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Replying To bert09: "We missed about 1 out of every 2 shots. A trend not dissimilar to last year. How do we improve on this?" Same way of playing, how they are coached with both same management and players I guess will answer your question. A change in one or two of these variables might change the final result however I don't hold out any hope. We are set for a similar or possibly worse outcome to last year as a result of this. County board or management have done little or nothing to address the faults our team has had over the past few years. No point in putting much more thought into this.
winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 511 - 20/05/2021 21:28:02
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Replying To winatallcost: "Same way of playing, how they are coached with both same management and players I guess will answer your question. A change in one or two of these variables might change the final result however I don't hold out any hope. We are set for a similar or possibly worse outcome to last year as a result of this. County board or management have done little or nothing to address the faults our team has had over the past few years. No point in putting much more thought into this." Agreed !!! As you say no point in putting any more thought in this subject. Maybe the wise move is just do not expect progress ,and in that way we wont be disappointed !
nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1227 - 20/05/2021 22:46:33
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Replying To winatallcost: "Same way of playing, how they are coached with both same management and players I guess will answer your question. A change in one or two of these variables might change the final result however I don't hold out any hope. We are set for a similar or possibly worse outcome to last year as a result of this. County board or management have done little or nothing to address the faults our team has had over the past few years. No point in putting much more thought into this." Agreed 100% !!!!
nobull456 (Meath) - Posts: 1227 - 21/05/2021 08:27:57
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Replying To nobull456: "Agreed !!! As you say no point in putting any more thought in this subject. Maybe the wise move is just do not expect progress ,and in that way we wont be disappointed !" I give up.
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 21/05/2021 09:42:50
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Replying To nobull456: "Agreed !!! As you say no point in putting any more thought in this subject. Maybe the wise move is just do not expect progress ,and in that way we wont be disappointed !" Our only hope may be the opposition teams get alot worse and the overall standard somehow drops. I'm afraid this is highly unlikely.
winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 511 - 21/05/2021 12:06:19
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I think the people on here need to remember just how bad 2014-18 was. We had many embarrassing collapses. The collapse loss to Westmeath, the same thing against Derry, the hammering to Kildare in Tullamore and then the loss to Longford. Look at the last 2 seasons and now into this one. Who's the worst team we've lost to, Galway maybe?. 2019 league we had wins over Kildare, Armagh, Cork to name a few. We beat all the teams we had to beat to get to the super 8's. 2020 we started the league with 2 desperate performances then we lost by 1 to Mayo, lost by 3 in Killarney, 2 to Galway and seemed to be finally getting there. Then the pandemic hit and even after that we managed to draw away to Monaghan (the Dublin league game was a bit of a nothing game but lost by 4 in Parnell). Then we played badly in championship and still managed to hammer Wicklow (which we couldn't do in 2013 and 15) and beat Kildare quite easily. This is what I mean about the Dublin result clouding everybody's view. Before that Dublin game I didn't hear half as much negativity here. All we've done since it is win a game where we played bad. Fair enough if we go out and lose to Down, but let it happen first. The GAA became basically professional in the 10's and we just didn't. We have a generation of bad underage teams who didn't produce the players to backbone the squad now. And if we go and beat Down this weekend we'll be within 1 game of getting promoted to Divison 1, which would be the 2nd team in 3 years having not been there ever since it became an 8 team division. Meath folk are very hard pleased. But if we were to beat Down and then maybe a Cork and get promoted we'd be back in division 1. Which I'd say would be massively punching above our weight because I'd barely have us in the top 12 teams talent wise in the country
LeitrimRoyal99 (Meath) - Posts: 1462 - 21/05/2021 13:47:53
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Replying To LeitrimRoyal99: "I think the people on here need to remember just how bad 2014-18 was. We had many embarrassing collapses. The collapse loss to Westmeath, the same thing against Derry, the hammering to Kildare in Tullamore and then the loss to Longford. Look at the last 2 seasons and now into this one. Who's the worst team we've lost to, Galway maybe?. 2019 league we had wins over Kildare, Armagh, Cork to name a few. We beat all the teams we had to beat to get to the super 8's. 2020 we started the league with 2 desperate performances then we lost by 1 to Mayo, lost by 3 in Killarney, 2 to Galway and seemed to be finally getting there. Then the pandemic hit and even after that we managed to draw away to Monaghan (the Dublin league game was a bit of a nothing game but lost by 4 in Parnell). Then we played badly in championship and still managed to hammer Wicklow (which we couldn't do in 2013 and 15) and beat Kildare quite easily. This is what I mean about the Dublin result clouding everybody's view. Before that Dublin game I didn't hear half as much negativity here. All we've done since it is win a game where we played bad. Fair enough if we go out and lose to Down, but let it happen first. The GAA became basically professional in the 10's and we just didn't. We have a generation of bad underage teams who didn't produce the players to backbone the squad now. And if we go and beat Down this weekend we'll be within 1 game of getting promoted to Divison 1, which would be the 2nd team in 3 years having not been there ever since it became an 8 team division. Meath folk are very hard pleased. But if we were to beat Down and then maybe a Cork and get promoted we'd be back in division 1. Which I'd say would be massively punching above our weight because I'd barely have us in the top 12 teams talent wise in the country" Well said.
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 21/05/2021 15:01:44
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Replying To LeitrimRoyal99: "I think the people on here need to remember just how bad 2014-18 was. We had many embarrassing collapses. The collapse loss to Westmeath, the same thing against Derry, the hammering to Kildare in Tullamore and then the loss to Longford. Look at the last 2 seasons and now into this one. Who's the worst team we've lost to, Galway maybe?. 2019 league we had wins over Kildare, Armagh, Cork to name a few. We beat all the teams we had to beat to get to the super 8's. 2020 we started the league with 2 desperate performances then we lost by 1 to Mayo, lost by 3 in Killarney, 2 to Galway and seemed to be finally getting there. Then the pandemic hit and even after that we managed to draw away to Monaghan (the Dublin league game was a bit of a nothing game but lost by 4 in Parnell). Then we played badly in championship and still managed to hammer Wicklow (which we couldn't do in 2013 and 15) and beat Kildare quite easily. This is what I mean about the Dublin result clouding everybody's view. Before that Dublin game I didn't hear half as much negativity here. All we've done since it is win a game where we played bad. Fair enough if we go out and lose to Down, but let it happen first. The GAA became basically professional in the 10's and we just didn't. We have a generation of bad underage teams who didn't produce the players to backbone the squad now. And if we go and beat Down this weekend we'll be within 1 game of getting promoted to Divison 1, which would be the 2nd team in 3 years having not been there ever since it became an 8 team division. Meath folk are very hard pleased. But if we were to beat Down and then maybe a Cork and get promoted we'd be back in division 1. Which I'd say would be massively punching above our weight because I'd barely have us in the top 12 teams talent wise in the country" Great point - I agree that in general we were genuinely poor from 2014 up until 2018 or so and in spite of the trudging along narrative of today, we arent too bad a side now. If I was to counter any of your points it would be your point about the GAA becoming professionalised in the 10s and Meath didn't follow suit, I disagree with that. I would argue that:
1) Meath has declined as a force over two decades, at least three generations of players (born in the early to mid-80s until the early 2000s) have been statistically a worse crop than their predecessors, they've also been badly served in their development, drastically in some cases.
2) Meath was obsessed with rampant conservatism for too long and the well dried up in the very early 2010s in the face of teams who were simply better trained and drilled. We were still hoofing long balls and trying to win the breaks and kick passing to the chest.
3) poor leadership at the top. Too many managers coming and going. Too many players not finding the entire experience worthy due to a multitude of factors.
4) everyone else (with the exception of most of Leinster and irrelevant teams of largely hurling counties) has progressed their game. We have only started to under this coach.
In principle I agree Meath people are hard to please and they desire trophies before they rate a team. They are also accustomed to those desires from their youth... Its not that long ago we were consistently on the top of the game. There is also a sharp contrast in that anyone born from the mid-90s - 2000 onward has never seen Meath being successful. These people are now grown adults and they are entirely different in their outlook from previous generations. We are a mess of a county. Our identity has been slowly and systematically eroded over two generations. We are progressing at a rate of one step forward and two steps back constantly... and people right now are starting to be able to foresee the next step back coming soon. Things just arent good, there is enormous frustration in me and in other Meath fans and it goes back a very long way. Until a freak generation of lads arrive (which they may never), its beginning to look like we have found our level under McEntee, and thats just that.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 589 - 21/05/2021 15:05:40
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I would argue to turning point happened in 2010 when the St Pats club requested a motion of no confidence in Eamonn O'Brien a man who in two years had gotten Meath to a semi final and Leinster title victory. The motion was carried 31-29 and O'Brien was shown the door.
Nothing but chaos has reigned since then. A generation of talented players who got to an all ireland minor final in 2002 were allowed to waste their prime years under Seamus McEnaney and Mick O'Dowd and the whole identity of Meath football was fundamentally destroyed. As Dublin got immeasurably stronger Meath were accelerting at the same rate in the opposite direction. We appointed an outside manager who had good idea's and then supplanted him with a man with no genuine experience who single handedly destroyed the whole psyche of Meath football. He should never have got the job and set about playing athletes rather than footballers. He jettisoned years of experience and tradition and left us in a position we are still trying to recover from. We lost to teams we'd never lost to under his stewardship and suffered embarrassment on embarrassment under him. If you ask people around the country what a meath footballer looks or plays like they mention hard. tough, physical players who never take a step back. He played pussy cats who were afraid of their lives. Dublin mauled them repeatedly and others likewise.
In that time the county board abdicated all responsibility for what was happening at that level and sat on their hands in the same way the did in the later half of Sean Boylan's reign where they expected the good times to just role on. Where as most county boards around the country have become professional in their approach we've shuffled the deck chairs for the old boys brigade and are a total shambles, Look at the following things
1) Dunganny took years to develop and was subsidised heavily by levys imposed on the clubs around the county
2) The floodlights fiasco
3) the lack of any development of Pairc Tailteann
4) the absolute botch job they made of house draws whereby the raised next to nothing whilst several counties around us did similar and raised hundreds of thousands.
5) Failure to implement any of the "three wise men" strategy
6) ignoring the proposals by Colm O'rourke in the early 00's
7) lack of investment in underage training, strength and conditioning and games development
8) no investment in development panels and bridging underage to senior teams
Whilst i applaud them for not bankrupting the counties finances they've done very little to nothing in terms of swell the coffers.
McEntee for his faults took over a poisoned chalice with nothing to build from and will fall because of that. Ultimately he'll lay the foundations for the manager after the man who replaces him, only if they continue to build on what's currently in place. There seems to be some traction at underage and I applaud those involved. Some level of future planning is taking place at underage with Flynn and John McCarthy, but will that continue after they've finished. We're trying to sprint to catch up when we're barely able to walk.
If you look at fitness as a key barometer in 2106 we were one of the unfittest and weakest teams in the country, we've been trying to build that strength and conditioning for years. You can't build that in a year and Niall Ronan seems to be working on improving that with every player he can but it has to start from underage all the way up. You could argue that last Sunday superior fitness got us over the line as it did v Wicklow and Kildare in last years championship. We still have some ways to go to catch Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo and Tyrone who we faded badly against in league games due to that lack of fitness, but all of those counties are 10 to 15 years more advanced in their thinking than we are,
Ultimately its going to take a lot longer to get back to a consistent top 6 team (which Meath should be) unless they start building on whats now in place. There needs to be a clear line in the sand drawn and an identity redeveloped of who Meath are as a footballing team, what a Meath footballer looks and plays like, Andy is doing everything he can to get the identity back but it takes 10-15 years to do and unfortunately he won't get that. Hopefully with succession planning that can be developed from Andy to a Bernard Flynn or John MCCarthy manged senior Meath team.
brian (Meath) - Posts: 1954 - 21/05/2021 16:28:45
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Replying To brian: "I would argue to turning point happened in 2010 when the St Pats club requested a motion of no confidence in Eamonn O'Brien a man who in two years had gotten Meath to a semi final and Leinster title victory. The motion was carried 31-29 and O'Brien was shown the door.
Nothing but chaos has reigned since then. A generation of talented players who got to an all ireland minor final in 2002 were allowed to waste their prime years under Seamus McEnaney and Mick O'Dowd and the whole identity of Meath football was fundamentally destroyed. As Dublin got immeasurably stronger Meath were accelerting at the same rate in the opposite direction. We appointed an outside manager who had good idea's and then supplanted him with a man with no genuine experience who single handedly destroyed the whole psyche of Meath football. He should never have got the job and set about playing athletes rather than footballers. He jettisoned years of experience and tradition and left us in a position we are still trying to recover from. We lost to teams we'd never lost to under his stewardship and suffered embarrassment on embarrassment under him. If you ask people around the country what a meath footballer looks or plays like they mention hard. tough, physical players who never take a step back. He played pussy cats who were afraid of their lives. Dublin mauled them repeatedly and others likewise.
In that time the county board abdicated all responsibility for what was happening at that level and sat on their hands in the same way the did in the later half of Sean Boylan's reign where they expected the good times to just role on. Where as most county boards around the country have become professional in their approach we've shuffled the deck chairs for the old boys brigade and are a total shambles, Look at the following things
1) Dunganny took years to develop and was subsidised heavily by levys imposed on the clubs around the county
2) The floodlights fiasco
3) the lack of any development of Pairc Tailteann
4) the absolute botch job they made of house draws whereby the raised next to nothing whilst several counties around us did similar and raised hundreds of thousands.
5) Failure to implement any of the "three wise men" strategy
6) ignoring the proposals by Colm O'rourke in the early 00's
7) lack of investment in underage training, strength and conditioning and games development
8) no investment in development panels and bridging underage to senior teams
Whilst i applaud them for not bankrupting the counties finances they've done very little to nothing in terms of swell the coffers.
McEntee for his faults took over a poisoned chalice with nothing to build from and will fall because of that. Ultimately he'll lay the foundations for the manager after the man who replaces him, only if they continue to build on what's currently in place. There seems to be some traction at underage and I applaud those involved. Some level of future planning is taking place at underage with Flynn and John McCarthy, but will that continue after they've finished. We're trying to sprint to catch up when we're barely able to walk.
If you look at fitness as a key barometer in 2106 we were one of the unfittest and weakest teams in the country, we've been trying to build that strength and conditioning for years. You can't build that in a year and Niall Ronan seems to be working on improving that with every player he can but it has to start from underage all the way up. You could argue that last Sunday superior fitness got us over the line as it did v Wicklow and Kildare in last years championship. We still have some ways to go to catch Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo and Tyrone who we faded badly against in league games due to that lack of fitness, but all of those counties are 10 to 15 years more advanced in their thinking than we are,
Ultimately its going to take a lot longer to get back to a consistent top 6 team (which Meath should be) unless they start building on whats now in place. There needs to be a clear line in the sand drawn and an identity redeveloped of who Meath are as a footballing team, what a Meath footballer looks and plays like, Andy is doing everything he can to get the identity back but it takes 10-15 years to do and unfortunately he won't get that. Hopefully with succession planning that can be developed from Andy to a Bernard Flynn or John MCCarthy manged senior Meath team." Yeah I can agree with you on most of that. Good points.
I will say that there is a rising consensus on your points and the points that I made as well that action is needed in order to retain the progress made under McEntee, never mind progress further as many people like to talk about. In my view we can stay at the level of a yearly rd.4 qualifier/ Leinster final team (maybe the odd All-Ireland qtr) or can slide to a 2/3 game championship team. We're at that median crossroads in my opinion at the moment. The days of us sitting up and talking about how Meath should be a top 6 team or a top 4 team are over Brian. We earned the right to play that rhetoric for a very long time but havent earned it in 20 years. When we say things like that the rest of the country laughs at us for being so deluded. Part of our future is to leave the past behind, and like I said before we now have a generation of adults whove never seen Meath men lift a trophy other than the O'Byrne cup.
We have to develop a new identity. Our famous players of the past are just that, the past. Compring Morris to Geraghty, or Jones to McDermott, or McGill to Lyons just doesent fly anymore. It isnt a productive measure. Football has changed massively in the last 20 years. I adore what Meath used to be, but it wont ever be like that again. Ever.
The appointments of Flynn and his very public voice along with the public voice of Moyles on podcasts and sports talk shows online has highlighted their support of our general viewpoints, and the coaching body of Meath generally is gearing towards development and pathways for youths and young seniors now. Its also a huge plus that our productive minors are not being naively flouted as future heros, and are quietly being built upon. Its fair to say that the fans and the leaders in Meath GAA are on the same page or thereabouts. I do believe hard work is being put in and progress is being made in the right direction in spite of my comments. Apologies to all posters for my negativity, but I really believe these conversations have to happen to bring us forward, and I say them in good faith.
Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 589 - 21/05/2021 18:20:52
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Replying To brian: "I would argue to turning point happened in 2010 when the St Pats club requested a motion of no confidence in Eamonn O'Brien a man who in two years had gotten Meath to a semi final and Leinster title victory. The motion was carried 31-29 and O'Brien was shown the door.
Nothing but chaos has reigned since then. A generation of talented players who got to an all ireland minor final in 2002 were allowed to waste their prime years under Seamus McEnaney and Mick O'Dowd and the whole identity of Meath football was fundamentally destroyed. As Dublin got immeasurably stronger Meath were accelerting at the same rate in the opposite direction. We appointed an outside manager who had good idea's and then supplanted him with a man with no genuine experience who single handedly destroyed the whole psyche of Meath football. He should never have got the job and set about playing athletes rather than footballers. He jettisoned years of experience and tradition and left us in a position we are still trying to recover from. We lost to teams we'd never lost to under his stewardship and suffered embarrassment on embarrassment under him. If you ask people around the country what a meath footballer looks or plays like they mention hard. tough, physical players who never take a step back. He played pussy cats who were afraid of their lives. Dublin mauled them repeatedly and others likewise.
In that time the county board abdicated all responsibility for what was happening at that level and sat on their hands in the same way the did in the later half of Sean Boylan's reign where they expected the good times to just role on. Where as most county boards around the country have become professional in their approach we've shuffled the deck chairs for the old boys brigade and are a total shambles, Look at the following things
1) Dunganny took years to develop and was subsidised heavily by levys imposed on the clubs around the county
2) The floodlights fiasco
3) the lack of any development of Pairc Tailteann
4) the absolute botch job they made of house draws whereby the raised next to nothing whilst several counties around us did similar and raised hundreds of thousands.
5) Failure to implement any of the "three wise men" strategy
6) ignoring the proposals by Colm O'rourke in the early 00's
7) lack of investment in underage training, strength and conditioning and games development
8) no investment in development panels and bridging underage to senior teams
Whilst i applaud them for not bankrupting the counties finances they've done very little to nothing in terms of swell the coffers.
McEntee for his faults took over a poisoned chalice with nothing to build from and will fall because of that. Ultimately he'll lay the foundations for the manager after the man who replaces him, only if they continue to build on what's currently in place. There seems to be some traction at underage and I applaud those involved. Some level of future planning is taking place at underage with Flynn and John McCarthy, but will that continue after they've finished. We're trying to sprint to catch up when we're barely able to walk.
If you look at fitness as a key barometer in 2106 we were one of the unfittest and weakest teams in the country, we've been trying to build that strength and conditioning for years. You can't build that in a year and Niall Ronan seems to be working on improving that with every player he can but it has to start from underage all the way up. You could argue that last Sunday superior fitness got us over the line as it did v Wicklow and Kildare in last years championship. We still have some ways to go to catch Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo and Tyrone who we faded badly against in league games due to that lack of fitness, but all of those counties are 10 to 15 years more advanced in their thinking than we are,
Ultimately its going to take a lot longer to get back to a consistent top 6 team (which Meath should be) unless they start building on whats now in place. There needs to be a clear line in the sand drawn and an identity redeveloped of who Meath are as a footballing team, what a Meath footballer looks and plays like, Andy is doing everything he can to get the identity back but it takes 10-15 years to do and unfortunately he won't get that. Hopefully with succession planning that can be developed from Andy to a Bernard Flynn or John MCCarthy manged senior Meath team." Excellent post and I can't actually find anything to disagree with apart from the HOPE that it will be sooner than the 10 to 15 years you said. But that is hope nothing more
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 21/05/2021 19:34:08
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Replying To brian: "I would argue to turning point happened in 2010 when the St Pats club requested a motion of no confidence in Eamonn O'Brien a man who in two years had gotten Meath to a semi final and Leinster title victory. The motion was carried 31-29 and O'Brien was shown the door.
Nothing but chaos has reigned since then. A generation of talented players who got to an all ireland minor final in 2002 were allowed to waste their prime years under Seamus McEnaney and Mick O'Dowd and the whole identity of Meath football was fundamentally destroyed. As Dublin got immeasurably stronger Meath were accelerting at the same rate in the opposite direction. We appointed an outside manager who had good idea's and then supplanted him with a man with no genuine experience who single handedly destroyed the whole psyche of Meath football. He should never have got the job and set about playing athletes rather than footballers. He jettisoned years of experience and tradition and left us in a position we are still trying to recover from. We lost to teams we'd never lost to under his stewardship and suffered embarrassment on embarrassment under him. If you ask people around the country what a meath footballer looks or plays like they mention hard. tough, physical players who never take a step back. He played pussy cats who were afraid of their lives. Dublin mauled them repeatedly and others likewise.
In that time the county board abdicated all responsibility for what was happening at that level and sat on their hands in the same way the did in the later half of Sean Boylan's reign where they expected the good times to just role on. Where as most county boards around the country have become professional in their approach we've shuffled the deck chairs for the old boys brigade and are a total shambles, Look at the following things
1) Dunganny took years to develop and was subsidised heavily by levys imposed on the clubs around the county
2) The floodlights fiasco
3) the lack of any development of Pairc Tailteann
4) the absolute botch job they made of house draws whereby the raised next to nothing whilst several counties around us did similar and raised hundreds of thousands.
5) Failure to implement any of the "three wise men" strategy
6) ignoring the proposals by Colm O'rourke in the early 00's
7) lack of investment in underage training, strength and conditioning and games development
8) no investment in development panels and bridging underage to senior teams
Whilst i applaud them for not bankrupting the counties finances they've done very little to nothing in terms of swell the coffers.
McEntee for his faults took over a poisoned chalice with nothing to build from and will fall because of that. Ultimately he'll lay the foundations for the manager after the man who replaces him, only if they continue to build on what's currently in place. There seems to be some traction at underage and I applaud those involved. Some level of future planning is taking place at underage with Flynn and John McCarthy, but will that continue after they've finished. We're trying to sprint to catch up when we're barely able to walk.
If you look at fitness as a key barometer in 2106 we were one of the unfittest and weakest teams in the country, we've been trying to build that strength and conditioning for years. You can't build that in a year and Niall Ronan seems to be working on improving that with every player he can but it has to start from underage all the way up. You could argue that last Sunday superior fitness got us over the line as it did v Wicklow and Kildare in last years championship. We still have some ways to go to catch Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo and Tyrone who we faded badly against in league games due to that lack of fitness, but all of those counties are 10 to 15 years more advanced in their thinking than we are,
Ultimately its going to take a lot longer to get back to a consistent top 6 team (which Meath should be) unless they start building on whats now in place. There needs to be a clear line in the sand drawn and an identity redeveloped of who Meath are as a footballing team, what a Meath footballer looks and plays like, Andy is doing everything he can to get the identity back but it takes 10-15 years to do and unfortunately he won't get that. Hopefully with succession planning that can be developed from Andy to a Bernard Flynn or John MCCarthy manged senior Meath team." No doubt the treatment of EOB was both ill-judged and disgraceful. However to blame Mick O Dowd for fundamentally destroying the identity of Meath football is unfair. Meath had being going steadily backwards since 2001.MOD took on the job in good faith, with no other intention than to make Meath football better, he made the critical mistake of getting rid of the more experienced lads and attempted to build a new team based on fast pacy players, at the time it looked to have some merit, introduce radical change and put his stamp on the team, however it proved unsuccessful nonetheless he gave it his best shot. Neither the players or manager from that era deserve to be judged too harshly. I have said before, any player/manager willing to give up their time for Meath football at the very least deserve our respect. If Dublin mauled us in this period ( not sure they did) how would you define our latest two outings in CP against them?
In the league fitness was not the problem as we finished all these games on the up (Tyrone excluded) and certainly did not fade, fitness was an issue in super 8s, however this was more down to playing the same players week on week with unwillingness to give panel members a run. Promotion that year was managers goal, but when we got there we had little strength in depth and injuries showed how threadbare we were.
Always a bit dubious with talk about identity and lines in the sand and what a Meath footballer looks like. However, fair enough and its more down to me being cynical than your views on the state of Meath football. We cannot take 10/15 years to get our house in order, every year Dublin (not just Dublin) remain on top they attract more young lads to play the game and bigger and better sponsorship. The exact opposite for us, the chicken and egg senario, to get more lads interested we need sucess and to get sucess we need more lads playing the game. Stats show us at number 10 in the league over last five years, little progress has been made except we look fitter, however skill levels seem to have gone backwards and at some stage we have to stop blaming what happened with previous regimes and turn focus on the present.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2149 - 21/05/2021 20:09:29
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Anyone hear from Furlong these days folks?
Crinigan (Meath) - Posts: 1319 - 21/05/2021 20:25:13
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Replying To LeitrimRoyal99: "I think the people on here need to remember just how bad 2014-18 was. We had many embarrassing collapses. The collapse loss to Westmeath, the same thing against Derry, the hammering to Kildare in Tullamore and then the loss to Longford. Look at the last 2 seasons and now into this one. Who's the worst team we've lost to, Galway maybe?. 2019 league we had wins over Kildare, Armagh, Cork to name a few. We beat all the teams we had to beat to get to the super 8's. 2020 we started the league with 2 desperate performances then we lost by 1 to Mayo, lost by 3 in Killarney, 2 to Galway and seemed to be finally getting there. Then the pandemic hit and even after that we managed to draw away to Monaghan (the Dublin league game was a bit of a nothing game but lost by 4 in Parnell). Then we played badly in championship and still managed to hammer Wicklow (which we couldn't do in 2013 and 15) and beat Kildare quite easily. This is what I mean about the Dublin result clouding everybody's view. Before that Dublin game I didn't hear half as much negativity here. All we've done since it is win a game where we played bad. Fair enough if we go out and lose to Down, but let it happen first. The GAA became basically professional in the 10's and we just didn't. We have a generation of bad underage teams who didn't produce the players to backbone the squad now. And if we go and beat Down this weekend we'll be within 1 game of getting promoted to Divison 1, which would be the 2nd team in 3 years having not been there ever since it became an 8 team division. Meath folk are very hard pleased. But if we were to beat Down and then maybe a Cork and get promoted we'd be back in division 1. Which I'd say would be massively punching above our weight because I'd barely have us in the top 12 teams talent wise in the country" Spot on
southmeathgael (Meath) - Posts: 890 - 22/05/2021 08:00:15
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Replying To Crinigan: "Anyone hear from Furlong these days folks?" No. Hope he is ok. Or from htaem either.
Would love to get both their insights
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 22/05/2021 08:26:37
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Replying To seadog54: "No doubt the treatment of EOB was both ill-judged and disgraceful. However to blame Mick O Dowd for fundamentally destroying the identity of Meath football is unfair. Meath had being going steadily backwards since 2001.MOD took on the job in good faith, with no other intention than to make Meath football better, he made the critical mistake of getting rid of the more experienced lads and attempted to build a new team based on fast pacy players, at the time it looked to have some merit, introduce radical change and put his stamp on the team, however it proved unsuccessful nonetheless he gave it his best shot. Neither the players or manager from that era deserve to be judged too harshly. I have said before, any player/manager willing to give up their time for Meath football at the very least deserve our respect. If Dublin mauled us in this period ( not sure they did) how would you define our latest two outings in CP against them?
In the league fitness was not the problem as we finished all these games on the up (Tyrone excluded) and certainly did not fade, fitness was an issue in super 8s, however this was more down to playing the same players week on week with unwillingness to give panel members a run. Promotion that year was managers goal, but when we got there we had little strength in depth and injuries showed how threadbare we were.
Always a bit dubious with talk about identity and lines in the sand and what a Meath footballer looks like. However, fair enough and its more down to me being cynical than your views on the state of Meath football. We cannot take 10/15 years to get our house in order, every year Dublin (not just Dublin) remain on top they attract more young lads to play the game and bigger and better sponsorship. The exact opposite for us, the chicken and egg senario, to get more lads interested we need sucess and to get sucess we need more lads playing the game. Stats show us at number 10 in the league over last five years, little progress has been made except we look fitter, however skill levels seem to have gone backwards and at some stage we have to stop blaming what happened with previous regimes and turn focus on the present." First ever loss to Armagh Tyrone and above all the lowest point ever of loosing to Westmeath after 130 years. Consistently been beaten in second half. (We scored more than opponents in only 2 games under mod ) Waterford and wexford if memory serves me right, I have never blamed mod personally, he had the best intentions but he wasn't near a ic manager, and should never have been allowed near the position. The people who are to blame for that ? The people who put him in charge.
royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 22/05/2021 14:31:03
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Replying To royaldunne: "First ever loss to Armagh Tyrone and above all the lowest point ever of loosing to Westmeath after 130 years. Consistently been beaten in second half. (We scored more than opponents in only 2 games under mod ) Waterford and wexford if memory serves me right, I have never blamed mod personally, he had the best intentions but he wasn't near a ic manager, and should never have been allowed near the position. The people who are to blame for that ? The people who put him in charge." Rd your really hypocritical now you slated that man with very little focus on co board.nows its all bout co board putting him in position.
Borderroyal (Meath) - Posts: 488 - 22/05/2021 16:26:47
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Mayo just about got over the line today, Durcan, O Connor and a few more experienced heads guided them home. Like last week Westmeath defended in numbers and caught Mayo a few times on the break, Heslin missed a few that cost them dearly.
Same Meath team named for tomorrow, a dummy or another chance for starting line-up ? Joey Wallace into squad and Donal Lenihan not included, so rumours may be true. A win tomorrow and we are safe, with a chance to push for promotion.
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2149 - 22/05/2021 17:26:50
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Westmeath gave Mayo as many problems as they did Meath, Mayo will be happy to have got out of there with a win, Westmeath were never going to be easy opposition for anyone and they could just as easily have two wins as two defeats, Meath should take further encouragement from gaining that win from the jaws of defeat last weekend
Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 22/05/2021 18:21:53
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You would have to be alarmed with the withdrawal of Lenihan from the team.
Looking that the match day squad theres no recognised free taker.
I think Lenihan for O'Reilly should have been at least tested. Looking back at past league campaigns Lenihan always chipped in with scores and was well capable of winning his own ball and linking up play.
Tomorrow is huge game and hopefully we have enough and improve on last Sunday
Royalio11 (Meath) - Posts: 757 - 22/05/2021 18:53:14
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