Replying To Royal.Legend:  "Very funny coming from someone that calls themselves sam1996"

Replying To sam1996:  "Yes imagine someone calling themselves after their earliest memory...hilarious"

Replying To seadog54:  "did James Mac play for UCC tonight"

Replying To seadog54:  "did James Mac play for UCC tonight"

Replying To bert09:  "No, out for the cork game.

Who replaces him?"

Replying To bert09:  "Is this a thread about the upcoming game against Cork or another paean for glory days in the distant past?"

Replying To jackhackett:  "It probably depends on who might come back into contention from the likes of Harnan, Flanagan and Tobin.

If Harnan is back available then he might slot in at 5.

If Tobin or Flanagan are fit again then they could come in at midfield with Shane McEntee dropping back.

Eoin Lynch did well when he came in against Armagh so he is another option. That would probably mean Keogan slipping across to 5.

Another half back on the panel is Gavin McCoy and there's not much between him and Lynch.

Niall Hickey who has been used as a wing forward in his appearances to date is usually a back or midfielder for his club so if he is back fit he might be a left field choice to replace James.

Of course the reigning player of the year while a completely different style of player is also an option."

Replying To royaldunne:  "Huge loss if James is out. Our best player this year imo. Not easily replaced , but we have both mccoy and lynch who could fill the role for cork game."

Replying To Aloblack:  "Absolute disaster if he's out IMO. Yes we have solid options like lynch and McCoy to come in but neither of them or anyone else available to fill that roll possess the ball carrying ability of mcentee. That part of his game has been phenomenonal so far in the league and I don't have the stats of course but I'd imagine he's been the source of a hell of a lot of our attacking moves and scores we've got from him carrying the ball forward. He draws defenders in and creates space for others with those piercing runs thru the middle. Hopefully he makes it."

Replying To Furlong1949:  "Thanks Royaldunne I appreciate it. When I go off on one of my long winded messages I always hope I make sense as I have tendency to cover 16 points in 1 paragraph. Thanks for the comments.
Regards Ollie he knows his stuff. A great louth supporter. And always fair towards Meath.

Just a short point ( which means 16 paragraphs). I think Nally has been a great appointment. The role of a coach has increased dramatically in recent years. Galvin is manager , Sherlock is coach. Eamon Fitz Maurice had Cian O Neill as coach. Donie Buckley has been coach for kerry then Mayo and back to kerry again this year. Tony McEntee has been coach to Mayo in 2016 and 2017. Lally was coach for Galway last year when they had their best year since 18 years. He was also Tyrone coach when they won Sam in 03. Harte has always being manager with lally coach in 03 and Donnelly coach in 05 and 08. And Stephen O Neill is currently coaching Tyone. Look at hurling limerick coach last year who coached limerick to Liam , he was coaching Clare when they won All Ireland in 2013. All the top teams have quality coachs.

Sean Boylan and Mick Dwyer were man managers. They werent really coachs. Boylan was man manager genius. But he did very few tactics. The same with Dwyer . Susposedly this year Andy has done allot of one to one talking with players.

Im not certain but I d say Nally has done most of coaching. Nally does seem.to be out and out coach. We have being falling between two stools in recent years with a possession and kicking game. This year we look much more direct attacking. The key now is to keep Nally. There are very few quality coachs in thr country. If u find one u need to keep him. And while coachs don't always make good managers. If Meath were to make real progress over the next few year under McEntee and Nally , Nally as a future Meath manager is a runner. It seems to me he cud one best coachs in leinster. And if Meath progress in next few years with Nally aboard Nallys reputation will sore. Look at how Donie Buckley is so highly thought of.

As I said if we get promotion and keep improving over this year and next year. It is essential to keep Nally part of the set up. Rodgers also seems to be great choice. Our kickout strategy and breaking ball has improved this year. We are far from the finished article, but we r going in the right direction and we are seen real progress and real improvement. Promotion this spring could be pivotal. For me the three most important things for Meath football this year are the seniors to gain promotion. The minors to win leinster. And the under 20s to at least reach leinster final and then hopefully go on to win leinster. The minor and under 20 leinster championship are so important . We should be winning another minor title seen our players won Gerry Reilly cup and Dublin minors were in recent months annihilated by kerry. Of course you never know with young lads. But it those seem we have strong minor team this year

And with players with leinster minor medals in their pocket , we should definately sud be contenders at under 20. As I said I know u never know with young lads. But we need a under 20 title so badly. We need to start to see provicial sucess at under 20 titles soon. To build on our minor sucess.

For the seniors. Carlow will be tricky. But it does seem to me we cud looking at Meath v laois leinster semi final. Laois are our bogey team. And our flying at the moment. Winning game after game in last 2 years and I expect to see them in div 2 next year. That cud be a massive game. But we should beat Offaly. Carlow cud be another longford but if we continue our early season form we wud be capable of beating Carlow. But whoever win v Laois and Westmeath I think that will our big game in championship. Win and we r in leinster final for the first time in 5 years and reach leinster final we r one win away from super 8. My gut feeling is we will.win promtion reach leinster final but be beaten in back door. Overall that wouldnt be a bad season. Under Super 8 format , a young up and coming team cud be destroyed by playing possibly three top division 1 teams in 1 month. look at what happened to Roscommon last year. Reaching the super 8 next year after hopefully a spring in division 1 wud be the ideal preparation for super 8. But still if we got to Super 8 and won promotion I think we wud all agree that wud be a great season and a huge improvement.

Beating Cork is so important. Cork always up their game v Meath. They never forgave for beaten them in 4 All-Ireland finals in 50 years. We were their bogey team up to 2000. But since 2000 as far as I can see we have failed to beat them. There was 2007 semi final. Two league game recently. There was at least two league games in 00s which were all.Cork wins. And even in 99 they defeated us in national league div 1 semi final when in the worst game I ever saw Cork beat Meath by 0-6 to 0-3. By the end of the year both teams were in an All Ireland semi final.

If the score is Meath 0-2 Cork 0-1 on Saturday I wouldnt really care. The result is paramount. But if Cork again are not firing on all.cyclinders then Meath should make sure to go full throttle and really hit Cork early and make sure their confidence stays low. A big Meath win could be a possibility. A Meath loss cud also happen. But if we r improving and Cork are in disarray we should really go for a comprehensive Meath win. I hope that doesnt jinx us and I wud take 1 point win. But this is what a team that whats to play in Division 1 wud do to Cork. Look at what Kerry Tyrone and Clare have done to Cork recently.

If we see something like that from Meath it would set us up for basically a promotion decider in Navan versus the old rivals kildare. Whoever wins that cud have one foot in div 1. We r improving and going in right direction. But we need to finish the league the way we started it. If we do we have a mighty chance of promotion.

Heres hoping Dublin will be Navan and we will be going to Castlebar and Tralee and Clones next spring. That would be brilliant for this young team. And for the Meath supporters. I can safely say without a doubt everyone here would agree with this. Meath football is sick to the teeth of division 2 football. 1 year in divsion 1 you wud learn more about ur team and ur players wud learn more in 1 year in.divsion one then ten years in division 2. Hopefully the 13 year long wait since we were promoted to div 1 and 21 year long wait since we played in 8 team division 1 is nearly at an end. Meath Division 2 champions 2019. I would celebrate that. We all.wud. Heres hoping it will become reality. It is 20 years since we won a national title. The year 9 is always good one for Meath. All Ireland champions in 1949 and 99. And our last All Ireland semi final was in 2009. Hopefully 2019 will be another great year for Meath football with the number ending with 9."

Replying To royaldunne:  "Huge loss if James is out. Our best player this year imo. Not easily replaced , but we have both mccoy and lynch who could fill the role for cork game."

Replying To browncows:  "He is a very good player but our best player is the centre back and the guy who against Armagh carried the ball into easy scoring range before being fouled for the two frees that changed the game in the second half, when is was beginning to slip away."