Ok first of all Kildare were better team and deserved there victory. Now that I have said that a couple of things are really bothering me I have watched the replay and Meath should have at least received 2/3 frees in first half from around 20 metre line. We didn't and that's football. In second half we got a few frees when advantage should have been played but wasn't? Then under no circumstances should our man have been sent off, no justification at all. Ok so all this could be a bad day for ref etc but then GG goal that was clearly not a square ball was given as one even though umpires had decided to give it? On the Sunday Game it was said ref was "thinking of last year" then the panel realized what was said and changed tact. Now I doubt that this post will be allowed but if it is please post your ideas. I was told by a friend within the GAA that Meath would not win this game "no matter what". So regardless of last year etc every team should play on a equal footing.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 06/06/2011 10:58:14    948422

Doyle was awful, there's no doubt about that. You'd be hoping he'd be sent back to the club scene in Wexford and left there as punishment.

The_Ripper (Meath) - Posts: 180 - 06/06/2011 11:26:42    948458

I agree with this, the second the goal went in the ref was always going to find away to disallow it especially as it was geraghty. The umpire was reaching for the flag straight away and ive never seen a ref run as quick in my life to go in and tell them it was disallowed. You could tell the umpire (refs son) was embarrased when the ref told him not to allow it. he knew it was a perfectly good goal.
Kildare did play the better football but you would have to admit they got a lot of soft frees and i counted 3 massive decisions against meath were the ref was defintly wrong. People say it would not of changed result but thats tripe. 14 men against kildare is always going to give them a huge advantage and if goal had stood it would of rattled kildare at that stage and meath would of played with much more fight and confidence.

royalfollower (Meath) - Posts: 77 - 06/06/2011 11:36:39    948477

Lets not get into a whinging state of mind, the better team won. These incidents happen in football and will continue to happen. The only thing I am sick of is people referring back to the Leinster final, that was a year ago now. Let bygones be bygones, every game should be treated on its merits and not on what occured last time out

updaroyal (Meath) - Posts: 1132 - 06/06/2011 11:58:12    948498

I don't think the GAA instructed the referee to prevent Meath from winning as payback for the Leinster Final. To think as much would be very cynical!

My feeling is that the fallout from yesterday's game should focus on two or three things from the GAA's perspective.

1. Will the referee be held accountable? The two calls were marginal but they were crucial, so should the ref be struck off for the rest of the championship?
2. The method for selecting umpires needs reviewing. There is something drastically wrong when a referee can select his own brother and his own son to umpire a game.
3. A match day umpire is nothing more than a flag waver in a white outfit. Surely, their positioning behind the goals means they should have more of a say in square ball like decisions?
4. I am still very disillusioned with the square ball rule. Goals are disputed every year because of it. The fact that the player can't be in the square before the ball only complicates it further. It's surely time for it to be abolished or amended.

It seems the GAA chose to ignore a valuable lesson in last year's Leinster Final. They messed around with HawkEye for a while, perhaps to mislead the public into thinking they were actually doing something. But the problem with umpires was not addressed.

It seems as if they are happy to let these decisions even themselves out over time, and if that is their wish, it worked yesterday. Kildare got their slice of good luck after Benny Coulter's square ball goal last year, and Meath paid for Joe Sheridan's goal in the Leinster Final.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 06/06/2011 12:23:27    948524

There is also the goalkick awarded to Kildare that should have been a '45 to Meath.

From the resulting play, a Kildare player looked to carry the ball over the sideline yet play continued and a pass or two later, Kildare scored a point.

Small things really but disappointing that the officials got them wrong.

Loyal2TheRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 4522 - 06/06/2011 12:28:23    948534

Lads, we weren't good enough. No need to go down the Louth route and blame the world and it's mother for everything that goes against us.
The ref was very poor, but it wasn't him that beat us.

Jinxie (Meath) - Posts: 6347 - 06/06/2011 12:30:05    948535

Look folks. The reality is that Kildare had 18 wides. If even half of those had been scores this could have been a seriously embarrassing defeat. I don't know why the analysts think the sending off was harsh. He struck a player off the ball. Does it matter whether it was a slap or a punch ? And as for the goal it probably should have stood but you can't complain too much after the joke of Joe Sheridan's touchdown last year. I believe the cheers in Louth could be heard in Navan !

thirty1 (Dublin) - Posts: 161 - 06/06/2011 13:01:11    948578

well some points that are being made are valid. last year we had the square ball ignored against down where benny coulter was camped in the box plain to be seen but the ref didnt over rule it and wouldnt listen to complaints, but i believe even if they do introduce hawk eye it wont be able to detect the man in the square before ball comes in., it will purely detect if the ball crosses the goal line or not. I do hope it that it might be able to detect if a ball goes over the bar or wide but dont know that one yet. the score board didnt regester Kildares last point scored by Robert kelly yesterday either it only showed up when the returned to the studion for annalysis and dont get me going on that, Joe Brolly will poke his own eyes out one of these days on that programme waving the hands around.

meath ran out of steam in second half kildare are much fitter and in the end were beating the meath lads to the ball. the long ball didnt work in the second half at all. wicklow tried this in the first game against kildare and they snuffed that option out in the second half against them also. although with wicklow it was long high ball into very short forwards the meath forwards are much taller men. but they are very slow on foot and that showed in the second half.

you will do well in the qualifiers not too many teams will be happy about getting meath in the draw so good luck and who knows we might meet again down the line.

lillymadfan (Kildare) - Posts: 1085 - 06/06/2011 13:42:30    948624

Lads Ive the height of respect for Meath football but threads like this are rediculous saying that we should have had this free or that free. We were robbed of getting to the AI last year with a point not given and a blatantly obvious square ball allowed unlike yesterdays 50-50 call and no one was crying over it. Meaths second point by Paddy O Rourke into the canal end was wide, sitting right behind it and it wasnt even close, neither umpire even looking at it. Ye dont need a Kildare man to lecture yis on football but Ill say this, the days of working the ball up to midfield and driving it into the ff line are over, football has moved on and Meath are getting left behind.

carburycastle (Kildare) - Posts: 203 - 06/06/2011 13:46:44    948629

The thing that puzzled me about the disallowed goal was this.
Why did the referee run in?
Normally, and I am sure we have all seen it in games, the referee blows for a square infringement IMMEDIATELY and indicates the free from where he is standing, so why this time did he run in, generally a ref blows for a square ball well before the umpire has time to go for the flag.
It was very strange the way it happened, also he should have moved all the players away from where he was consulting his umpires before he even started talking to them.
As for the sending off it was a red card end of story, there is nothing in the rule book that says how hard he has to strike the lad or whether it is with a closed fist or not.
Doyle also has a track record on this, in the game where a Cork player was sent off for slapping Kerrys Aidan O'Mahony he was the linesman who told the ref what happened.
Farrell however also has form, he was sent of stupidly a few years ago against the Dubs and in all honesty he wasn't hit hard enough yesterday to react by striking out .
Overall I felt the ref was poor and was giving decisions from way too far away from play.
In the case of the goal he was maybe twenty five yards away and from that distance it is almost impossible to judge something to within a matter of inches which is what he had to do.
Best team won though, and initially I felt they were a lot fitter than us, but having looked at the tape it appears we deliberately allowd them space down the wings and everyone funnelled back in front of goal to block any goal opportunities, so it kind of looked that they were fitter than us, but it might not be so.
Anyway onwards and upwards, and we are almost guaranteed to get Monaghan next time out.

denniswise (Meath) - Posts: 102 - 06/06/2011 13:50:17    948636

ah now boys and girls i remember reading on this website last year meath fans telling louth fans to effectively dry their eyes and that if they were good enough they would have won the leinster final. I think meath fans should adopt this policy now. Ye were beat simple as. If ye were good enough meath would have won.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 06/06/2011 14:45:05    948710

Farrell was asking for trouble. Cant understand or condone his actions in any way. Refs seem to be cracking down on square ball incidents in general. Similar one in Kerry Limerick game the other night was disallowed. It is time the GAA admitted that the square ball rule is imposible to enforce properly

qprmeath (None) - Posts: 434 - 06/06/2011 14:48:13    948717

Meath people please dont go down the Louth road,crying and whinging,we were beaten by a far superiour team in the second half,no comparison with the Leinster final last year,which was a poor match.

jake1 (Meath) - Posts: 268 - 06/06/2011 15:16:56    948749

karma!!! not even close. that geraghty goal would have brought u back into a game u would have gone on to lose anyway because u were inferior to kildare. louth were cheated out of a fully deserved leinster title by the single worst refereeing decision of all time. these meath players are not even close to repaying the gutlessness they showed by not offering a replay last year

townieee (Wicklow) - Posts: 261 - 06/06/2011 15:47:15    948805

The scales of justice are now well balanced. Meath does not owe any apologies for last year . yesterdays decisions squared everything away. There'll be no moaning or crying from Meath folk . good performance from Kildare and lets give some encouragement to Banty and the lads. We have had a rough year in Meath football and the one lesson about life is that things do change. so be ready for when it happens. So its onwards Sons of Tara and get ready for the n ext battle. What would really be something is if we somehow could meet Louth again this year ,,,now wouldnt that be the match of the year???

nemlodoak (Meath) - Posts: 170 - 06/06/2011 15:51:03    948811

gotmilk
County: Fermanagh
Posts: 67

948710 ah now boys and girls i remember reading on this website last year meath fans telling louth fans to effectively dry their eyes and that if they were good enough they would have won the leinster final. I think meath fans should adopt this policy now. Ye were beat simple as. If ye were good enough meath would have won.

With all due respect I do not think anyone has said that Kildare were anything but deserving winners.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 06/06/2011 16:30:19    948862

townieee
County: Wicklow
Posts: 23

948805 karma!!! not even close. that geraghty goal would have brought u back into a game u would have gone on to lose anyway because u were inferior to kildare. louth were cheated out of a fully deserved leinster title by the single worst refereeing decision of all time. these meath players are not even close to repaying the gutlessness they showed by not offering a replay last year

Don't you love being put in your place by someone from a county whose internal discipline record reads like a Stephen King novel, you know nothing about the Meath players so please refrain from ill thought out comments.

Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 06/06/2011 16:37:17    948868

Really sorry to see Meath go out yesterday and would have loved to have seen another Meath/Louth Leinster final. Maybe next year.
Good luck in the qualifiers. By the way I agree with some posters here in that the only way to move on from last year is to go on and win Leinster. Laugh you may.

Weesupporter (Louth) - Posts: 131 - 06/06/2011 17:01:56    948904

All you can ask for is consistency from posters. Last year Louth were on the end of a wrong decision. A goal. Three points.

Every sane GAA person looked at it and seen it for what it was. A very wrong decision. What goes around comes around was the feeling of most reasonable fans.

However the masses of other fans jumped on the bandwagon, demanding replays, retribution. If the greatest wrong ever committed.

Now a year on, we are on the end of wrong decision, once again a goal, or non goal. Three points. Freakishy similar to last year, refs over ruling umpires..

I think I can safely say that every meath fan is still saying, what goes around come around, these things happen. Lets get on with it.

What I want to know is where are the hundreds of poster who were demanding a replay for Louth last year, surely if ye are the defenders of all that is good and right in GAA and you were so angered by wrong decisions last year then ye should be out again in force after yesterday.

I'm not for a second suggesting a replay. Im simply curious as to why nobody else is.?

miteymeath (Meath) - Posts: 98 - 06/06/2011 17:19:02    948931