Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[Ryan O]

Tough introduction for that management group but I think they're biggest fault is they were too loyal and maybe too hopeful to that bulk of players who gave us so much, but now they'll know things have to change. Thats not easy as we all know they were exceptionally close knit group.

The bench was badly laden with forwards vs defenders yesterday,I reckon Baker, Downey and maybe O'Mainin were only defenders with last two probably more attacking half backs.
With Baker I have sympathy for him but he never was good 1vs1 and was thrown in to try and patch a hole. When the momentum was shifting I thought he should have been swapped with Forbes, always chance he may pick up breaking ball and his mistakes wouldn't be punished as ruthlessly futher out the field.
Conlon changed the game for Meath in that 15-20min spell.

[jb77]

Kickouts Won : Meath 35 Derry 18
Shots: Meath 35 Derry 30
Turnovers: Meath 16 Derry 11

Thought our setup on the kickout let us down, Dan Higgins was a choice target but always seemed to be isolated. That flick on Meath got was killer.

[Red10]

Serious questions for this mamagement team. No plan for kickouts and in two games now the subs at the and of games just look like panic moves that cause confusion. Subbing the subs in two games shows desperation and a serious lack of faith and loyality. I can't see either of those lads committing again for next year and who could blame them. No serious management team is at that sort of stuff. Good luck to trying to get lads to commit to that then get hung out to dry.

[marty34]

Meath were the better team. From the start, they controlled the game. Always in charge and playing the game on their terms.


Strong start by Meath and got the early lead. Derry, playing 'uphill' and against the breeze, were in a good position at half-time I thought.


Meath just controlled game in second half. When Derry got a point to close the gap, Meath hit two or three points in a row to push it out again. That hapoened a few times in the second half. Meath always seemed to have that extra gear when required.


Derry are an average Div. 2 side and you could see that last night. Never looked like beating Meath. Only beating Antrim and losing three on the bounce (Monaghan, Armagh and Meath) in the championship shows where Derry are at.


Disappointing for Derry as I think there was a good crowd in CP.


I think there's a real lack of pace in the Derry team. You need pace in a team nowadays. 

[Topmarks]

First thing, Meath looked a good side and a team who may not win it all but I wouldn't be shocked if they beat a so called top 3 team.

A few things to address. I believe Meenagh needs to stay, we need continuity and someone who can start the rebuild because that's what's needed. Changes to his backroom team and tactics are needed. He was very loyal to his senior players and I would say a good few of them let him down.

If we play man to man which I think we do going forward, we need another man marker in the full backline next year. James Murray, Small, McEldowney need games to see who can do that job.

Cleaned out at kickouts again. I think McGuckin got spooked after the early short went wrong and they should have had a goal. Watching the warmup they spent 10 mins working on short kickouts and that was abandoned early on. Getting lynch in goals will not automatically fix that. Lumping balls to midfield is a lottery at the best of times, and it seemed all the battles in the air and on the breaking ball we're going in Meaths favour. Not sure there is any other midfield options in the county other than what we have so based on that we need better plans, movement and a confident keeper who can mix it up and hit his targets.

Player wise changes are needed. We don't tear up the team sheet and start from scratch but new blood has to get proper game time now. I hope McKinless and Rogers stay about the place as their experience is still needed, but I wouldn't play them in the league bar the the last 1 or 2 games.

I think there is any number of lads who played well in underage sides who should be looked at as well as a few boys who had longer term injuries like Gilmore and McWilliams. It will be interesting who stands out in the club championship.

I would say we should be starting at least 3/4 new names at every league game and see who stands up alongside the likes of Clucky, CD, McEvoy, Forbes, Sargent, Ethan, Murray. Some of our other leaders have it seems become too comfortable in the shirt, playing badly for a stretch of games and there be no consequences. That needs to change, and if it means short term pain for a year or 2 then so be it.

[CookieMonster]

Seems to be some chatter that McFaul was willing to return in January but was told there was no place for him. Can anyone confirm or deny?

[Ryan O]

Serious questions for this mamagement team. No plan for kickouts and in two games now the subs at the and of games just look like panic moves that cause confusion. Subbing the subs in two games shows desperation and a serious lack of faith and loyality. I can't see either of those lads committing again for next year and who could blame them. No serious management team is at that sort of stuff. Good luck to trying to get lads to commit to that then get hung out to dry.

I thought Baker would have been a reasonable option off the bench and that was a good enough call by management at half time, on paper.
But are you really suggesting he shouldn't have been took off yesterday? I think the way things were going the only complaint to management is they left him on too long.

Its a massive call and it will test any players mentality and commitment but based on yesterdays performance it was the correct call.

[Topmarks]

I also felt that because we won so little ball from kickouts in the first and second half, we had to do some amount of running. It felt like we were chasing the ball for long spells all day. I felt this contributed to the last 20 mins where it never felt we had another gear or the energy to up it again.

[jb77]

Seems to be some chatter that McFaul was willing to return in January but was told there was no place for him. Can anyone confirm or deny?

He was, before Christmas didn't suit because of the business and newborn. He came in for Glen in preseason in probably the shape of his life tbh

[Topmarks]

Watching big Sargent tonight I could only think if we had him, Eamon Young on a healthy knee and Oisin Doherty a lad who kicked 13 or 14 in a game recently, all playing U20 this year. That's enough talent to brute force any lack of tactics upfront I think lol

Lol there was serious players in the 20s team, a couple of injuries and brutal tactics go a long way to messing that up. What's the deal with Eamon Young, he played a couple of games earlier in the year but never looked right.

[LoughNeagh]

Seems to be some chatter that McFaul was willing to return in January but was told there was no place for him. Can anyone confirm or deny?

He was, before Christmas didn't suit because of the business and newborn. He came in for Glen in preseason in probably the shape of his life tbh

Physically the strongest man on the panel, good luck to anybody trying to push him about. We're hardly in a position to be turning him away ffs. Was bad enough when I thought it was his own choice, he'll hardly come back now.

Used those skills in the states

[Estimator]

That was a poor performance. We made Meath look v good at times. Concentration was all over the place, spare Meath men in loads of space not being picked up over and over again. Giving away simple turn-overs playing passes that were never on. Lost one from a sideline ball in the second half, and one shortly after as the Derry player had his back to the play - which again happened time and time again. Plus a couple of costly wides in the second half from excellent positions.

Ridiculously slack on the Meath kick out- instead of picking up one Meath player, Derry were passing them from one to the other and running round not knowing who was marking who. And fairly static on our own. McGuckin can't take all the blame for that failure.

I don't think Baker can have any issues about being taken off - think he was done 3 times by the same dummy. The loss of Glass in terms of organisation in the second half can't underestimated either.

Disappointing season. No promotion, no Ulster final. Back to the drawing board - two seasons in and still no better playing with the new rules. When Meath were going forward there was always an outlet in front or off the shoulder. Very rare that happened for Derry. Any runner was isolated very quickly and had to turn back.

Pace wise Meath had the beating of Derry across the board. Even in the first half one of the Meath lads was moving away from Cassidy soloing the ball, while Cassidy was playing catch up. And that's hard to work with.

Talk of changing management is wrong as well - maybe a couple of tweaks in the backroom - but at some point the players have to look at themselves and their performances over the last 3yrs.

We'll win enough to stay in Div 2 next year. But it doesn't look like we'll be challenging for promotion.

[Wildweasel74]

Meath good forwards and a big Midfield, but there Defence is poor. They be beat next day out if they met one of the Div 1 teams. Derry went way bck from even last year, but dont look fit last 15mins, speed wise are slow, i dont see any real tactics, players still getting on,out of form, and the biggest issue, no intensity or bite, Niall O'Donnell come on, showed bite to win 3 balls less than 50/50,which the whole team outside McKinless,had missed the whole game.

[Wildweasel74]

We lost 4 outta the last 6 games since Louth beat us. the games we won, were were poor against Cavan and missed alot against Antrim. Best game was against Cork and i thought then we do sthing this year but just fell away. Look were Cork and Monaghan are at.

[Red10]

Serious questions for this mamagement team. No plan for kickouts and in two games now the subs at the and of games just look like panic moves that cause confusion. Subbing the subs in two games shows desperation and a serious lack of faith and loyality. I can't see either of those lads committing again for next year and who could blame them. No serious management team is at that sort of stuff. Good luck to trying to get lads to commit to that then get hung out to dry.

I thought Baker would have been a reasonable option off the bench and that was a good enough call by management at half time, on paper.
But are you really suggesting he shouldn't have been took off yesterday? I think the way things were going the only complaint to management is they left him on too long.

Its a massive call and it will test any players mentality and commitment but based on yesterdays performance it was the correct call.

If that was the case about being on too long there should have been a lad off after 10 minutes who was roasted 3 or 4 times. I wouldnt advise any fella to go anywhere need this county set up. No loyalty except to the big names and not a clue what they are doing.