soullessness about it. But on the Ratoath thing, the underage teams have been dominated by players from Ratoath recently. I don't think there is any bias there. Daire Rowe is by all accounts a great prospect and I'm sure will get his chance in time. To be fair to you, the Joey Wallace thing hasn't worked but it was a gamble the management thought was worth making. Who knows what he was doing in training. If you've seen Cillian O'Sullivan for years, you've surely seen Wallace a bit too and he's been an obvious candidate as one who stands out.

I think when managers start talking about 5 year plans- you can forget about it.

Sean Collins in Clare has done more in one year in Clare then Meath have achieved in 2 years.

I can't understand why you'd get rid of experienced players even to bring off the bench. Especially when Meath's impact players this year have been so underwhelming its been beyond belief. Pace and skill have to go hand in hand. To me Meath are picking pace for the sake of it.

As I've said previously James Mc Entee is a fine player yet he's nowhere to be seen. So I don't know what the talent identification process is in Metah but having seen their u16 team recently they are set for a long spell in the doldrums.

It's probably easier to say that as a Dublin supporter Indiana. I'd give Micko the benefit of the doubt and give him the 5 years. If you look at it, Meath got out of Division 3 and finished third in Division 2, two Leinster Finals have probably cemented Meath's status as second to Dublin in Leinster. It's not what the supporters will settle for but in my opinion it's not bad looking at the bigger picture with what's available.

James McEntee is a good youngster. He missed the u21 campaign with injury and only came into the senior panel after that. He's the same age group as Joey Wallace. Maybe he's unlucky not to be getting the chances Joey got. Also agree Meath are not going well at underage.

But its more fixable in Meath then other  counties and it sure don't take 5 years.

You've a stack of clubs, not a lot of hurling to worry about. You need to pick your best players and forget 5 year plans. Focus on training your players correctly from a younger age.

But Mick O Dowd isn't going to see that part of it so he needs to forget about 5 year plans.

Just on Mc Entee he kicked 0-5 from play in the Dublin SFC for UCD. So he wasn't doing too badly.

What about the likes of Barry Dardis? Knows where the posts are. Put O Rourke in front of the goal instead of asking him to mark the fittest GAA player in Ireland. I really think your management have done a poor job this year.

Yeah I couldn't understand why Dardis didn't start for the u21s. He's still u21 next year so he might get his chance then to shine.

I would agree too it's not the manager's job to be looking 5 years down the line. His job is get the best out of the team that particular year and someone else should be worrying about the future.

Still there's not much structure in Meath and maybe Micko is taking responsibility for that. I'm happy to see him remain. There's not much good changing the manager every 5 years.

Ard Ri, you could be right about Cillian O'Sullivan. He could turn out to be a great footballer but I'd be a bit more cautious. He is no impressive than Graham Reilly or Damian Carroll were at their age. You might also have watched him for years but you haven't watched much of him in the last 2 because he was in Australia a lot of last year and injured since the middle of February this year. Again another reason to be cautious when rating him. He's missing a lot of football at a crucial age.

I agree with you there's no obvious evidence of progress and yesterday had a touch of the soullessness about it. But on the Ratoath thing, the underage teams have been dominated by players from Ratoath recently. I don't think there is any bias there. Daire Rowe is by all accounts a great prospect and I'm sure will get his chance in time. To be fair to you, the Joey Wallace thing hasn't worked but it was a gamble the management thought was worth making. Who knows what he was doing in training. If you've seen Cillian O'Sullivan for years, you've surely seen Wallace a bit too and he's been an obvious candidate as one who stands out.

I think when managers start talking about 5 year plans- you can forget about it.

Sean Collins in Clare has done more in one year in Clare then Meath have achieved in 2 years.

I can't understand why you'd get rid of experienced players even to bring off the bench. Especially when Meath's impact players this year have been so underwhelming its been beyond belief. Pace and skill have to go hand in hand. To me Meath are picking pace for the sake of it.

As I've said previously James Mc Entee is a fine player yet he's nowhere to be seen. So I don't know what the talent identification process is in Metah but having seen their u16 team recently they are set for a long spell in the doldrums.

It's probably easier to say that as a Dublin supporter Indiana. I'd give Micko the benefit of the doubt and give him the 5 years. If you look at it, Meath got out of Division 3 and finished third in Division 2, two Leinster Finals have probably cemented Meath's status as second to Dublin in Leinster. It's not what the supporters will settle for but in my opinion it's not bad looking at the bigger picture with what's available.

James McEntee is a good youngster. He missed the u21 campaign with injury and only came into the senior panel after that. He's the same age group as Joey Wallace. Maybe he's unlucky not to be getting the chances Joey got. Also agree Meath are not going well at underage.

Just a small query.. In armagh v monaghan mcmanus was unstoppable an yet donegal snuffed him out and kildare held him also. So what happened armagh? There are gaps in our defence and slow reactions on the line. Its not a donedeal

Not sure if Kildare totally eliminated his threat although Ollie Lyons will have been happy enough. However McManus movement was very important creating space for others and he was instrumental in the first Monaghan goal.

Ard Ri, you could be right about Cillian O'Sullivan. He could turn out to be a great footballer but I'd be a bit more cautious. He is no impressive than Graham Reilly or Damian Carroll were at their age. You might also have watched him for years but you haven't watched much of him in the last 2 because he was in Australia a lot of last year and injured since the middle of February this year. Again another reason to be cautious when rating him. He's missing a lot of football at a crucial age.

I agree with you there's no obvious evidence of progress and yesterday had a touch of the soullessness about it. But on the Ratoath thing, the underage teams have been dominated by players from Ratoath recently. I don't think there is any bias there. Daire Rowe is by all accounts a great prospect and I'm sure will get his chance in time. To be fair to you, the Joey Wallace thing hasn't worked but it was a gamble the management thought was worth making. Who knows what he was doing in training. If you've seen Cillian O'Sullivan for years, you've surely seen Wallace a bit too and he's been an obvious candidate as one who stands out.

Better team won.

Better organised and more dominant physically. They use the ball better and more purposeful in attack. They look more confortable on the ball where our lads are skittish.

Well done Armagh - hugely admirable performance and a display of all that is good about the game.

I don't agree, juice. I can't remember ever feeling as disillusioned, dispirited or disheartened as a Meath football man. We are at a sad low ebb. Our ineptitude is unbelievable. Our skill levels are unacceptable and our tactics are stone age. The only consolation is that we have good, earnest people on the field an on the sideline and we kept our dignity. But we're back at 1980 level as regards our ranking in football and I can't see any prospect of progress, short of starting from scratch with a ten-year programme of player development.

I would tend to agree with the main points in these posts.

Hardy - I wouldn't be so as down as you. I think there is hope for Meath to keep progressing although All-Irelands are a million miles away yes. But Division 1 next Spring is realistic and losing the next few Leinster Finals to Dublin is probably also realistic ! At some stage we might get fortunate in a Round 4 Qualifier.

Our ranking is top 12 if you read much into those things. I don't think too many will argue.

The frustrating thing is this time last year, Meath people would have taken a game with Armagh for granted. No disrespect to Armagh. It's frustrating to see how Armagh have passed Meath out even since the League. That is probably what annoys a lot of Meath people too.

It's very disappointing from a Meath point of view to go out again after a Leinster Final loss and a Round 4 loss. You can't have any complaints though. Armagh were way the better team and they're ready for a crack off Donegal.

I don't like to see the overreaction though from Meath fans. It's not as if this wasn't coming. Everyone knew it could happen. Someone said Daire Rowe is not playing because he's for Syddan. That is hilarious. Rowe is only a minor and will get plenty of chances soon. He's a promising footballer. Awful siege mentality going in Syddan !

Ard Ri - You are an example of another Meath fan who needs to calm down too. You've mentioned a load of players that aren't good enough yet have put all this faith in Newman, Wallace and Cillian O'Sullivan. The reality is these 3 aren't much better than the players you are giving out about. O'Sullivan has played a game and a half in the League and you are completely overestimating him. Next year after a few bad games, will you be putting him in your other list? Eamonn Wallace has to come back from a serious injury. There's no point writing off 7 or 8 players and then hoping the rest will turn out to be saviours. The reality is all those players are around the same level.

Also don't agree with the S&C argument. Meath are as well conditioned as Armagh. There's room there for improvement for sure but if you came up with a measure of S&C of all county teams, Meath would fare as well as most. Again the reality here is not good enough when it comes to playing football. The passes, the shooting, the fumbling were all evident yesterday, why overlook these and blame S&C?

The unfortunate reality is Meath were not good enough to win yesterday. The better team won. On a different day you might have had a different result, who knows. For now, it's best that Meath take the positives from the year and come back again and regroup for next year and stick to the original target of top 8 (Division 1 & QF's) next year. That's a realistic aim. Every will agree Meath are in the top 12 but are struggling to make the next step.

O'Dowd may have been hasty getting rid of Sheridan and Farrell (In Sheridan's case probably not, in Farrell's case he possibly had another year or two to offer) but they're both 30 now and the year out will probably have set them back an awful lot so it's unlikely we'll ever see them in Meath jerseys again.

Ward and Queeney would be a bit younger. 27 and 28 respectively I think. Ward probably didn't fit in with the vision O'Dowd had but Queeney was probably a victim of his versatility and the multiple change in managers. He would probably have been worth a try in midfield.

It's hard to believe Bray is 34 alright. When you think about it all the players above getting culled and Bray would be a lot older and not only has he survived but he's thrived. O'Dowd has managed to keep him injury free too something he struggled with since Coyler. He has a Leinster u21 medal from 2001, an All-Ireland junior one in 2003 and an AllStar in 2007 as well as a couple of Meath SFC's and one IFC and then the infamous Leinster one in 2010. He deserves a second one though. There's no other footballer in the country that side of 30 who would is going as well as him in my opinion. A credit to Meath GAA.

I'm not too sure of the average age of the Meath team but Armagh have quite a few young players involved and this game is vital for their progress over next year and beyond, a heavy defeat to Meath in Croke Park could set them back but a win there could really give them the confidence to move to the next level...
I'm not too sure how the injuries will have cleared up by next weekend but I'd imagine there won't be too many changes from the last game, I'm led to believe C Rafferty season is over as he apparently needs pins in his hand...

Interesting point about Meath's average age, I reckon the starting team vs Dublin average age is about 25.

Stephen Bray - 34
Eoghan Harrington - 29
Kevin Reilly - 28
Shane O'Rourke - 26
Graham Reilly & Paddy O'Rourke, Dalton McDonagh - 25
Mickey Newman, Andrew Tormey, Donnacha Tobin - 24
Donal Keoghan, Bryan Menton, Damian Carroll - 23
Bryan McMahon - 21
Padraic Harnan - 20

I suppose people can interpret the no handshake how they like but to me it doesn't look good and doesn't exactly teach respect to young players watching on.

Hardstation your entitled to your sarcasm but it's not good behaviour and it's not what people like to see.

O'Gara is being accused of biting so people congratulating him for not lashing out aren't correct either. The Meath players gave a bit of mauling after the alleged biting incident took place alright. They seemed very annoyed.

Posts looking for suspensions for Meath players are hilarious. I'd be more concerned with the trampish behaviour of Dublin players. Biting and not shaking hands. Pretty childish tactics if you ask me.

Meath have had performances like that recently Indiana. As well, there's no point exaggerating the situation. The game was gone at half-time and Meath played like they realised that in the second half.

As regards S&C Jason Ryan was impressed by it. Although I did think myself Meath players seemed very slow and they were pushed off the ball easily at times too.

It's funny how people read games. A lot of the comments on my Twitter were of people saying Meath set up too defensively. I think everyone is confused how teams play. Man on man and blanket defences are buzz words now. I thought myself Meath's tactics weren't the problem but players performing badly was a huge problem.

The winner to face Donegal in the quarter final?

Yes. Quarter finals will be:

Donegal v Armagh/Meath
Dublin v Kildare/Monaghan

If Armagh and Kildare were both to win, I think a draw would be needed?

I'm sure Mick O'Dowd will have been happy to address any points regarding Meath's performance. However if there's an incident as serious as a biting one, he's entitled to draw attention to it.

Also going over the top to say this is the worst Meath team ever. Typical post match reaction after a big defeat like that. Meath are still in the last 12 with a very winnable match against Armagh to go further.

So, assuming a Dublin win, do we get Meath, or am I way off?

You're way off in assuming a Dublin win