Meath vs Kildare 1st July 12 Croke Park

[Bensars]

I seen the replays and thought it was more clumsy than anything.  It wasnt helped however by some of the medical team that gestured towards the referee with two fingers imitating a eye gouging incident.

[heffo]

Big question now is whether it'll be Olli Rehn or the Leinster Championship that'll land in Newbridge first.

[agorm]

Great win today and one of the most satisfying Meath games to attend in recent years. This was a much better victory than the Leinster win in 2010. Banty deserves full credit. Ciaran lenihan was struggling on Kavanagh early on and Banty replaced him with Harrington straight away. At half time there was a bit of a skirmish starting & banty dragged the meath players aside and settled them down before going in and Meath were still first out ready to start in the second half.
As others have said, there were great performances from Gillespie, Carroll, Forde and Tobin. Tobin's man got a few scores in the second half and the worry would be as to how we will cope with the Dubs forwards when they start to come in waves.

Kildare were very lack lustre today. i dont know why but i was certainly expecting an uptake in tempo from them in the second half but the sending off seemed to effect them more than it would to other counties. The sending off was harsh.

From a Meath point of view, the replay against Carlow brought us on a lot. However, I am not sure exactly where we are. The Louth and Carlow (1st game) were among the worst Meath games I have ever been at and one swallow doesnt make a  summer as they say. However, the things that were good about the performance were the things you want to be good and i am more positive about things than I have for a long time.

At this stage  I think that the Dubs will have too much in the tank for them but it is good to be back competing in a Leinster final again.

[Denn Forever]

Just to be clear.  What is the story with the square ball?
 
Is it that you can be in the square until the ball is kicked? 

On the Sunday Game they inimated that one of Kildares points should not have been allowed (where the forward punched the ball over the bar from a long kick in).

[heffo]

Just to be clear.  What is the story with the square ball?
 
Is it that you can be in the square until the ball is kicked? 

From play you can enter the square once the ball is kicked - hence it should have been a free out.

From a a free or sideline you cannot enter the square until the ball does - same as before.

[orangeman]

Big question now is whether it'll be Olli Rehn or the Leinster Championship that'll land in Newbridge first.

As bad as that ?.

[Royalranter]

Gillespie was great today. I really hope he can push on from here. We haven't had A real top class midfielder since bigjohn and conor looked the part today. Fair play to all the young lads today, some great performances. We need good performance against the dubs to really bring them on. If we can get a belief into the younger guys that they can stand toe to toe with the top teams, it will bring Meath football a step closer to where we want to be.

[Hardy]

It was simply an accident - no hint of a deliberate attempt. I don't know any player who would do that. People are always too ready to assume the worst of players. Kevin Reilly should have more sense.

Quite the opposite in this case Hardy, I'm assuming that it was an accident because of Earley's reputation and past behaviour. Reilly obviously thinks it was more sinister and i thought he had that in his head when he came on.

I understand your point, AZ. My comment wasn't aimed at you.

[Jinxy]

Delighted to see the young lads step up.
Banty made the right calls at the right time.
Great to break the cycle of defeat to Kildare.
Dublin will hammer us though.

[Shamrock Shore]

Fear not Jinxy

I thought Dublin would hammer Wexford!

[Captain Obvious]

Fear not Jinxy

I thought Dublin would hammer Wexford!

In fairness three games in row now that Wexford have put it up to Dublin.

[Declan]

Meath were fantastic yesterday. Best performance by them in years and the mood last night was one of joy, happiness and dare I say it a swagger
Based on the two games yesterday Meath would beat Dublin by 4/5 points as the difference in intensity between the two games was unbelievable.
However now that the traditional order of things has been restored in Leinster I still think we'll beat de royals in 3 weeks

[Go home ref]

Same old problems from Kildare this time Meath were good enough to take advantage. Kildares shot selection was absolutely pathetic once again some of the wides were unforgivable ridiculous shots form tight angels when passes were available awful stuff! The red card was extremely harsh Collins is probably the worst ref in the GAA and that is saying something. Meath wanted it more and won all the key battles well done to them and I hope they go on and win Leinster now hopefully our lads will dust themselves down for the Cavan game now

[Ohtoohtobe]

No excuses or complaints, the clearly better team won. Congratulations to Meath.

Thought Kildare's problems stemmed from midfield and how predictable the big high balls on top of O'Connor were. If we solve those problems and avoid Kerry we're likely to get back to the AI quarters but I think we're ultimately not quite good enough to beat the top three. In fairness, that's what I thought before the Meath match as well. So it goes.

Of course the other major factor in Meath's victory was the fact that I booked flights home for the Leinster final. The result was inevitable the minute I did that.

[shawshank]

Delighted to see Banty prove all those Meath experts wrong yesterday. All the past greats involved in the media all qued up to take a pot at him. None giving him the backing he needed. Plenty of Meath posters here putting the boot in. Yesterday was one of the best Meath performances in along time. Banty has shown he has the ability, perhaps some of the Meath folk could get behind him. HE has changed the team with the introduction of young players. The number 5, 8 and 11 looked real quailty yesterday. Those who publically wanted to shame him could now publically show they were wrong. No doubt you will say that you were relegated to division three, but yesterday proved he is the right man for the job.