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Just to add-on, the Meath of Andy McEntee have had a few very big wins and we ought to respect that. If we are serious about our current standing in the game, then the performance and win vs. Clare in the 2019 super-8 playoff stands out. Particularaly when the Leinster final a week or two earlier is taken into account. That game - in a vacuum - was a serious opportunity for Clare football to put its name on the map and have a free shot at the big boys. They were in a far more ideal mental state for that game, free of the type of pressure and expectation the Meath players experience. They have some serious individual players, arguably better than ours, and played out of their skins that day. We have shared all the spoils in the fixture in recent league matches but that game was different. They smelt blood and I feel the Meath of 2013-2018 would have lost that game. To win it and to win it in such an enthralling, ding-dong contest was a big, big boost. The overall team performance was what won that game. The powerful victory over Laois in the Leinster Semi-Final and seeing off a spirited Offaly team in Navan in the same championship deserve a mention. These were huge wins.
Also seeing off Kildare in the league in 2019 - a team who've had our number over the course of the 10s. Kildare are pound for pound probably the biggest underacheivers in the game. They have beaten us by 3/4 goal margins in recent years. To stay in the game in odious conditions and win it with a fairytale spot-kick was sweet. It was the see change in the 2019 league that powered that Meath team on to win promotion. The shortcomings in other games aside - these wins have been very important in bringing Meath back up from the level they were sitting at for several years and id class the win over Clare very highly even amongst some of the wins in the 80s, and 90s.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 30/05/2020 06:48:20
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3 Best wins:
1996 My first and only time (to date) to see Meath in an All Ireland Final. And we won. Was in the Hill right in front of the row. Then afterwards, I got to climb the barrier to get onto the pitch for the trophy presentation. My fondest Meath memory.
2010 V Dublin. Unbelievable weather. 5 Goals scored against Dublin. Was with my mates in the Cusack stand. Literally jumping around the place after every goal. Some feeling!
2007 v Tyrone. Geraghty's goal. Going mad in the Hill. Qualifying for an All Ireland Semi FInal. I remember leaving Croke Park after the game and thinking 'We're back'. We most most definitely weren't back, but it felt like that at the time. Also, great craic ripping down Dublin flags and burning them on Clonliffe road after the game. In hindsight it was pure thuggery, but sure, when in Rome!
3 Worst losses:
1997 Offaly in the Leinster Final. After the year we had in 96, I thought we were invincible. Gutted so I was. That was my first real experience of Meath losing.
2008 Wexford in Leinster. How we lost that game after being 10 points up, I'll never know. What made it worse was the long drive home from Carlow having to reflect on it.
2008 Limerick in the qualifiers. Not only were we beaten, we were humiliated, by a div 4 team. Went on the piss straight away in Limerick City so didn't get to dwell on it too much. Some craic in Nany Blake's!
Selwyn (Meath) - Posts: 383 - 31/05/2020 17:05:21
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Replying To Young_gael: "Just to add-on, the Meath of Andy McEntee have had a few very big wins and we ought to respect that. If we are serious about our current standing in the game, then the performance and win vs. Clare in the 2019 super-8 playoff stands out. Particularaly when the Leinster final a week or two earlier is taken into account. That game - in a vacuum - was a serious opportunity for Clare football to put its name on the map and have a free shot at the big boys. They were in a far more ideal mental state for that game, free of the type of pressure and expectation the Meath players experience. They have some serious individual players, arguably better than ours, and played out of their skins that day. We have shared all the spoils in the fixture in recent league matches but that game was different. They smelt blood and I feel the Meath of 2013-2018 would have lost that game. To win it and to win it in such an enthralling, ding-dong contest was a big, big boost. The overall team performance was what won that game. The powerful victory over Laois in the Leinster Semi-Final and seeing off a spirited Offaly team in Navan in the same championship deserve a mention. These were huge wins.
Also seeing off Kildare in the league in 2019 - a team who've had our number over the course of the 10s. Kildare are pound for pound probably the biggest underacheivers in the game. They have beaten us by 3/4 goal margins in recent years. To stay in the game in odious conditions and win it with a fairytale spot-kick was sweet. It was the see change in the 2019 league that powered that Meath team on to win promotion. The shortcomings in other games aside - these wins have been very important in bringing Meath back up from the level they were sitting at for several years and id class the win over Clare very highly even amongst some of the wins in the 80s, and 90s." To call beating Clare,Offaly and Laois big wins is a bit of an over statement. I am fully aware of our standing in the game at present, however after getting promotion and home advantage we were expecting to beat Offaly with a bit to spare, but only fell over the line thanks to our better fitness levels. Laois had their chances before we pulled away in second half. We got lucky when we drew Clare ( Meath had good wins against them in last few years) and this uninspiring win got us to Super 8s and a chance to play the top teams, more importantly, I saw this as a free shot and great prep. for Division One the following season. Never materialised. These three games were all expected victories and I could not describe them as huge.wins. Maybe if we had retained Div One status or gave the Super 8s a good rattle we could look back and say they played some part in our revival. To compare a victory over Clare with our first Leinster for many years in 86, back to back All Irelands 87/88, the four in a row against the Dubs 91 or wins against Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo in 96 is a bit of a stretch. The real significance of the Clare win for me- is it was our last win in major competition. We are back at the same level we sat at for many years, a very competitive Division 2 (even more so now that championship has been restructured), there are some who will argue that we will be a better side after our spell in top division however this remains to be seen, hopefully we can bounce back and get some really big wins under our belt.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2195 - 31/05/2020 20:12:48
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Replying To seadog54: "To call beating Clare,Offaly and Laois big wins is a bit of an over statement. I am fully aware of our standing in the game at present, however after getting promotion and home advantage we were expecting to beat Offaly with a bit to spare, but only fell over the line thanks to our better fitness levels. Laois had their chances before we pulled away in second half. We got lucky when we drew Clare ( Meath had good wins against them in last few years) and this uninspiring win got us to Super 8s and a chance to play the top teams, more importantly, I saw this as a free shot and great prep. for Division One the following season. Never materialised. These three games were all expected victories and I could not describe them as huge.wins. Maybe if we had retained Div One status or gave the Super 8s a good rattle we could look back and say they played some part in our revival. To compare a victory over Clare with our first Leinster for many years in 86, back to back All Irelands 87/88, the four in a row against the Dubs 91 or wins against Dublin, Tyrone and Mayo in 96 is a bit of a stretch. The real significance of the Clare win for me- is it was our last win in major competition. We are back at the same level we sat at for many years, a very competitive Division 2 (even more so now that championship has been restructured), there are some who will argue that we will be a better side after our spell in top division however this remains to be seen, hopefully we can bounce back and get some really big wins under our belt." I know what you're saying. It is a stretch of course to compare the Super 8 play/off with Clare to our All-Ireland's etc and many big wins in the 1980s and 1990s. Im with you on that. However when considering our championship form from the recent past including losses against Longford (usually sitting at Div.3) and Westmeath (somewhere between Div.2/3 level) and Derry (wildly erratic at Div 2/3/4), and really struggling against Offaly in Navan last year (got out of jail really) then the Clare game was big. 2019 in general was big. I think many people got carried away talking about revivals and so on. I dont compare beating Clare in Tullamore to our big historic games, but it just deserved a mention and a write up.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 31/05/2020 20:57:11
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Replying To Young_gael: "I know what you're saying. It is a stretch of course to compare the Super 8 play/off with Clare to our All-Ireland's etc and many big wins in the 1980s and 1990s. Im with you on that. However when considering our championship form from the recent past including losses against Longford (usually sitting at Div.3) and Westmeath (somewhere between Div.2/3 level) and Derry (wildly erratic at Div 2/3/4), and really struggling against Offaly in Navan last year (got out of jail really) then the Clare game was big. 2019 in general was big. I think many people got carried away talking about revivals and so on. I dont compare beating Clare in Tullamore to our big historic games, but it just deserved a mention and a write up." In fairness its good to read different opinions and analysis. And these days I suppose all Meath wins deserve a mention. I find it hard to analyse the current Meath team, promotion was a step forward, however results thereafter indicate we are still a long way off the top teams. Hopefully on resumption our long injury list will have cleared up and we will see where exactly Meath stand.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2195 - 01/06/2020 14:25:36
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Replying To seadog54: "In fairness its good to read different opinions and analysis. And these days I suppose all Meath wins deserve a mention. I find it hard to analyse the current Meath team, promotion was a step forward, however results thereafter indicate we are still a long way off the top teams. Hopefully on resumption our long injury list will have cleared up and we will see where exactly Meath stand." I find them very hard to figure out too. I must admit I was myself getting carried away during the league, especially after beating Kildare in that quagmire of a game, Cork, Armagh and then seeing off Fermanagh in Navan by 6/7 points. This was Meath's best period of consistency against solid teams in a long time. We were scoring good goals and looked solid at the back. It was great. There were speed bumps and luck in some of those games but we were winning.
The gap between the top teams and the chasing pack (which we're in) is huge. And the gap between the teams inside the chasing pack is minimal so there's maybe 10 teams of Meath's approximate level in the country. Some of the division 3 and 4 teams can also upset the Div.2 sides in one-off games, so you have the top 5/6 then the best of the rest at present. It remains to be seen who can make the jump back to the top table, but I hope we can. Keep an eye on Armagh, Kildare, and Cork. Very talented sides who can make the jump. On the question of decline, it looks like Mayo may be starting to fall-off and after them id say Donegal or Monaghan are unpredictable of the big teams.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 01/06/2020 18:42:03
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Replying To Young_gael: "Just to add-on, the Meath of Andy McEntee have had a few very big wins and we ought to respect that. If we are serious about our current standing in the game, then the performance and win vs. Clare in the 2019 super-8 playoff stands out. Particularaly when the Leinster final a week or two earlier is taken into account. That game - in a vacuum - was a serious opportunity for Clare football to put its name on the map and have a free shot at the big boys. They were in a far more ideal mental state for that game, free of the type of pressure and expectation the Meath players experience. They have some serious individual players, arguably better than ours, and played out of their skins that day. We have shared all the spoils in the fixture in recent league matches but that game was different. They smelt blood and I feel the Meath of 2013-2018 would have lost that game. To win it and to win it in such an enthralling, ding-dong contest was a big, big boost. The overall team performance was what won that game. The powerful victory over Laois in the Leinster Semi-Final and seeing off a spirited Offaly team in Navan in the same championship deserve a mention. These were huge wins.
Also seeing off Kildare in the league in 2019 - a team who've had our number over the course of the 10s. Kildare are pound for pound probably the biggest underacheivers in the game. They have beaten us by 3/4 goal margins in recent years. To stay in the game in odious conditions and win it with a fairytale spot-kick was sweet. It was the see change in the 2019 league that powered that Meath team on to win promotion. The shortcomings in other games aside - these wins have been very important in bringing Meath back up from the level they were sitting at for several years and id class the win over Clare very highly even amongst some of the wins in the 80s, and 90s." We are better than they were but I could not really say we have had any real big wins under Andy. The reason I say this is that we have not really beat any teams I would regard above our level. Being honest the Clare championship win last year was a bit laboured over a team we were expected to beat. While we were underdogs in all matches I am disappointed we have not picked up a win some where in either the 3 super 8's or the 5 division 1 games (even though we were underdogs in all games I would have thought we would win a match out of those 8 games sonewhere). Some good performances (eg. Kerry in league) but still no wins.
bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1400 - 02/06/2020 17:33:24
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Replying To bdbuddah: "We are better than they were but I could not really say we have had any real big wins under Andy. The reason I say this is that we have not really beat any teams I would regard above our level. Being honest the Clare championship win last year was a bit laboured over a team we were expected to beat. While we were underdogs in all matches I am disappointed we have not picked up a win some where in either the 3 super 8's or the 5 division 1 games (even though we were underdogs in all games I would have thought we would win a match out of those 8 games sonewhere). Some good performances (eg. Kerry in league) but still no wins." I have to admit I thought so too. Even two wins would be real progress. In the last three years we should have beaten Tyrone in Navan in the 2018 championship, could have beaten Donegal twice or three times, and in the league this year really should have won the home games vs. Mayo and Galway. Both times we met Kerry in '19 and '20 we played very well too. There are positives absolutely but 0 wins against Division one teams out of maybe 10/12 attempts in Andy's reign is a big worry. Could waffle endlessly about missed opportunities and bad referees etc, but we just havent made the jump to the next level with enough conviction and steel to be winning against these teams. The thoughts of going back into the rabble of Division two give me vertigo.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 02/06/2020 19:38:33
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Replying To Young_gael: "I have to admit I thought so too. Even two wins would be real progress. In the last three years we should have beaten Tyrone in Navan in the 2018 championship, could have beaten Donegal twice or three times, and in the league this year really should have won the home games vs. Mayo and Galway. Both times we met Kerry in '19 and '20 we played very well too. There are positives absolutely but 0 wins against Division one teams out of maybe 10/12 attempts in Andy's reign is a big worry. Could waffle endlessly about missed opportunities and bad referees etc, but we just havent made the jump to the next level with enough conviction and steel to be winning against these teams. The thoughts of going back into the rabble of Division two give me vertigo." hey lads maybe I have been living under a rock but what is going to happen with 2020 leagues. are they going to be finished off. if championship not starting till October when will they get a chance to play them. was just curious maybe we might have another year in div1
thecraw1 (Meath) - Posts: 106 - 08/06/2020 23:28:32
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Replying To thecraw1: "hey lads maybe I have been living under a rock but what is going to happen with 2020 leagues. are they going to be finished off. if championship not starting till October when will they get a chance to play them. was just curious maybe we might have another year in div1" Have read a couple of articles over the last few days and finishing the leagues seems high on the GAA agenda (just to sort out promotion and relegation) the two w/e prior to start of championship looks a good bet. So looking like a return to a Div 2. Everything dependent on virus.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2195 - 16/06/2020 18:07:10
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