Meath Forum

Galway Vs Meath

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Concern was on the radar after the OByrne cup games.
I thought we picked as good a team as we had and that's most worrying
Hard to see a recovery from this hammering and relegation is almost a certainty

Brownepat (Meath) - Posts: 532 - 30/01/2022 19:32:36    2397282

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Replying To Royal.Legend:  "Most over rated meath player in the last 40 years in my opinion, how was he against dublin in all them hamerings, or the ones against kildare donegal mayo etc."
I think slamming keogan is pathetic and shows a lack of any sort of football knowledge really disrespectful too.

southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 937 - 30/01/2022 19:38:30    2397284

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The annual meltdown is well underway I see. It was early this year with some posters opting to start during the o bryne cup.
Team is well capable of a promotion push. 4 home games and relatively fair away games. Roscommon game is massive. Win and momentum can pick up. Lose and were in a relegation fight with a demoralized panel.
Could do with some of those injuries healing quick though.
Long way to go yet

edd (Meath) - Posts: 48 - 30/01/2022 19:54:14    2397288

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Replying To southmeathgael:  "I think slamming keogan is pathetic and shows a lack of any sort of football knowledge really disrespectful too."
Maybe that comment was intended as a wind up like adding fuel to the fire type of thing. We all know Donal has been the most consistent player, and heart of the team for years... However these comments add to the comedy value of this forum.

nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1266 - 30/01/2022 20:08:35    2397295

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Up there with the loss to Westmeath. Disgraceful. Not only Andy. Them players need a kick up the ass too. Every single one of them.
I'm disgusted , no other words.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 30/01/2022 20:22:57    2397302

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Where do you start?I predicted a tight game (what do I know)but that was so poor from Meath.Not to score untill 10 or so minutes into the second half is unbelievable (gale of wind I know) but Galway scored 2 points in the second half before we finally registered a score.Missing players? so were Galway,dreadful conditions? same for Galway,it was just so poor wrong options time and time again,poor passing,handling etc basic skills of the game.I hate coming on here like keyboard warrior slating the Management/team but that was embarrassing to say the least.I dont doubt the management/teams commitment they give up their time and only want the best for the county but something is clearly not right at the moment.To got out and out a performance in like that after the green shoots (minors winning)knocks the feel good factor we experienced in the county last year.Im expecting a big performance (improvement at least)next week at home.If we can somehow get a win it could kickstart us but another showing like today and serious questions need to be asked and answered.There is no point limping along for the rest of the year (with management)if this is what is going to be turned out.Next week is a massive game now for the team but more so for management another defeat like today and I think it's time to cut them loose and start afresh.I wont give up on it yet and will be there next week roaring them on.Fair play to Galway on the win thoroughly deserved could have won by more.They have some good footballer's but Walsh is a class act.

Proudroyal (Meath) - Posts: 294 - 30/01/2022 20:27:34    2397304

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Replying To MillerX:  "I agree to County Board don't have anything really to do with picking the team..but they have showed bad judgment and that what I was referring to. The Flynn debacle, they chickened out, yes , then came the real bout of ineptitude, in mid July Dublin beat Meath in Leinster s/f. Surely if any review of the management team's performance was to be undertaken it should have taken place in the week(s) afterwards and with a recommendation to be put to delegates for the August meeting. Ah no, that would be the efficient thing to do, instead the waited and then dropped their bombshell in October only to have it firmly rejected by delegates for no other reason than it was left far too late and virtually all potential candidates had been hovered up by EFFICIENT Co Boards and clubs. Now Andy McEntee knows quiet well, I assume, that he has eight serious enemies within the executive so essentially 'his days are numbered' or that his freedom to express his independence has been seriously questioned. In those circumstances enthusiasm and judgement wane as he has to constantly 'look over his shoulder' where individual displays become more important than the campaign.

After today's result many will settle for survival in D2 but many will still demand promotion. I fear a year has been lost. But then all is well….the top table, with their assistants were returned, en masse."
"in mid July Dublin beat Meath in Leinster s/f. Surely if any review of the management team's performance was to be undertaken it should have taken place in the week(s) afterwards and with a recommendation to be put to delegates for the August meeting. "

Very true. Well said. That was time to act.

Issue was though that no obvious replacement. Maybe Kevin Reilly? Go back to Sean Boylan for a few years with Kevin Reilly as selector and understudy ? Cian Ward be interested as an understudy? I'm talking intelligent articulate men who'd be smart enough to grasp different approaches and bring in different expertise … not the headless passion merchants bringing us nowhere.

Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1352 - 30/01/2022 20:32:03    2397306

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Times like this that we need Furlong on here to give us a lift.

Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1352 - 30/01/2022 20:46:26    2397314

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Why is it when Meath lose a game, is their always this dooms day end of the earth reaction?

First point, it was a terrible performance, no hiding from that, players will be first to admit it and management also. Was this performance down to management alone? No. Anyone trying to insue that it is Andy McEntee's fault and his and his alone is just the usual soccer style 'supporter' who wants to sack the manager and all that nonsense.

With the squad that is available to Andy at the minute, did anyone genuinely think Meath should be winning that game? Even on a good day, meath have a bad record against Galway and they are always hard to beat at home in the league. Meath are currently down Bryan Menton, Ronan Jones, Conor McGill, Séamus Lavin and James McEntee. Five of our most experienced and consistent performers since Andy took charge. People just need a bit of a reality check. We are not near the level of Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone etc at the moment. Nowhere near it. We have some very good players but not players at the level of those teams. We don't have a Rian O'Neill style forward, or a Galway Shane Walsh, or a Daniel Flynn from Kildare. We have good forwards, but not at the level of those mentioned. Also our full back line today have never played together in a competive match before I would bet. Robin Clarke was injured for two years, Ronan Ryan has been there but Eoin Harkin is only in the team now. I won't give up on this team after today's performance, however. They are still good enough to go out and beat Roscommon next Sunday in Navan and a new perspective can be put on things. They are nowhere near as bad a team as they showed today, but neither are they as good as some people unrealisticly think they are.

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 997 - 30/01/2022 20:55:09    2397318

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Replying To southmeathgael:  "I think slamming keogan is pathetic and shows a lack of any sort of football knowledge really disrespectful too."
For anyone to say that Keogan is overrated knows very little about football. He has been our best player over the past 6 or 7 years. He always performed on the big occasions and always got the better of his direct opponent. A class act on and off the field

latouche25 (Meath) - Posts: 532 - 30/01/2022 21:14:13    2397325

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Replying To latouche25:  "For anyone to say that Keogan is overrated knows very little about football. He has been our best player over the past 6 or 7 years. He always performed on the big occasions and always got the better of his direct opponent. A class act on and off the field"
He's been poor the last two years if you follow meath football you should of noticed.

Royal.Legend (Meath) - Posts: 681 - 30/01/2022 21:25:00    2397330

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Replying To latouche25:  "For anyone to say that Keogan is overrated knows very little about football. He has been our best player over the past 6 or 7 years. He always performed on the big occasions and always got the better of his direct opponent. A class act on and off the field"
Meath player of the decade and one of our best ever players let down badly by a decade of poor management and stewardship.

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1807 - 30/01/2022 21:44:09    2397336

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Replying To Crinigan:  "Times like this that we need Furlong on here to give us a lift."
the way you miss his novels

WhyTheLongFace (Meath) - Posts: 934 - 30/01/2022 21:49:41    2397339

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Cannot understand why there is so much negativity regarding the result.
When I seen the team I feared a hiding to be honest.
I will never knock any man that goes out and plays for the jersey and county however we are simply an average team,, I have been saying it the last two years.
Just because we are Meath we expect more but we are not a top ten team and perhaps top 15 at the moment.
We are in a relegation battle, nothing more.
I agree that maybe we should have went for new management with different ideas and a 3 year plan but there was nobody screaming for the job in fairness.
Down, Offaly and ourselves scrapping for survival in my opinion.

thelutch (Meath) - Posts: 1073 - 31/01/2022 09:08:26    2397354

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Up there with the loss to Westmeath. Disgraceful. Not only Andy. Them players need a kick up the ass too. Every single one of them.
I'm disgusted , no other words."
Far worse than the loss to Westmeath, we played well for 50 mins in that match yesterday we didn't score for over 50 mins.....

McEntee on borrowed time for years, has he all yes men around him afraid to go against him?,

We will do well to survive in Div 2 under his tenure, I was reading posts last week talking about promotion, have these people been watching different matches to me over the last few years....

AthboyCelt (Meath) - Posts: 148 - 31/01/2022 09:14:41    2397355

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Looking back, yesterday was bad from start to finish.
Only two positives to take for me were we limited Galway for the first 25 minutes and then the flood gates opened. I thought Clarke, Ryan and Harkin done very well given this is the first time they have played together in the fullback line (excluding OBC). Secondly subs who came on won ball in the forwards which the lads who started couldn't do.

After yesterday there is enough blame to go around.

County Board have really failed us as supporters in recent years, the lack of a review last year into Andy's term, not supporting Flynn then on a club front with the Premier championship and lack of second and third team games. They have piggybacked off the minor and lady success which they didn't have much involvement, a lot of that has come through the coachs. Some at the top table need to go, no point in looking for the managers head when there's people who support him and turn a blind eye to his antics.

On the management, they got the team wrong from the start, too many lads of a similar build in the forwards. Captain has to also be questioned again. The one that annoys me the most is the lack of substitutes, it took us until the 46th minute to make our second change. If that was any other county or a good club side, at least 2 if not 3 of the forwards would be coming off at half time. Not scoring in the first half was a new low but only creating 3 or 4 opportunities to go with that shows the lack of creativity.

For the players it's disheartening. I've been in dressing rooms were there has been one sided games or your beaten at half time but after 20 minutes they threw in the towel and showed no fight. There was no leadership on the pitch, Keoghan didn't look interested. Costello, Conlon and McMahon all failed to track runners at different stages, McEntee went forward at one point and Galway turned us over he took his time getting back with very little urgency. Up front Wallace and Conlon couldn't win their own ball, Shane Walsh hardly moved from inside the 21 and it looked like none of the 6 forwards wanted to know. First thing I would expect from any Meath team is hardwork that didn't happen yesterday with 10 of the lads.

UsernameInvalid (Meath) - Posts: 403 - 31/01/2022 09:18:32    2397358

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If that were a junior b outfit yesterday, the majority would be accused of being out all night on the town. Even if they were, one or two would show up well and there would be a bit of fight after a half time team talk bashing. Unfortunately I'd be surprised if any of those players were out on the town Saturday night. As Oisin McConville said last night, it was completely abject and inept. We are a laughing stock in the country, with the Management, County Board, Club Delegates and players all responsible for this mess. We are now at an all time low. This is no an over reaction. This is fact!

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 31/01/2022 09:21:01    2397360

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Have avoided the forums for a very long time, not a massive fan of the new format across the board.
How and ever seeing as the NFL is back, and after being at the game in Galway, I felt I should add some of my insight.

1) Throughout the time of McEntee, there has been some highs - I'd say the league campaign of 2019 when we topped the group and only lost two games to Donegal (which could have been won). Another high point was bouncing back after a very bad loss to Dublin in that year's Leinster final to beat Clare and reach the Super 8's, even if it was a doomed venture from the start. It was huge progress for a county which had been in the doldrums for a decade at the time. Victories over Armagh, Cork, Kildare, and other notables that year was very refreshing. Another high point I would say was getting to back-to-back Leinster finals in 2019 and 2020 (despite the fact we avoided both Kildare and Dublin in the process), but how and ever. Meath under McEntee in those years found a level where they could readily compete and to his credit, he made a competitive team out of in some cases, very average players, and in most cases slightly above average. He did a great job from 2019-2021 and there was evidently massive player buy-in. He took a team of guys who had been let down by the previous management and a squad of players who had not been trained and built up as kids to the highest standards and he made something out of them, largely because he focused on the best athletes available, and a game plan which relied on an attacking structure based around that athleticism, and very high levels of fitness.

2) There has also been some huge shortcomings, I believe they are predicated on the fact that Meath of McEntee are such a limited team in many respects. They successfully found themselves getting into a position to challenge the best teams in the country, but when they got there they were found to be falling far short of what's needed to actually perform at that next level (pinpoint kick outs, free taking, attacking flair and variety, physicality, mistakes). As a result, periodically they were shown up, namely against Dublin. I wouldn't necessarily include our adventure in division one because Meath did very well in some of those games, although they were miles off.

My point in the two above paragraphs is to point out that these are the two prevailing series of facts around Meath under this manager. Other factors are his selection and his handling of various other incidents in his time at the helm, and his on-field and camera persona. However the thing that swung the tide in his favour in my eyes was that the squad generally seemed to buy into him and in my view he was the best man for the job as a result. I'm not sure that's the case anymore. I've frequently said since 2017/2018 said that a poor manager would have us interminably in division 3, as that's what the level of many of our players is without the right structure and the excellent fitness levels and conditioning required to be superior to that general level. We are succeeding at minor and ladies purely because of the size of the county and the availability of raw material in those codes, but senior is a different thing altogether. The debate around the manager needs to start again as in Salthill we were very poor. The players didn't look at all ready or at all prepared for the game. Some looked like they had come full circle from 2017 to 2021 and back to 2017 again. Perhaps the time is right to ask if the players are enjoying their time on the pitch and to ask if the manager has taken them as far as he can, because to me that performance felt like it was the ending of an adventure, and the closing of curtains on an era of Meath football. I don't see any positives to take from the game only that there are games coming up shortly to put it to bed. And to reiterate I've always had the back of this manager and this team.

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 596 - 31/01/2022 09:51:15    2397372

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "Looking back, yesterday was bad from start to finish.
Only two positives to take for me were we limited Galway for the first 25 minutes and then the flood gates opened. I thought Clarke, Ryan and Harkin done very well given this is the first time they have played together in the fullback line (excluding OBC). Secondly subs who came on won ball in the forwards which the lads who started couldn't do.

After yesterday there is enough blame to go around.

County Board have really failed us as supporters in recent years, the lack of a review last year into Andy's term, not supporting Flynn then on a club front with the Premier championship and lack of second and third team games. They have piggybacked off the minor and lady success which they didn't have much involvement, a lot of that has come through the coachs. Some at the top table need to go, no point in looking for the managers head when there's people who support him and turn a blind eye to his antics.

On the management, they got the team wrong from the start, too many lads of a similar build in the forwards. Captain has to also be questioned again. The one that annoys me the most is the lack of substitutes, it took us until the 46th minute to make our second change. If that was any other county or a good club side, at least 2 if not 3 of the forwards would be coming off at half time. Not scoring in the first half was a new low but only creating 3 or 4 opportunities to go with that shows the lack of creativity.

For the players it's disheartening. I've been in dressing rooms were there has been one sided games or your beaten at half time but after 20 minutes they threw in the towel and showed no fight. There was no leadership on the pitch, Keoghan didn't look interested. Costello, Conlon and McMahon all failed to track runners at different stages, McEntee went forward at one point and Galway turned us over he took his time getting back with very little urgency. Up front Wallace and Conlon couldn't win their own ball, Shane Walsh hardly moved from inside the 21 and it looked like none of the 6 forwards wanted to know. First thing I would expect from any Meath team is hardwork that didn't happen yesterday with 10 of the lads."
100%....the whole Organisation needs to look at itself. Yep....Andy Mc will go this year....But if some of the County Officials that were key to the debacle of October...or indeed some of the Players who decided after 10 minutes that the game was up , remain...then we are just papering over the cracks

Thelongwoodslasher (Meath) - Posts: 401 - 31/01/2022 09:58:49    2397376

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Replying To royaldunne:  "Up there with the loss to Westmeath. Disgraceful. Not only Andy. Them players need a kick up the ass too. Every single one of them.
I'm disgusted , no other words."
Up there with the loss to Westmeath seven years ago? There has been a lot more humiliating and miserable defeats since then under the current regime in case you forgot about these.

2017 league against Kildare, beaten by ten points
2017 Leinster semi final against Kildare, beaten by nine points
2018 league against Tipperary, beaten by eight points
2018 Leinster quarter final, beaten by Longford for the first time since 1982
2019 Leinster final, beaten out the gate by Dublin, we scored one point in the first half (one better than yesterday)
2019 All Ireland quarter final against Mayo, second half collapse when we had them on the rack
2020 Leinster final, rolled over for the Dubs again, scored two points in the first half
2021 Leinster final, decided not to show up for the first half AGAIN

Pat Spillane hit the nail on the head inconsistency within matches and from match to match seems to be our biggest problem.

It's all about confidence as well. The manager's task is instilling confidence into his players. That will get rid of the inconsistent performances but it's not happening for this Meath team.

summerof09 (Meath) - Posts: 324 - 31/01/2022 10:08:32    2397378

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