Just a little side note on the game. I think mickey burke should be congratulated for his courage and dedication playing yesterday after the tragic death of his cousin peter burke whose funeral took place yesterday evening and burial this morning. A truly courageous act from the man and his performance in my opinion his best all year I hope was a tribute to his deceased cousin peter
That's a good question and I don't know what I really expected. I have been very critical of their efforts for some time. However I did say that I liked what I saw in Carlow and Tullamore. Lads really wanted to perform admittedly against weaker opposition. One thing that always struck me about Meath teams since I started watching them about fifty years ago was the way they thrived on adversity. I was hoping that this trait would come to the fore yesterday and it did. Now that part of it didn't surprise me. However that alone is not enough to win any game. You must have the players, whichI think we now have, and we have to have a game plan which we probably now have. Some of these things were sadly lacking during the league and that is why I would have been so disappointed at their efforts then. They were superb yesterday to the extent that I didn't despair at the Kirdare goal but when Peadar stuck it in the net I was fairly confident that we had won the day. The next day will be different and I will say at this stage that I don't know what to expect re the result. However I make this prediction - a two point difference one way or the other.
The real Árd Rí (Meath) - Posts: 990 - 02/07/2012 17:26:54
1207596
1196166 typical meath fans. they struggled to beat the mighty carlow but yet they have the nerve to show complete disrespect to offaly! anyway, if i was you lads i wouldnt bother heading to croker because yous have no chance.
kildare = division 1
meath = division 3
EH WHAT YA GOT TO SAY NOW SUNCROFT ME AULD PAL????
royalrover good point it cant have been easy for mickey yesterday also peter burke was a life long friend of young tobin from blackhall gales.it makes both there performances even more remarkable
Good performance yesterday. I would hold back on the superlatives although Gillespie and Keoghan deserve special praise, no passengers in Croke Park.
Let's be honest, we got lucky with the sending off, the first yellow was innocuous. Both teams lacked a real cutting edge in the first half. Second half Kildare came out of the blocks and nearly blew us away. We reverted to type after the break, loose marking, not defending the forty as a unit, driving kickouts down the middle where Kildare could swallow us up. Kildare waltzed through our backs for very handy scores at times.
It was the first goal that killed them. They still fear us, that's clear. I would fear for us against Dublin to a certain extent. If the Brogans hit form, if we keep giving away turnovers Dublin will counter into the space behind the half-backs. Banty hasn't suddenly turned into a great manager.
There was definitely no way I could see Meath beating Kildare yesterday prior to the game. The fact that we had a number of players who were physically a lot smaller than the Kildare and I had a fear we could be physically dominated. Over the last few years Kildare have had a strong midfield and I didn't envisage us winning enough ball there either cleanly or from breaking ball. Having to take Menton out of the half back line to replace Reilly I felt was the final straw as it removed a physical player from that line and Reilly had a good record when playing against O'Connor. To say I was pleasantly surprised though with how the game panned out yesterday is a bit of an understatement. The older players showed good leadership, with Mickey Burke putting in a very good shift in what I'm sure were difficult circumstances. The younger players have added a pace and verve that we have not had previously and this was instrumental in the victory as we were able to break the tackle and get into space between the half back and full back lines which created space and earned frees.
I felt meath showed real character yesterday and while kildare had gone ahead a couple of points meath had pegged them back before the sending off. Then bang kildare goaled and again they showed great resolve to come back. Final point i will make her is that i dont believe the kildare goal should have stood, i thought it yesterday in croker and i watched it back several times on you tube and i still believe it was a free out. The final pass delivered to the Kildare scorer was illegal, basically the ball was thrown. There was no closed fist and no clear striking action. Free out!