Kerry V Meath AI SF Semifinal 30th August 2009

[Farrandeelin]

So the minor will be at 1.30 I presume.

[comethekingdom]

Very true. He made a bollocks of the game in Longford. Is there that much of a shortage of quality inter county referees that this fella has to get an AI semi final?

[johnpower]

I get a feeling that this Meath team is like the '96 team who came out of nowhere to win an All-Ireland.

Could well be . They have a low key manager and look well organised and do not panic . Semi Finals are only stepping stones to the final so Meath (or indeed Kerry0 will not be worried about performance . I can see the Meath half forwards playing a very deep role covering the space that Dublin did not  close down .

[Jinxy]

Oh Gearóid!
Anois, tá mé buartha.

[020304 Tir Eoghain]

Very true. He made a bollocks of the game in Longford. Is there that much of a shortage of quality inter county referees that this fella has to get an AI semi final?

And every other venue he's reffed at

[Royalranter]

What age are the Meath players? Anyone with a couple of minutes of spare time?
P O'Rourke 20 ; E Harrington 24, A Moyles 30ish, C O'Connor <25; M Burke <25, C McGuinness 23, C King 24; N Crawford 27ish, B Meade 23; P Byrne 24, J Sheridan 24, S Kenny 28ish; D Bray 23, C Ward 23, B Farrell 24.  (also S Bray 26).

Its a young enough Meath team, still plenty of years in them for an All Ireland. The ages i put in might not be totally accurate but are close enough.
Meath shouldn't get past Kerry but stranger things have happened. I think alot depends on how the Meath players go into the Match. If they have the belief that they can win and play from the first minute, it could get very interesting.

[JMohan]

Yup, he'll fcuk it this one up properly too

[Hardy]

What age are the Meath players? Anyone with a couple of minutes of spare time?
P O'Rourke 20 ; E Harrington 24, A Moyles 30ish, C O'Connor <25; M Burke <25, C McGuinness 23, C King 24; N Crawford 27ish, B Meade 23; P Byrne 24, J Sheridan 24, S Kenny 28ish; D Bray 23, C Ward 23, B Farrell 24.  (also S Bray 26).

Its a young enough Meath team, still plenty of years in them for an All Ireland. The ages i put in might not be totally accurate but are close enough.
Meath shouldn't get past Kerry but stranger things have happened. I think alot depends on how the Meath players go into the Match. If they have the belief that they can win and play from the first minute, it could get very interesting.

Welcome Royalranter.

Moyles is 32 (33 in November). Crawford is 29, I think.

[meathie]

yes Crawford will be 30 later this year. Its gonna be an interesting game. The big question is will be Donaghy be ready? I think our team believe they can beat Kerry on a given day, otherwise why bother showing up. looking forward to seeing what S Bray can show us in this semi. Between the suspension and the memories of 07 I think hes going for a big performance.

[Frank Casey]

Donaghy may have some way to go next and bringing him back too soon only smacks of desperation. Even if (half) fit I cannot see Jack risking him to start. Could see Tadhg Kenneally starting at Tommy Walsh or Donncha Walsh's expense. Hard to change any of the others after Dubs demolition.

[thejuice]

Really don't know if we can win this one. All depends on what sort of Kerry team shows up. We'll go in hope however.

[Hardy]

Really don't know if we can win this one. All depends on what sort of Kerry team shows up. We'll go in hope however.

Of course we CAN win. Whether we will win is a different question. Why should Meath fear Kerry or anyone else in Croke Park? The form of the most recent game is always too highly regarded, in my opinion. I can't remember the last time any team produced two consecutive outstanding performances in the championship. The odds are that Kerry will not reach anything like the level they achieved against Duiblin. The question is whether our performance against Mayo was our peak or whether there's an outstanding performance in us.

Of course, if there is and we use it against Kerry and feckin win, we're doomed in the final.

[Jinxy]

Really don't know if we can win this one. All depends on what sort of Kerry team shows up. We'll go in hope however.

Of course we CAN win. Whether we will win is a different question. Why should Meath fear Kerry or anyone else in Croke Park? The form of the most recent game is always too highly regarded, in my opinion. I can't remember the last time any team produced two consecutive outstanding performances in the championship. The odds are that Kerry will not reach anything like the level they achieved against Duiblin. The question is whether our performance against Mayo was our peak or whether there's an outstanding performance in us.

Of course, if there is and we use it against Kerry and feckin win, we're doomed in the final.

I've watched it again twice since Sunday Hardy and there is serious scope for improvement.
I think we can play much better.

[Hardy]

I've watched it again twice since Sunday Hardy and there is serious scope for improvement.
I think we can play much better.

I'm sure you're right, Jinxy. As people were saying on another thread, we tend to overlook a lot of deficiencies in victory. I thought we played at a much higher pace on Sunday and the support at pace ("off the shoulder" as the new cliché has it) was much improved, but neither the pace nor support were anything like Tyrone, Kerry or Cork levels. Also, our error/fumble count was way above what you see from Kerry/Tyrone. It was encouraging, though, that Eamonn O'Brien seemed to be aware of this - I seem to remember him mentioning it - and so has something to work on.  But if we could improve so much on Sunday, maybe we can improve as much again.

One thing I'd be very happy with was that the aggression in the tackle and in sweeping up breaking ball was 100% better than earlier in the year

To get in the mood for the next three weeks, I took out the video of Meath-Kerry 2001 the other night, just after re-watching Sunday's game. To my eye, the contrast was remarkable. The 2001 team seemed to be playing at a pace about 50% above what we saw on Sunday, seemed to be hugely fit, even compared to Kerry and certainly compared to today's team and contested every ball with amazing aggression. Eamonn and the lads should spend a couple of hours in front of it this week and take it from there.

[thejuice]

I'd love to see that 2001 game again. It was the peak before the fall however.

You did point out correctly that we do seem to spill the ball an awful lot, or lads not catching it first time, Cian Ward was particularly bad for this against Limerick and Joe as well. But it can be worked on, its all about technique.

Of course we CAN win, perhaps 'can' was the wrong choice of word.