Meath GAA discussion thread

CrabRevolution

That's far from the worst I've ever seen Meath play, but a striking element of it was just how little of a plan or application the team seemed to have. Longford had to work very very hard for their scores (bar the bounce over the bar :rolleyes:) which told in how they were all collapsing and out on their feet by the end of the match.



It looks to me like Meath are playing a defensive system with an eye on not getting a tanking from Dublin (pretty much a carbon copy of McEntee's tactics for the Meath minors vs. Dublin in the 2012 all Ireland final). There's nothing inherently wrong with playing 13 men inside your own 65, but it has to be part of a bigger plan. I didn't see much of a plan today. We just let Longford have the ball all the time and about 5 men would try an unorganised break up the field when we won it in our backs.


Full back line actually had a good game. Longford seemed to score more from about the 45 than the inside line, in fact I think Meath only conceded one scoreable free close to the goals.

rpurfield

I've been brooding over that display all evening, there's an element out there that insists we should support the team and not question their efforts, well I'm convinced a lack of application and effort cost us today. On paper we've a better team than Longford but Longford wanted it more and got the result. I'm blue in the face saying we're a few years away from challenging, and I can accept we haven't a team at the moment to do so, but the lack of bite and effort from some is unforgivable.

iDave

Im more annoyed with traffic coming out of grounds than defeats these days.
Defeat feels normal.
So normal I'm surprised theres even anger and low ebb talk.
We were nearly relegated to the division Longford were operating in so a defeat away to them isnt that shocking.

CrabRevolution

Our first Leinster QF loss since 2011 too. Means we will more than likely have to play a 1st round game next year to get to the QF, as will Kildare.
On top of that we've a 1 in 4 chance of meeting Dublin in that QF, should we get past the 1st round.

dobman88

sc86 wrote: »

longford were 5/2 - buying money

how anybody expected a win today i dont know

How much did you have on it?

sc86

had 100 - should have put on more
great odds

county team will be out after next game so good news is our club champ can get back in action soon

dobman88

sc86 wrote: »

had 100 - should have put on more
great odds

county team will be out after next game so good news is our club champ can get back in action soon

Lol

iDave

Tyrone. Our annual Ulster executioner has been decided.

Felexicon

enricoh wrote: »

Tyrone in the qualifiers tomorrow I presume?!

Why did you have to be right. Short summer for Meath this year.

Rock Lesnar

Good god almighty, what an attacking feast of football this wont be.

Hammer Archer

No point in prolonging the agony.

vapor trails

Minors should beat Louth on Wednesday evening & go 3-0 in their championship, some green shoots amongst those hopefully.

snowgal

Apart from the actual defeat yesterday, the game itself was just dire to watch. I hate that Meath are adapting this 13 behind the ball style, it doesn't suit us! Id prefer to lose trying to play actual football than watch this garbage play. Tyrone Meath will be amazing!!not......................

Rock Lesnar

snowgal wrote: »

Apart from the actual defeat yesterday, the game itself was just dire to watch. I hate that Meath are adapting this 13 behind the ball style, it doesn't suit us! Id prefer to lose trying to play actual football than watch this garbage play. Tyrone Meath will be amazing!!not......................

Agreed, Ive been saying this for what seems like forever on here, i'd prefer to lose having a right go then what they are doing

snowgal

I genuinely can only remember 2 long kicks in to the forward line yesterday, two!

John.Icy

Unfortunately a 13 man defense system is the shortcut to becoming a more competitive team. Point and case Carlow; huge physical defensive platform that is extremely hard to break down. Nothing stylish or nice about their play but they defend all day and now have adapted the system to include attacking in numbers and not being afraid to recycle the ball to midfield multiple times per attack to start over - and the higher scores are coming now so it'll soon be forgotten about that they have such a defensive hand passing setup. Just like Dublin, the general mass ignore how often they filter everyone back because they can still attack with numbers and rack up big scores.

Carlow have transformed into what most likely is the 2nd best team in Leinster in a matter of no time, albeit partially responsible for Kildares sudden implosion and no one else really at the races.

It'd be great for everyone to play ball, but for much of the first half yesterday Kildare left 3 forwards up the field and Carlow had ample space to patiently rack up the across. I'd honestly prefer a manager to come in and have us play super defensive stuff so long as the scores came too. McGeeney had us defending as good as anyone and for 2/3 years we were a top top team. It's easy to say you'd rather lose playing attacking football and going for it; but believe me after 12 losses on the trot with a leaky defence who give up scoring chances EVERY opposition attack, I want 15 men behind the ball the next game.


Either way, best of luck against Tyrone.

tanko

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Good god almighty, what an attacking feast of football this wont be.

Tyrone are well capable of racking up big scores.

Felexicon

tanko wrote: »

Tyrone are well capable of racking up big scores against Meath

FYP

Hammer Archer

The only positive is that our two tormentors in chief from Tyrone in Peter Harte and Seán Cavanagh won't be there.
It brings our chances from none to slim-to-none.

Has to be looked into why all the Simonstown players left the panel. I'd say the likes of McKeever could have made a difference yesterday.

NufcNavan

Just what Meath football needed.

Another Ulster team to knock us out when our confidence is rock bottom.

rpurfield

Absolutely a rubbish draw to get, but it's either sink or swim so no point kidding ourselves. I'm still laughing at all the talk of the super 8s from the start of the year, I actually think they'll increase the gap between the 8 and the rest, especially the division 1 one teams. That's going to be three top quality games for them on top of the seven in the spring.

sc86

better lose to tyrone and andy pretend thats ok than away to limerick

div 1 football and super 8s was the talk on here at the start of the year
meath football fans and english soccer fans have 1 trait the same

delusion

Felexicon

Just saw the clip of Andys interview on the Sunday game. Very disappointing seeing him talk about 3 goal chances in the first half and how if they went in it would be a different story. I think yesterday was a time to hold his hands up and say he got it wrong.

White lighting

Felexicon wrote: »

Just saw the clip of Andys interview on the Sunday game. Very disappointing seeing him talk about 3 goal chances in the first half and how if they went in it would be a different story. I think yesterday was a time to hold his hands up and say he got it wrong.

He said in radio interview Longford had no goal chances in first half. Looking at Sunday Game they had two clear cut goal chances and it pretty much confirmed what i taught all along. Andy McEntee hasnt a flipping clue the man in deluded and a very poor manager. They sooner Meath get rid of him the better for all involved.

Felexicon

White lighting wrote: »

He said in radio interview Longford had no goal chances in first half. Looking at Sunday Game they had two clear cut goal chances and it pretty much confirmed what i taught all along. Andy McEntee hasnt a flipping clue the man in deluded and a very poor manager. They sooner Meath get rid of him the better for all involved.

I think that's massively unfair to be honest. I think he (along with 80% of intercounty managers) has just become fixated on building this defensive structure and has forgotten that you cannot win games without a strong attacking platform.

The real worry I have is what has happened within the setup that the Simonstown players have withdrawn. I would be willing to give Andy another couple of years to prove his worth.

Tombo2001

Felexicon wrote: »

I think that's massively unfair to be honest. I think he (along with 80% of intercounty managers) has just become fixated on building this defensive structure and has forgotten that you cannot win games without a strong attacking platform.

The real worry I have is what has happened within the setup that the Simonstown players have withdrawn. I would be willing to give Andy another couple of years to prove his worth.

I appreciate you are defending him and I agree the previous comments are unfair; however I'd disagree about being fixated on a defensive system.

(I) If you look at a lot of the counties that have built strong teams in recent years - Donegal, Galway, Monaghan, Carlow are examples - they have started out being known as a dour defensive team. But then success comes when they build on those foundations with a strong counter attacking ability.

(II) Doing this takes several seasons, three or four. And to build a team over that time period, with the same personnel, requires massive buy in from the panel.

I think that works for a few teams, but most wont get the buy in.

In addition, i think this strategy works better for a Carlow or a Monaghan than it does for Meath. Getting out of Division 4 is a massive incentive for Carlow. Getting into division 1 is a massive incentive for Monaghan.

But for teams that are traditionnally just below the strongest level - teams like Cork, Kildare, Meath, Down, Derry.....its not seen as an achievement to get out of Division 4, or to reach a provincial final. They dont have the same motivations.

Losing to Longford looks bad, but its not like getting to the Leinster semi final and getting hammered by Dublin is much better and thats the reality of where Meath were going. And thats just the unfortunate reality of playing in the Leinster Championships at the moment.

Felexicon

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I appreciate you are defending him and I agree the previous comments are unfair; however I'd disagree about being fixated on a defensive system.

(I) If you look at a lot of the counties that have built strong teams in recent years - Donegal, Galway, Monaghan, Carlow are examples - they have started out being known as a dour defensive team. But then success comes when they build on those foundations with a strong counter attacking ability.

(II) Doing this takes several seasons, three or four. And to build a team over that time period, with the same personnel, requires massive buy in from the panel.

I think that works for a few teams, but most wont get the buy in.

In addition, i think this strategy works better for a Carlow or a Monaghan than it does for Meath. Getting out of Division 4 is a massive incentive for Carlow. Getting into division 1 is a massive incentive for Monaghan.

But for teams that are traditionnally just below the strongest level - teams like Cork, Kildare, Meath, Down, Derry.....its not seen as an achievement to get out of Division 4, or to reach a provincial final. They dont have the same motivations.

Losing to Longford looks bad, but its not like getting to the Leinster semi final and getting hammered by Dublin is much better and thats the reality of where Meath were going. And thats just the unfortunate reality of playing in the Leinster Championships at the moment.

Oh I agree that fixation on the defensive structure is not the way we should be going.

Felexicon

Minors with another solid win tonight

iDave

Well done to them.

Tyrone match on Sky.

KaneToad

Felexicon wrote: »

Minors with another solid win tonight

Well done.