Meath GAA discussion thread

mattser

rpurfield wrote: »

I've a party to go to Saturday night so I honestly can't see myself getting up and driving to Carlow Sunday, has there been any talk of who is on the panel at all? According to Fergal Lynch on the Twitter there is a challenge game on Thursday at 12 in Kiltoom against Roscommon

Remember doom and gloom in Kiltoom some years back ? Seriously though, I'd say Kiltoom is under 6 foot of Shannon water.

Hammer Archer

Obrieski wrote: »

Killian O'Sullivan is involved I believe...with an outrageous head of hair on him!

Moynalvey Cillian O'Sullivan? That's great news. Hopefully he can get back to the form he showed before his injury nightmare. If he does, he can look like a wookie for all I care :pac:

Green_Tae

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Moynalvey Cillian O'Sullivan? That's great news. Hopefully he can get back to the form he showed before his injury nightmare. If he does, he can look like a wookie for all I care :pac:

Yes, the force is strong in that one!

rpurfield

mattser wrote: »

Remember doom and gloom in Kiltoom some years back ? Seriously though, I'd say Kiltoom is under 6 foot of Shannon water.

Match was called off anyway, I'd say water polo wasn't on the agenda!!

Hammer Archer

Team for tomorrow's game in Carlow:

Conor McHugh (Oldcastle)
Barry Tormey (Gaeil Colmcille)
Donal Keogan (Rathkenny)
Nicky Judge (Ballinabrackey)
James O'Reilly (NOM)
Cathal Finn (Dunboyne)
Darragh Smith (NOM)
Harry Rooney (Skryne)
Andrew Tormey (Don/Ash)
Graham Reilly (St. Colmcilles)
Mickey Newman (Kilmainham)
Padraig McKeever (Simonstown)
Seán Tobin (Simonstown)
Dalton McDonagh (Na Fianna)
Mark Battersby (Skryne)

6 debutants in total. Unsurprisingly there are no Ratoath or Curraha players involved.

dixiefly

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Team for tomorrow's game in Carlow:

Conor McHugh (Oldcastle)
Barry Tormey (Gaeil Colmcille)
Donal Keogan (Rathkenny)
Nicky Judge (Ballinabrackey)
James O'Reilly (NOM)
Cathal Finn (Dunboyne)
Darragh Smith (NOM)
Harry Rooney (Skryne)
Andrew Tormey (Don/Ash)
Graham Reilly (St. Colmcilles)
Mickey Newman (Kilmainham)
Padraig McKeever (Simonstown)
Seán Tobin (Simonstown)
Dalton McDonagh (Na Fianna)
Mark Battersby (Skryne)

6 debutants in total. Unsurprisingly there are no Ratoath or Curraha players involved.

Thanks for that, it looks a decent enough team.

Green_Tae

Yeah it's a strong team, particularly that midfield with Newman being given a chance to show what he can do here. Don't think that will be his role come the league but it gives McDonagh another chance to show what he can do inside with the two Simonstown lads on the 40.

However, these are not the forwards that I am interested in seeing - I think Stephen Bray's retirement may be timely in the sense that it necessitates the younger lads stepping up to the plate. Brian McMahon and Cillian O'Sullivan are probably the two best footballers that our underage system has produced in recent years, they're good enough to play anywhere between the 40 and goal.

Keogan is the obvious choice to man the square in the absence of McGill. Interesting to see who he is paired with as Nicky Judge is a natural wing-back.

Does this mean that Alan Forde is not on the panel?

Hammer Archer

I don't think Forde wants to commit to intercounty football. Either way, I don't think he's the player he was. He was anonymous in the SFC semi final and final. Anyone know if Donal Lenehan is on the panel? Thought we would see more of him in the O'Byrne Cup. One of the best forwards in the SFC last season.

Huntergonzo

Good mix of new players in there, hopefully they can grab the bull by the horns here because there are places available given the amount of players unavailable through retirement, injury and breaks.

Love the new season starting but I have to admit the last 2 years really knocked the stuffing out me, I hate saying it but I think we'll really struggle this year, I'd love to be wrong though!

iDave

Cavan 1-13 Meath 0-12 in the Hastings Cup.
Followed updates on twitter. Seemed to be in it but they hit 5 unanswered scores towards the end.

Hammer Archer

1-18 to 1-4 win in Carlow.
0-19 to 1-13 loss in Navan.

Bit of a typical January game in Carlow. Lots of mistakes. Harry Rooney was probably the best. Of the new players, Battersby did the best scoring 1-2.
Padraic McKeever went off very early on with an extremely serious injury by the looks of it. Hopefully it's not as bad as it looked.

Ace of Hearts

Rooney really grew into the game as it went on which was great considering it was the opposite last year. Looked bad for McKeever, really hope its nothing long term but he seemed to be in a lot of pain. Keogan very good also.

Hammer Archer

Jack Fagan transferring to Waterford. That's a real kick in the balls for hurling in the county.

paul0103

It's a tough one alright. Still I find it a bit of a strange one. I know he had a good Fitzgibbon Cup last year, but still quite a gap between that and making a Waterford panel. Perhaps the plan is to make an impression at U-21 level this year and go on from there. I wonder was there anything stopping him still being available for Meath while still playing his club hurling with De la Sallle?

On one hand I wish him the best, would be great to see him make it, but then you can only think how much of a loss he is to Meath. The Christy Ring is only going to get tougher, with Antrim in there this year, and probably either Carlow or Westmeath going to get the drop for next year.

CrabRevolution

Seems Carlow only had 15 players togged for that hurling match sunday. I know they'd be a bit ahead of us but it's disappointing that we couldn't win at home against a very stretched panel. If we lose all 3 of our games it'll be difficult to argue for inclusion in the Walsh Cup again.

Hammer Archer

paul0103 wrote: »

It's a tough one alright. Still I find it a bit of a strange one. I know he had a good Fitzgibbon Cup last year, but still quite a gap between that and making a Waterford panel. Perhaps the plan is to make an impression at U-21 level this year and go on from there. I wonder was there anything stopping him still being available for Meath while still playing his club hurling with De la Sallle?

On one hand I wish him the best, would be great to see him make it, but then you can only think how much of a loss he is to Meath. The Christy Ring is only going to get tougher, with Antrim in there this year, and probably either Carlow or Westmeath going to get the drop for next year.

You'd think he would still be able to tog out for Meath. But is he living down in Waterford now?

Anyone know the team and subs from tonight? Only 3 points scored in the second half meant a 11 points to 2-8 loss.

Royal Legend

Don't worry HA, he will be looked after in Waterford. DLS are a decent club as well with good people involved.
He would be doing well to make the jump to the Waterford Senior Hurling panel unless he is seriously talented. big issue for him with either club or county is the speed of hurling would be a lot faster down here and there is a lot of high level competition, especially underage.
Will keep an eye out for him, hope he does well either way.

paul0103

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Anyone know the team and subs from tonight? Only 3 points scored in the second half meant a 11 points to 2-8 loss.

From Twitter:
https://twitter.com/truefergallynch/status/684807750019354624

And apparently Sean Tobin started instead of Ruari O Coiliain. James McEntee started 13 for UCD. Haven't heard if he came further out the field or stayed there. I see he scored two points though.

Green_Tae

Apparently we had seven goal attempts that came back off the woodwork? Truth to the old adage that goals win games.

Still, I might have expected more from the starting forwards but conditions were never going to allow them to really show their stuff. Hopefully we get the two points against Laois and the high tally over Carlow in the previous round would see us through.

iDave

The hurlers face Wexford in a double header on Sunday. A rare chance to see a Liam McCarthy county in Navan.

paul0103

Probably of even greater significance this weekend is the combined schools hurling team taking part in the Senior A championship for the first time ever. They play Offaly schools tomorrow at 2.00 in Dunganny. Probably a tough ask, but great for the schools players to get experience at this level in hurling. Hopefully if it's continued at both this and the lower age groups over the next few years we might soon see the benefit of it at senior county level.

Preview of games

dixiefly

iDave wrote: »

The hurlers face Wexford in a double header on Sunday. A rare chance to see a Liam McCarthy county in Navan.

Yes, looking forward to both games. Weather is a bit better. It should give us an idea of MOD's thinking with regards to the league.

iDave

Good win in the Hastings Cup over Roscommon. 1-17 0-11

dixiefly

iDave wrote: »

Good win in the Hastings Cup over Roscommon. 1-17 0-11

Seemingly good scoring performance from Daragh Rowe, are we to assume that he will be brought into the senior panel once the Hastings is over? He seems to be the successor to a Stephen Bray. Newman is struggling to establish himself consistently.

dixiefly

Good to get the win. We were all wondering why Mickey Newman went for the goal but they must have been worried about the scoring difference versus UCD. Louth up next, is it Drogheda?

Hammer Archer

dixiefly wrote: »

Good to get the win. We were all wondering why Mickey Newman went for the goal but they must have been worried about the scoring difference versus UCD. Louth up next, is it Drogheda?

With 10 minutes left (the last Twitter update I could find), UCD were 10 up against Carlow which would have left them on +12 points difference. I suppose they assumed that difference would have gotten greater in the last 10 minutes so we needed to go for goals to make sure of progressing. As it turned out, it wouldn't have mattered as a 1 point win would have been enough, but an enjoyable last 5 minutes or so.

Decent performance at times but still the same problem of going a bit too long without scoring. Good to see O'Sullivan back in a Meath jersey. He looked good in parts but rusty in others though that's to be expected I suppose. Thought Alan Douglas did very well at wing back. Looked pacy, strong and kicked a beautiful point as well. Away to Louth next weekend. No idea where it'll be fixed for.

Bit of a harsh scoreline the hurlers were on the receiving end of. They did pretty well to get back to within three of Wexford with 10 gone in the second half but 2-2 in 4 minutes (started off by an extremely sodt penalty) meant the heads dropped. Thought James Toher was the stand out player for us.

In other news, Curraha's All Ireland JFC semi final opponents will be Kerry's Templenoe. You'd expect now that their semi final will be part of a double header with Ratoath's in Limerick.

rpurfield

Only made it in for the last 20 of the hurling, underfoot conditions didn't lend itself to a decent game I thought. Great to see the hurlers test themselves against Liam McCarthy teams but is it much of a benefit in them conditions?

On the football, it was good to see a bit of a killer instinct at the end, one thing that struck me though was how small the team is generally. There was noone in the back line close enough in size to Kingston today. Fair enough he's bloody huge but surely we need one or two like that. Anyway good to get the win and to play Louth now will be a good test, they seem to be flying for this time of year.

Hammer Archer

So what do ye think of the Football Competitions Review Committee's proposals.
http://hoganstand.com/meath/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=248820
No Divisional teams which is probably a good idea.

Reducing the numbers in each grade to 16, which would also create a Junior E grade, is also definitely needed. Not entirely convinced that a team who have lost 2 out of 3 group games should have a chance of progressing though.

Cup competitions as preseason tournaments is a good idea in my view.

Not sure about the seeding of the championship depending on league position. This would surely put teams with a good few county players at a disadvantage.

Huntergonzo

I like the reduction of teams from 18 to 16 but top 3 qualifying instead of top 2 is ridiculous, unless I've missed something you wouldn't even have to win a group game to qualify for the KO stages. You could draw with the team that finishes 4th and go through on point difference, very disappointed with this proposal, right idea terrible execution.

Also I'd far prefer to see 2 up 2 down in the championships, only one team getting relegated isn't enough for me, I think too many clubs are becoming complacent and this might light a fire under them.

Hammer Archer

I can't get my head around it myself. Don't know what the big deal is with every team experiencing knockout football.

I'm a bit half and half on 2 up/2 down. 2 down I think is a good idea but I think a team that gets promoted should have to do so by winning their final. I know for a few years recently, both Junior finalists were promoted but this would be a more permanent thing. In my view, it would devalue winning the championship outright. Also, it could result in a case where the two best teams in a grade meet in a semi final resulting in one going up along with a lesser team. I think Ratoath and St. Colmcille's in the IFC and Curraha and Bective in the JFC were the two best teams in their respective championships last season and they all met in the semi finals.


Curraha's All Ireland semi final has been fixed for Kilmallock That's a very odd choice.