Absolutely shocking today lads but to those who spent the past 2 weeks looking for Ward to be dropped I ask: What the hell would we have done without him today given that he had a direct hand in at least 10 of our 13 scores?

If McAnarney isn't doing it in the corner or on the wing he shouldn't be unseating one of our most consistent players, Menton, from an essential position as centre back just to accommodate him. As others have rightly said its time to bring in a specialist corner back such as Harrington or Juicy as a direct replacement for Shane.

Thank God for Kevin Reilly, Meade, Graham, Ward and Farrell today or today would have been considerably worse. We desperately lack midfield options with O'Rourke, M Ward, Crawford and Walsh gone and this is killing us as we're robbing Peter to pay Paul at and leaving gaps elsewhere.

rath_togh (Meath) - Posts: 740 - 10/06/2012 16:53:43    1190997

spot on rathtogh..sure ward is hot and cold, but when hes hot hes excellent. joe anonymous today, as were 4 of d forwards. And as for having mcanarney as captain? how many more crap performances is he goin to get away with? Bring back caoimhin and harro. Both reillys led by example. my score prediction was wrong, but not by much! did anyone consider carlow especially brendan murphy were good . Also, i heard the team bus was late, delayed in durrow, and effected the warmup and preparations.

RoyalSt.Pat (Meath) - Posts: 333 - 10/06/2012 17:04:57    1191011

My head is all over the place after watching that. Carlow didn't score much from play (1st half), ref gave them a few handy frees to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but we should have had the game in hand by then. We lost our shape second half and stood off them and they kept reeling us in. Gallagher's balls up cost big time but as I heard Banty say on the radio on my way home, if we were only two points up at that stage, our number was up. Carlow to their credit kicked some excellent long range points. Good job they missed several chances just after the restart or we would be out of the Leinster Championship now.

Graham Reilly did his bit though went missing for a spell second half. Cian Ward also showed that he has to be in the team. Brian Meade likewise. Kevin Reilly, Keoghan, Menton, Tobin didn't do too bad either. Gillespie should have been substituted before being sent off. Brian Farrell was our only real ball winner up front. Joe was poor, kept switching positions without much improvement. Should have passed to Mark Collins late on to secure a one point victory but held onto the ball instead. Collins himself didn't make any difference when he came on. Paddy Gilsenan had an off day. Alan Forde may do better in the wide open spaces of Croke Park, but not involved much for most of the match, until substituted by Queeney who should have been played as the target man at full forward. The entire forward line was disfunctional for most of the second half, subs and all.

All I can say is the team only appear to be really up for the big matches and see so-called weaker teams as a chore, not a contest. We need another game badly first, if we are to take on Kildare Sunday week. Today what we thought was coming together is anything but.

GlasagusOr (Meath) - Posts: 1348 - 10/06/2012 17:14:41    1191018

Yeah 7 next sat was confirmed by announcer before 2nd match.
Doublehop what you on about? Did you read my post at all?
Said graham reilly could hold his head high as too a couples of others
Secondly said I was very disappointed with how meath played.
And I did say we needed another match. We may have sneaked that game by a point or 2. That would have been worse as I fear we would have been blown away in next. At least now the team get another competitive game. Whether they win it or not it should be of benefit.
Stand by it all. Can you disagree with any of that? I doubt it.

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 10/06/2012 17:23:49    1191025

just home and im still in shock,where do ya start?maybe a scare like that is just what meath need.

bobjaffacake (Meath) - Posts: 1400 - 10/06/2012 17:31:52    1191032

how can ya blame a manager for players failing to perform in all fairness? we rely too much on one or two good players while carring very average ones

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 10/06/2012 17:33:59    1191034

royaldunne we had a competitive game against wicklow 2 weeks ago where this was carlows 1st game so saying we needed a game i cant agree with

just.john (Meath) - Posts: 97 - 10/06/2012 17:38:50    1191038

I just can't understand this 'it's good we have another match' mentality. Surely it'd just have been better to win, no? Paint it whatever way you want but blowing a lead like that to a team like Carlow who are down players is not a positive. Do you honestly think the players are happy with that?

doublehop (Kildare) - Posts: 4172 - 10/06/2012 17:42:29    1191041

By all accounts I heard today carlow performed very respectably in challenges against both dublin and cork. Now how accurate that is I'm not sure. So I think they were pretty wound up for today. I do think we need another match before we go after the big guns. Now that is IF we get a chance to do it and if we can be competitive at later stages. Not saying we will win but be competitive.
Anyway that was very poor performance. Some lads stood up others didn't.

On a completely different note why was bus so late. Carlow was out warming up when I noticed the bus pulling in. Lads running of it and seemed like they had changed in bus, boots and all on.
What happened?

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 10/06/2012 17:52:45    1191052

i think everyone is overreacting to be honest, at the end of the day were still playing next weekend and we can hopefully beat carlow then. Most meath supporters are actually unbelievable. when meath play bad suddenly the team is crap and banty has to go then when we win everyone says oh were doing well and we have young talent coming in. what most likely happened today is that meath went out today thinking we are going to win this no bother seen as everyone was talking about meath v kildare and not giving carlow a chance and no matter how much banty tried to say were just focusing on this game, you always knew it would get to the players heads about it been an easy game against carlow.
it also wasnt taken into consideration by anyone that carlow might actually put up a fight and they have been training and doing very well in challenge games and it has obviously payed off for them. i just think that all the players need to do now is just not be too dissapointed about getting a draw against carlow and now go out and play on saturday and give carlow the respect they deserve and then hopefully we will win. another positive that comes out of this is that if we win the next day(which i think we will) then it will give meath an extra game under their belts going into the game against kildare/offally. i think the thing we need to take from today is that meath dont do well being such overwhelming favourites and also that carlow arnt as bad as the whole country thinks and anything can happen on the day with gaa.

meathalltheway (Meath) - Posts: 789 - 10/06/2012 17:54:30    1191053

found the ref set the pace for much of the second half with stupid yellows ,however it dosent take from meaths lack of fizz in the second halfThe foward half of the field was in disorder and lacked any structure . i know we will beat them on saturday night but someone need to shove firelighters in the kit bags to get this meath team lit up .

royalpainter (Meath) - Posts: 874 - 10/06/2012 17:54:44    1191054

the 2 reillys were brilliant again today and i would hate to think what we would without them.i think we need to make changes for the next day.firstly menton has go back to no6,carlow were coming through the middle too easy which wouldnt happen if menton was there.i think maybe its time to start jamie queeney at fullforward in place of joe sheridan who imo was very poor today.gillespie had a bad game but i dont know what else we can do as who else do we have?keoghan was very loose and maybe harrington could come in the next day to tighten things up

bobjaffacake (Meath) - Posts: 1400 - 10/06/2012 17:57:28    1191057

Walsh was on the bench today. We desperately need Bray back, and I would bring him in for Alan Forde(who played well but doesnt offer much of a scoring threat. Leave Graham Reilly in the half forwards because think of the damage he can do if he is even closer to goal. Please for the name of God Banty play a three man full forward line of Farrell, Joe, and Brayer. Why shoot yourself in the foot by not doing that. Putting Bryan Menton corner back was a terrible decision as he is the best centre back we have as McAnarney is not up to it in my opinion. Ciaran Lenihan or Tom Walsh should be brought in for the replay, along with Bray for Forde.

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 1015 - 10/06/2012 18:00:20    1191062

I blame management and not just some players for todays poor showing. It was clear to see first half that Alan Forde wasn't in the game. I heard Banty telling Queeney to warm up before half time. He didn't make the switch at half-time but 10 or more minutes into the second half. It was also clear that we needed someone like Peadar Byrne, a real grafter in the middle to help out Meade, long before Gillespie got sent off. While Cian Ward was the only player who was making things happen in terms of a playmaker, but he usually had to go on solo runs because options up front for a long ball were limited. Only Brian Farrell was winning ball and kicking scores from play. Joe was changing positions like musical chairs without any positive effect. Brian Farrell was looking a little tired in the latter stages, but still the only player you could have faith in to win ball. Why was Queeney not played as the full forward (target man) and Collins in the half-forward line by default when they came on. Instead of direct ball when the ff line had plenty of space in front of them, we kept carrying the ball until crowded out. There was no cohesiveness, we were so disjointed. We diverted more players towards the midfield area yet stood off them (didn't tackle) and so when winning or turning over ball there was very few options for a swift counter-attack and get the ball to a forward capable of scoring.

GlasagusOr (Meath) - Posts: 1348 - 10/06/2012 18:01:27    1191064

Meath did their warm up in Durrow.

hurlingguru (Carlow) - Posts: 1848 - 10/06/2012 18:03:14    1191067

We missed Seamus today when the going got tough.

The draw today will be a good lesson learned for some of the young lads that have come into the team. Another game of championship football for them will do no harm. Some of our key players were just not at the races ---I expect better performances next day.

Key lesson for Meath over last few games: we absolutley must become a better second half team.

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1838 - 10/06/2012 18:22:39    1191090

Wakey_Wakey
County: Meath
Posts: 7

1190994
Why not blame Banty? If we won he'd take all the credit. Some say that if we won the All Ireland HE would go up for the Sam Maguire! He has promised us sun, moon and stars and brought us misery and humiliation. The players deserve better. We are ALL letting them down. How much more can we take, will we take?



it's not his fault big joe went off for 2 months. but i'd blame him for not subbing him off. don't blame banty and not the players. King should man up and return to the panel. Very childish giving up after not getting on against wicklow. who does he think he is, he's no all star material and that sort of thing just lets the county down. and ward looked fairly fit but showed no fight or heart and his free taking was poor. goal was good i'll give him that. well done to farrell and biggy don't think we'd still be in leinster if it wasn't for their last 2 performances.

all i'm going to say about this is that if meath win handy next week we'll be the best team in the country again. and if we do we'll be playing our 4th game of the year and still only in a leinster semi. this should bring on the new lads a lot.

BettystownRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 3353 - 10/06/2012 18:22:49    1191092

meathalltheway
County: Meath
Posts: 139

1191053
i think everyone is overreacting to be honest, at the end of the day were still playing next weekend and we can hopefully beat carlow then. Most meath supporters are actually unbelievable. when meath play bad suddenly the team is crap and banty has to go then when we win everyone says oh were doing well and we have young talent coming in. what most likely happened today is that meath went out today thinking we are going to win this no bother seen as everyone was talking about meath v kildare and not giving carlow a chance and no matter how much banty tried to say were just focusing on this game, you always knew it would get to the players heads about it been an easy game against carlow.

________________

well said some people haven't a clue. at least we didn't lose like galway and limerick did. i don't care how bad the opposition is but when you write off a team that has been training a hard as carlow were you are playing with fire. we did the same against a very poor laois in 2010 and i fully expect us to win the replay like we did then by a good few points.

BettystownRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 3353 - 10/06/2012 18:29:33    1191101

I didn't go to the game today, why? Because I seen nothing in the Wicklow performance to show that we had actually improved from the disaster against Louth. If the Wicklow management had the wit to stop Graham Reilly running unopposed through the centre then we were in serious trouble in that game, given the start that Wicklow got.

As for today mismanagement was obvious before the game began. 1. The bus was late!!! What are we back in the Emergency, is fuel rationed, did the bus have no spare wheel. Even during the Emergency Meath teams were able to get to places like New Ross on time. 2. As I said earlier I was not at the game, and when I seen the team selection during the week I could not for a moment think it would line out with Brian Menton as a corner back with Shane McAnarney as centre half, this nonsense must end.

But it is not all the management's fault the players must shoulder at least 80% of the blame, there is a celebrity aura about them that must be eradicated, as a little example of the celebrity aura, one misty night in Dungany I seen a prominent county player going from the portacabins to his car in order to drive to PT for a shower, so what is odd about that, not just because the other county teams training in Dungany that night had to make do with the Dungany showers but because he was escorted to his car by an aide carrying an umbrella over his head to keep him dry I presume, now if that is the kind of softies we are sending out to represent this county at present, God help us. Send out real men, who are fit to last well beyond the 70 minutes and will never give in. Against Kildare in the All Ireland Q/F in 2010 we gave in well before the final whistle. Last year against the same opposition in PT and losing two prominent players, on the evening, we kept going to the very end and I thought we had rounded the corner. But we have not. It is time to head again to the Hill of Tara and to have "nights of hell on Bettystown beach". Then came the recent League campaign, we were supposedly UNLUCKILY to lose to Galway, the pieces of the jigsaw fell perfectly into place last night when Galway were completely dismantled by a strong second half performance by Sligo.

MillerX (Meath) - Posts: 1120 - 10/06/2012 19:06:47    1191136

Bad result against a mid-table division 4 team. Don't blame Banty. Meath are simply not good.

KingOfJacks (Kildare) - Posts: 361 - 10/06/2012 19:11:11    1191142