Messages

I'd have big Joe as player manager. A sort of GAA roy of the rovers.

What about Eamon O Brien? Now he's free. He'd bring a bit of Meath's winning attitude out west.

I'm stunned. It's the first time that source has been right about anything this year. I must start betting with him.

I have it from an extremely unreliable source that we're on sunday at 4pm.

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

I meant LIAM McHale. The ex-mayo footballer.

Peter Kelly has been a revelation for Kildare, Bray apart from the Dublin game has been very poor, most of the lads here have been calling for his head, Kelly all the way for me
Callaghan has been motm for Kildare in 3 of the last 4 games
Flynn has been Kildare's best midfieler and if you matched up both midfields I think Kildare have the edge.
Did you not see Kavanagh at the weekend?
Will probably see the return of Sweeney for this game, but he's not a full forward so advantage will be to Meath but he normally starts to move out after about 20 mins.

Well, I've only seen 2 Kildare games this year (monaghan and Derry) and only on the tv, and I can't recall Kelly and Callaghans distinct prowess but I'll take your word for it. I dunno about ranking anyone ahead of Kevin Reilly tho. I didn't put much of a blurb beside that prediction, but no forward has gotten the better of him so far this year. And he marked Brogan out of it I thought, particularly impressive since RTE Radio 1 last week were calling him "the best player in the country" (rubbish by the way, although he is good)

I reckon McHale should reconsider. Sure isn't he like a god to ye away up there in Mayo? Aren't there big 7 foot statues of the great man lining the main streets of Castlebar? Is it true he's to be canonised, with his football prowess quoted as the "miracle performed"?

Kildare v Meath:
Player matchups, going on last lineouts of kildare and likely meath lineout (granted, I'll be more than a little biased in these, but feel free to disagree)

GK N/A

Kelly v Bray - I think Bray if he shows form like dublin game / first half of louth match

McGrillen v O'Rourke - I must say I'm unconvinced by O'Rourke so far. I'll vote against him here

MacLoughlainn v Ward - Ward. Sure he's the 3rd highest scorer in the championship so far or something close to that

Callaghan v Kenny - Seamus will play all over the place and give his usual unrecognised man of the match performance

Bolton v Joe - Come on. Who from Meath would ever vote against the Joe Show?

Flanagan v Reilly - Reilly is a revelation. He'll be hard to stop no matter who tries to mark him

Flynn v Crawford - If Crawford is fully fit, I'll give him the nod

Earley v Meade - Sorry Meade. I'd be blind to give you the nod over Dermot Earley to be fair to Kildare.

Doyle v King - Again. Doyle is top scorer 2010 at the moment.

O'Neill v McGuinness - Hm. I'll call it a draw, since McGuinness is really untested this championship

O'Flaherty v Moyles - Moyles for the first 60 mins, but he'll tire after that.

Smith v Harrington - Even stevens

Kavanagh v Reilly - Reilly

Donnelly v O' Connor - I'll go for the Meath corner back, but on no other basis than I'm biased.

First game on saturday for the Meath game would suit me fine. But i suppose the GAA are unlikely to make scheduling changes for one fan. A hell of a fan, granted, but it's still probably unlikely.

I'm bit of a meath exile, living in dublin over 10 years now (but never thinking of myself as a dub, purely for football reasons), but I've been told the meath flags are out in force this year which is great to hear. Hopefully the whole county will get behind the team, especially now we've been painted the pantomine bad guys of the championship

I think having the country against us with work in Meaths favour. Siege mentality. Bring it on.

What do people think about the last time Meath played Kildare a couple of months ago in Navan. I thought Kildare were poor enough that day and we won it by 5 or 6 points I think. That's why I was surprised to hear the SG tipping them to win. But I supppose league form counts for little.

What he could have done is just give us the figures from a couple of games, say the round 3 or 4 qualifiers. What is the percentage chance of a shot going over from inside the "Hotzone" (ridiculous name by the way), and what does that percentage drop to when a shot is taken from outside that zone. That'd be interesting. They could've been working that out instead of making daft graphics.

I had to laugh at the Sunday game and it's "Hot zone". Imagine that they felt they needed a football analyst and a visual graphic to basically tell us that players are more likely to score the closer they are to the goal. It doesn't take a genius to work that out.

As far as Meath Kildare go, I would usually be a more pessimistic meath fan. I didn't think we'd beat the dubs, and I thought we'd only scrape past louth, which is all we did. But I reckon we'll beat Kildare. I think Derry threw in the towel in the second half altogether, so didn't put it up to them. I also think that this year's Monaghan team have been hyped out of all proportion by the media. Sure they've only 2 forwards, and one of those only scores frees. Tyrone showed them up, I wouldn't give Kildare great kudos for beating them. Meath to win by at least a three point margin.