A Royal Hand To Set The Heather Blazing.......30ú Meitheamh, Páirc an Chrócaigh

[This Years Model]

WX team named. Can't see Lee Chin lining out at corner-back. I would expect Tierney or maybe Carty to start there, and Chin on the bench. Otherwise, the team will probably be more or less as named ...

1   Anthony Masterson
2   Michael Furlong
3   Graeme Molloy
4   Lee Chin
5   Brian Malone
6   David Murphy
7   Adrian Flynn
8   Daithi Waters
9   Rory Quinlivan
10   James Holmes
11   Ben Brosnan
12   Aindreas Doyle
13   Ciaran Lyng
14   Redmond Barry
15   PJ Banville
16   Tom Hughes
17   Robert Tierney
18   Paddy Byrne
19   Conor Carty
20   Joey Wadding
21   Shane Roche
22   Kevin Gore
23   Sean Culleton
24   Michael Hanrahan
25   Kevin O'Grady
26   Paidi Kelly

[Jinxy]

Meath (SFC v Wexford) - Paddy O Rourke; Donal Keoghan, Kevin Reilly, Bryan Menton; Padraig Harnan, Caomhín King, Seamus Kenny; Brian Meade, Conor Gillespie; Peadar Byrne, Damien Carroll, Graham Reilly; Eamonn Wallace, Stephen Bray, Michael Newman.

Glad to see Kenny and Harnan starting.
Hopefully we'll win a bit of breaking ball now.
Wallace should thrive in the wide open spaces if he's used in the right way.

[bucko]

Wexford 0-08, Meath 0-04. Relelatively open, decent game compared to the more defensive style that's seems commonplace at the mo. Meath squandering good attacks, Wexford growing more in confidence as the half goes on. Ben Brosnan on form has such a sweet strike of a ball, from play or dead ball.

[From the Bunker]

Looks like an El Classico Final. Stephen Bray super game at FF. Got away with over carrying for a few points, but that is up to the referee to sort out. Indiscipline at the back for Wexford let Meath get allot of vital scores from frees.

[bucko]

Wexford never built on their strong spell in the first half, 13 from 31 scoring opportunities is a very poor return. Meath slowly built momentum through the second half and Wexford helped them with their indiscipline. Graham Reilly my MOTM with Newman not far behind with his deadball kicking. Not sure if Meath have enough to challenge the winners of the 2nd semi.

[Wildweasel74]

Only seen this to halftime, couldnt see any other winner than wexford, who could have been 8pts up at halftime, really surprised when i heard meath won

[This Years Model]

Very disappointing performance from Wexford.

Having gone 0-8 to 0-4 up by 25 mins, it then started to go all wrong.
Meath woke up when they fell 4 points behind and finished the half with 3 good points.
Wexford on the other hand missed some easy frees and seemed kind of shell-shocked throughout when Meath had their little spell. What did they expect???

Still a point up at half-time you expected an experienced Wexford team to regroup and try to revert to the form of the first 20 minutes. Yet, despite an encouraging first couple of minutes of the second half, it all started to slowly unravel. Meath started to dominate around the middle and must have won 80% of the midfield breaks from then on, ran at the Wexford backs and won the frees.

Wexford started to panic on and off the ball, and the energy seemed to just drain out of them. Every time we crossed the halfway line in possession we were clueless, and when we'd turn over the ball Meath counter-attacked at speed and (here's the big difference to me) they backed their forwards to beat their man one-on-one and that's just what they did.

The few times we broke forward after that we delayed and delayed, and then tried to play these crazy "killer" passes to open them up which never came off.

In the end we were lucky to lose by only 5.

We were still only 2 points down with about 5 minutes to go but you could see we were a beaten docket. That was the most depressing thing, and the bench offered nothing extra.

Fair play to Meath. Thy would have preferred a better battle to prepare them for the final, but I give them every chance against Dubs.

[Hardy]

So anyway - what did yez think?

[Jinxy]

Backs started off shaky, tightened up a lot in the 2nd half.
Keoghan coming back to form.
King is way too slow of foot and thought for number 6.
Midfield got a grip in the 2nd half but we HAVE to try something different here.
I was disappointed that Wallace wasn't used better.
Brayer kept going and came good in the end but by rights he should have been gone at half-time.
If Newman can start nicking a couple of points from play he'll be a serious find.
Anything happens Graham Reilly and it's good night and good luck.

[Hardy]

I agree with pretty much all of that. All I'm really interested in is seeing progress and signs of the right approach and attitude and I'm happy on all counts. We certainly still have problems in the backs. We still have a huge hole at CHB and Wexford poured through it for a long time. I'm encouraged that the bench saw the problem and replaced Caoimhín - that's progress from the days when we watched this happening for 70 minutes and did nothing. Though I'm disappointed it took 40 minutes. Caoimhín has a place in the squad, at least, but not at CHB.

I think there's a serious lack lack of pace in the defence and that's worsened by having the wrong players in the wrong places and by the fact that our half forwards don't defend enough. I'd put Kevin Reilly at CHB for starters. For me, he's a better CHB than full back and Menton is a better full back than Reilly and also a better full back than he is a corner back.

If we can sort out the defence, everything else is progressing in the right direction. Though I'm a bit puzzled as to why Joe doesn't start, unless it's a strategy to finish with your best fifteen. I know he didn't set the world alight when he came on, but that's just the way the play ran. I suppose it's consistent with the pace strategy, but still, you can't afford to ignore class and leave it on the bench.

We do have great pace in attack (though I was also disappointed that Wallace didn't get opportunities to display his velocity!). We are doing the right things at midfield, even if we struggled for a while yesterday. For instance, we now see our players anticipating the breaking ball. It's bizarre that this should be new, but it is. The management seems to be intelligent, makes most of the right calls and has the right tactics in place. Though how we'd cope with a Donegal-like system is something to wonder about.

The objective is not a Leinster title this year. It's to build a team that can challenge for a Leinster title next year and maybe go further after that, if possible. I can't complain about how we're going about that so far.

Colm O'Rourke's comments on the project were interesting: the work is being done out of the public eye, "which is a change" and good people are in charge, whom everyone trusts and who have no egos but are in it for the good of Meath football.

[Jinxy]

Yeah I was delighted to see MOD make the right changes at the right times.
With regard to Colms comments, I think we have progressive people in charge of our underage teams now so hopefully they get all the support they need.
The likes of McCaffrey, Mannion, Cooper, Kilkenny etc. for Dublin have had the best of everything as they developed from u-14 up.
You can't bridge that physical gap if you wait till the lads are senior before you start.
We can't get to Dublins level with the current team.
It's the lads that are u-16 & minor now that we need to prepare for that challenge.
That's not pessimism, it's realism.

[Declan]

Fairly spot on Hardy but I disagree with your observation re midfield - Don't think Meade or Gillespie are the answer and while they did anticipate the breaking ball a bit better they still look a bit "short"

Re the underage stuff Meath are about 10 years behind the "top" underage set ups but on the evidence of what I've seen with the U16s this year are definitely heading in the right direction

[Jinxy]

Declan, how the hell can we be 10 years behind the top teams at underage!
Do ye put them on weights programmes in baby infants now?!
Actually..... don't answer that.

[Declan]

Whatever about the sports science/nutrition approach Jinxy I know from personal experience of how shambolic the underage structures and organisation has been in Meath for the last decade. Shambolic is being kind to them as well. However I have noticed a vast improvement in the last year particularly with the U16 squad. Not that I'd be hoping they get their act together    

[Jinxy]

Stop spying on us.