Meath vs Dublin 17th June

[Hound]

cant believe ward didnt get a jersey for sunday after his 5 points the last day

Handy man to have in reserve, and no harm for all the forwards to know there's a man waiting in the wings who'll be brought on sharpish if they don't perform. On the downside, it could affect Ward's morale if he's thinking "what more can I do to get into the team?".

[Louth Exile]

It might line up as Bray, Reilly, Byrne, Sheridan, Geraghty, Farrell.

I think you could well be right on this one, I think Bray would be more suited to the wing than the corner myself

[Tatler Jack]

Dubs 3 points up with a few minutes left. Think they will hold out.

Now 4 up...Dubs got the last 3 scores

0-16 to 0-12 final score.

[The Real Laoislad]

When is the Offaly/Dublin match

[cill_dara]

Next week I think, Pillar was complaining about the 1 week break so presume so!

[Jinxy]

Very disappointed with Byrne, King, Ward, Sheridan and Reilly today. The gamble the selectors took in starting Cian Ward didn't pay off. Farrell looked dangerous when he came on. We played the first half effectively with 2 forwards. Stephen Bray however is an absolute legend. Didn't deserve to be on the losing team today. Qualifier draw should be very interesting. I think we need to draw one of the big guns first off. We also need Kenny back. Badly missed today.

[The Real Laoislad]

Ah yeah sure you can't have the mighty Dubs playing two weeks in a row but it's alright for Louth and Wicklow to play 3 weeks in a row

[INDIANA]

thought dublin by far the better team and 7-8 points would have been a better reflection of their dominance. i didn't expect dublin to be so dominant and quietly fancied meath. Bt i think meath are probably not as good as i thought they were. Should have started farrell- but bar casey the dublin backs got to grips with the meath forwards with all bar casey outstanding.
I think whelan and ryan won midfield and with vaughan outstanding up front we seemed to have the edge today. The tight finish will stand to dublin i think and it was nice to get one over the old enemy.
Couldn't understand why meath left harrington on vaughan as he was destroyed- mc keigue was destroyed by brogan as well but alan didn't make it tell on the scoreboard. bar the last 5 mins fay dominated keaney but keaney showed his class by being there when dublin needed him. Bray is a real class act -calling into question how casey remained on him for so long.
All in all a good day for dublin- think meath could go well iin the qualifiers but there are some real banana skins in the qualifier draw.

[Hound]

First of all Graham Geraghty:
Its one thing having your fancy-dan forward who never lays a hand on anyone having a dive, but when you get a so called hard man getting a push in the chest and going down holding his face and screaming in pretend agony, all you can say is Liar, Cheat, Coward, sc**bag.

Otherwise Meath are definitely a coming team. This will do them the world of good. Theyll be as good as Dublin within 1 to 2 years, and may very well surpass them and kick on to challenge for Sam. Some lovely footballers - but will need Fay to stay on for as long as possible. Legend of a full back.

Disagree with Indiana to a small extent. Just because Bray played great doesnt mean Casey had a bad game. Just like Keaney getting some very important scores over the two games doesnt mean Fay was anything less than super. Dublin defended terrificly to a man. I complained after the first game that Meath were the tougher team who were fighting harder. That certainly wasnt the case this time - every Dub on the pitch fought for their lives, and we can't ask more than that. Quality-wise our passing was often poor. Cullen was dire with ball-in-hand, never seen him waste so much ball - Cahill wasted a lot too, but won a lot more. Whelan won midifeld - those Meath supporters waiting for him to go missing, were left waiting. Ryan was super beside him and it would be a big mistake for Pillar to bring back Magee next time - Darren is perfect sub for the last 15 mins.

Worst game I've ever seen Alan Brogan have. Think the missed goal chance early on affected him. But still he popped up for the insurance point off him weak foot, so I'm hopeful itll be business as usual next time. Great stuff from Keaney, who wasnt having the most influential of games, to grab those two points late on. As for Marko - GENUIS!! I'm sure he'll frustrate as much as inspire, but its clear he has to be our number one man from placed balls.

Well done to Pillar Caffrey for once. Definitely outperformed his opposite number. Coyle made a huge mistake not starting Farrell. And also took off Sheridan way too early - just when Joe looked like he might have a half decent game against the Dubs. Great move by Pillar to move Cullen into a sweeper position with Moran going back to half back. IMO that ensured the Dubs win. Generally the substitutions worked, though I wouldnt have taken Shane off.

Hard to see the Dubs troubling Kerry or Tyrone, but hopefully we'll be as good as anyone else out there.

[INDIANA]

Disagree with Indiana to a small extent. Just because Bray played great doesnt mean Casey had a bad game."

generally i agree with most of your views but that's bullshit. A back's contribution is solely derived from the contribution of his direct opponent. Bray scored 4 from play -enough said only playing because Caffrey likes him- it ain't on performance.
I've watched a re-run and casey was roasted. Cahill and cullen got on alot of ball but their distribution at times was dire. but to be fair to both of them they were a hundred times better at getting onto the breaks than the first game.

[agorm]

First of all Graham Geraghty:
Its one thing having your fancy-dan forward who never lays a hand on anyone having a dive, but when you get a so called hard man getting a push in the chest and going down holding his face and screaming in pretend agony, all you can say is Liar, Cheat, Coward, sc**bag.

I dont think that you can say that Geraghty should not have gone down He was pushed full force by Whelan after already being knocked off balance. Maybe you were beside the incident and saw him screaming in pretend agony. I was acroos the pitch and did not see that at the time or later on TV. Geraghty is certainly no angel but he is a player some people love to hate. He almost pulled the game out of the hat. Dont forget some of the majestic performances that he has put in against the dubs over the years.
Your other comments regarding Geraghty should be reported to the moderator.

Regarding the game, while dublin deserved to win for someone to say that they were 7/8 points the better team is just laughable. They only pulled away at the end when Meath needed to commit more to attack. A number of incidents could have gone either way and Meath could have drawn level or even gone ahead.

Coyler probably should have started Farrell but hindsight is always so clear. We have a few serious problems. Some of our backs are slow and we missed kenny's ability to win breaking ball. We dont have a centre half forward, also Joe Sheridan really has departed the last chance saloon - he may do well against a lower quality opposition in the qualifiers but against a top level team on a big day he just does not cut the mustard.

he game should bring the dubs on but they do not seem to be able to get a consistency into their performance but will take Offaly quite easily and set up a humdinger of a Leinster final probably against Laois.

[blast05]

Hound, you're well out of line with one personal comment re Geraghty. You should remove it, no need to resort to that level

Edit: i see agorm has already suggested the same.

A couple of comments:
I'd love to warm to the Dubs but just can't seem to.
This shite of standing in front of the Hill (btw, i thought there was supposed to be a flick for ends for the warm up following last year semi - did Meath lose it twice or what ?) turns me off.
The level of booing for opposition frees turns me off and generally by the second half the other teams fans resort to the same level.
The fans that arrive late - like the 2 lads that arrived today after 20 minutes and were completely tanked and sat in front of me and turned giving the fingers and extreme verbals to the Meath folk around me on every Dublin score - turns me off.
The abuse of the "Maor Uisce" by having backroom staff fulfilling the role running on with instructions - effectively Dublin had 2 or 3 runners today - what is the rule on this ? Should Dublin county board not be banned for this ?
Pillar having the young fella beside him on the sideline near fulltime in most matches - doesn't bug me as such but it would annoy me if i was a Dub. Should the county board not be fined for this ?

I've gone in with an open mind to the last 2 games just looking to be entertained and not taking sides but ended up almost hoping Meath would beat them .. and by jaysus that takes extremes.
Anyway, have a sneaking suspicion Offaly will be much more troublesome next week than what is expected. Dublin might not be able to raise themselves to the levels required again so soon in a game they will be red hot favourites for .....

[stephenite]

Agreed - take that down re his wife.

[INDIANA]

A couple of comments:
I'd love to warm to the Dubs but just can't seem to.
This shite of standing in front of the Hill (btw, i thought there was supposed to be a flick for ends for the warm up following last year semi - did Meath lose it twice or what ?) turns me off.
The level of booing for opposition frees turns me off and generally by the second half the other teams fans resort to the same level.
The fans that arrive late - like the 2 lads that arrived today after 20 minutes and were completely tanked and sat in front of me and turned giving the fingers and extreme verbals to the Meath folk around me on every Dublin score - turns me off.
The abuse of the "Maor Uisce" by having backroom staff fulfilling the role running on with instructions - effectively Dublin had 2 or 3 runners today - what is the rule on this ? Should Dublin county board not be banned for this ?
Pillar having the young fella beside him on the sideline near fulltime in most matches - doesn't bug me as such but it would annoy me if i was a Dub. Should the county board not be fined for this ?

I've gone in with an open mind to the last 2 games just looking to be entertained and not taking sides but ended up almost hoping Meath would beat them .. and by jaysus that takes extremes.
Anyway, have a sneaking suspicion Offaly will be much more troublesome next week than what is expected. Dublin might not be able to raise themselves to the levels required again so soon in a game they will be red hot favourites for .....




Again i re-iterate the point that opposition fans are as bad and if you want to be selective in your judgement then it says more about your intelligence than anyone else. You really are an asshole of the highest order with some of your above comments but i suppose i must make allownaces for the fact that you're a few peas short of  a pod.
As long as we beat offaly i don't care what score it is- after some of the shite we're had to put up with in recent weeks - i'm going to sit back nicely and relax and enjoy and read the comments flooding about how much everyone hates Dublin. And I'll console myself with the fact oh yeah  we  WON.   
C'mon you boys in Blue!

[The Real Laoislad]

Again i re-iterate the point that opposition fans are as bad

No their not The Dubs are the worst every county has them but the Dubs take the biscuit
And no need to tell me about the scary experience  you had at a Laois game 4 years ago you've told me that one on 3 occasions now