Div 2 Final: Meath Vs Roscommon

[Redgreenery]

Congrats to Meath - Div 2 Champions.

[thejuice]

Lovely, First bit of silver ware, for the year, now just the small matter of a Leinster title  

Brian Farrell with a great total for the league of 8-35 (59)

C'mon the Royals

[Jinxy]

Just watching it now. That ref is chronic. I think he's an Armagh man. Looks about 17. As the fella on LMFM said, you wouldn't see that many cards at Christmas time. Good win though.

[Hardy]

This card nonsense is getting out of hand altogether. That ref today seemed to dish out a card or a ticking for just about every 'foul' he whistled. It's making a nonsense of the game and apart from anything else completely negates the effect of the quick free, introduced to speed the game up. The whole thing was a stop-start debacle and as far removed from good, honest, tough football as it could be.

TG4's "delayed coverage" was surely meant as some delayed April Fool joke on the supporters. I watched the game without knowing the score. They showed the first half, one of the poorest halves of football I've seen in a long time. They went in 0-8 to 0-4 and TG4 went for a break. When they came back from the break they resumed the game with the clock at 52 minutes – they just chopped the first seventeen minutes of the second half out of the coverage to get finished on schedule. By this time, though, the score was 2-10 to 0-7! So we missed the significant period of the game when clearly everything happened and missed the only two goals in the game. What kind of half-assed carry-on is that? Delayed coverage we were promised. Deleted coverage we got.

From what I saw, I'm not filled with confidence for the championship. God help us if Brian Farrell gets injured. He scored 2-9 of the 2-12 today (Joe Sheridan getting the other 3) – that's some haul for one player in any match. The only other positive I can take from what I saw is the midfield performance, with Mark Ward starting to fulfil the promise he's shown for some time.

Roscommon looked a truly awful outfit and to concede 12 points to them doesn't say much for our defence, especially when you consider our total dominance of midfield. And our four non-scoring forwards were practically invisible, at least for the 53 minutes of the game that TG4 deigned to show us. Maybe they were brilliant during the mystery period when we scored 2-2!

[Jinxy]

Peadar Byrne still looks like a lad that has won a competition to play for his county. Total headless chicken. Every time he bears down on goal I sit back safe in the knowledge that it'll either be saved or go wide. He's fast. SO WHAT! Not to mention the fact that he is a disciplinary timebomb. I honestly don't think he should be anywhere near a modern intercounty team. Any word on Barry Lynch? Where is Shane McKeigue gone by the way? I know he had a nightmare time with injuries, but he's the sort of lad you want in there. Hard-working, good fielder and can take a score. I totally agree by the way that if Brian Farrell gets injured we're screwed. I was impressed with Fayser again today. The team has a good spine but we need to be more decisive in our play.

[Hardy]

What's the story with Daithí Regan?

[Blacksheep]

Easy win for Meath. I watched this to see how far on Roscommon had come. It looks like they haven't come on very far.

[Jinxy]

What's the story with Daithí Regan?

I totally forgot about Daithí. I believe he had an accident at work a while ago but he's back playing for the club now. He'd be a huge addition. My forward line (if fit) would be HF: Bray, Geraghty, McLoughlin, FF: Regan, Farrell, Ward. Plenty of lads that can take a score and 2 wing forwards that will work back when they have to. I'd move Reilly to centre back and put Moyles midfield with Ward. We'd have a spine as good as any team out there.

[The Claw]

Missed the first half because of traffic in Navan and a serious delay in Virginia.
The option of turning back should have been exercised as it was a lacklustre second half.
Meath stumbled over a bad Roscommon team, with Farrell scoring two scrappy goals.
To deal with some of the points:
Jinxy, I was very impressed with Byrne yesterday and I wouldnt be his greatest fan, looks very fit and fast and has grown in confidence as a footballer and I think he should be a definite starter for the championship. I cannot understand your affinity to Niall McGloughlin, a good club player, good athlete but his football is not good enough for this standard.
As regards the midfield battle (remeber I missed the first half) I thought when ward was taken off that Seamus O Neill cleaned Reilly out of it when he moved in there.
Before I was in favour of Reilly in midfield but not so sure after yesterday.
I think King is a more natural centre back than Moyles but Moyles does not have the aerial ability for midfield so I think he'll have to stay centre back.
A huge positive was the performance of Fayser, class act.
Ref was chronic, he ruined the game, if there was one to be ruined.
Ever the optimist, I think we'll give Kildare a run for their money but this was a bad Rossie team IMHO.

[Jinxy]

I'd disagree about Moyles aerial ability. Great pair of hands although he will give away a bit of size to some midfield combinations. Look what Shane Ryan did for Dublin last year. He fielded more ball than Whelan. Byrne IMHO is the sort of player who will skate around the place, go on a few runs and get a couple of scores against weaker teams. Against the likes of Kildare and Dublin in a cauldron in Croke Park he is the most likely of all the Meath players to throw a stupid elbow or retaliate to a bad tackle. How many times was he put off last year? I still haven't forgiven him for the Wexford game (we were humiliated as a result). I just don't think he has the head for it at this level. Like I said before, I'd have Reilly centre back and Moyles midfield with Ward. If that isn't working out, there are a huge range of options for the midfield diamond (Crawford impact sub). We're fine there I reckon. I'd actually like to change my forward line (and this is if all were fit and available), HF: Bray, Lynch, GG, FF: Regan, Farrell, Ward. Big Joe as an impact sub (too slow for Croker). I thought Lynch going off against Laois last year was a big loss for us. I'd love to see him back in the fold. Anyone know his story?

[agorm]

Missed the first half because of traffic in Navan and a serious delay in Virginia.
The option of turning back should have been exercised as it was a lacklustre second half.
Meath stumbled over a bad Roscommon team, with Farrell scoring two scrappy goals.
To deal with some of the points:

I actually turned back after queuing for over 30 mins to get through Virginia!! It was after 3 at that stage and I reckoned that the 30km to go to Cavan added to a likely long walk would mean that I would miss a lot of the 1st half. I would have turned back earlier only my daughter was with me and didnt want to give up on it.
Give me a trip to Croker anytime ahead of that crap. In future I will thoroughly research the best way to go to Provincial venues - the most direct route probably wont always be best.
I forgot the game was on TG4 so only saw the bit at the end of the tape I did of the hurling. Hard to know about the Kildare game. The player that we are continuing to miss is Trevor Giles. He would transform that forward line into quite a useful outfit. Great to say Fay back and playing well. The guy in the Sunday Indo was questioning what was motivating him to come back. He is right to continue to play whil he can - he will be long enough retired. I'm also glad to see our other club man Brendan Murphy doing well in the goals - he has been pretty consistent in the goals- let's hope he keeps it going against the Lilywhites.
I can only comment on Peadar Byrne against Monaghan and I was surprised as he had dirtied his bib enough times in my mind. Let's hope he has learned from hi mistakes. Bray and Farrell have been super. Big Joe is a worry. I cant figure why cian Ward is not getting a more consistent run. Is he destined to be another in the long line of great club players that fail to make the break at the county level?

P.S. anyone know what the story is on Shane McKeigue, Barry Lynch and Daithi Regan?

[Rossfan]

Missed the first half because of traffic in Navan and a serious delay in Virginia.
The option of turning back should have been exercised

I actually turned back after queuing for over 30 mins to get through Virginia!! It was after 3 at that stage and I reckoned that the 30km to go to Cavan added to a likely long walk would mean that I would miss a lot of the 1st half. I would have turned back earlier only my daughter was with me and didnt want to give up on it.
Give me a trip to Croker anytime ahead of that crap. In future I will thoroughly research the best way to go to Provincial venues - the most direct route probably wont always be best.

And to think people slag the oul' Dubs about making a hames of their occasional trip away from Croke Park.
Ye Meath lads musnt travel to games very often

[The Claw]

I dont think Lynch is worthy of a place. He is competing with Ward, Crawford and Reilly for that midfield/CF triangle. Regan is a good accurate player and would be good to have but Brian Farrell seems to be fulfilling that scroing roll well. I would like to see shane McKeigue play a few games as well, a good ball winner and a good footballer.
Still be worried about Kildare, if J Doyle is playing at centre forward, that there could be trouble as Moyles is not a huge fan of the owl marking.

[Jinxy]

I'd put King on Doyle. i still think centre forward is a problem for us. Do you go for an auxiliary midfielder like Reilly or slot a natural forward like GG in there. Reilly has to be in the team somewhere, so if he's not centre forward where do you put him? Fayser has full back covered, Moyles is doing well at centre back and I'd be reluctant to put Reilly in at midfield. If we play with a two man full forward line maybe it won't be such a problem. Reilly seemed to pick up a lot of ball around half back/centrefield against Monaghan and he has a pretty accurate drive off his left foot. Maybe just have him picking up possession around the midfield diamond and delivering it in long a la Trevor? I'm not comparing him to Giles who was the prototype centre forward as far as I'm concerned but he is a pretty good passer. He lacks speed, but then again Trevor wasn't the quickest off the mark either. I thought the Kildare centre back against Donegal was quite small. Maybe that could work to our advantage. He did get forward a fair bit though, and I don't think Reilly would have the pace to stick with him.

[The Claw]

But does Reilly really have to be in the team? if hismost natural positions are covered than why put a square peg in the round whole. That said, I probably would put him in the team at CF, he is very fit and works hard. He has a huge left boot which sometimes means he can overhit a pass (he'd have to be careful in croker with the big bounce on the field).
I saw him agasint Dublin in the under 21 first round and he was very good at midfield but as I said I was dissapointed with him in the second half on sunday.
Doyle would be palying centre forward so if you put King on him, do you tell Moyles to stay at CB or tell him to move out to the man on the wing?