Meath GAA discussion thread

HighKing33

Strange that he never featured in 2009?

chrysagon

selling tickets even for the longford game!!!!

Hammer Archer

Meath (O'Byrne Cup v Longford) - Andy Markey (St Peter's, Dunboyne); Simon Carty (Dunderry); Mickey Burke (Longwood), Nicky Judge (Ballinabrackey); Darren Brennan (Moynalvey), Neil Shortall (Curraha), Bryan Menton (Donaghmore/Ashbourne); Jamie Queeney (Na Fianna), Andy Tormey (Donaghmore/Ashbourne); Sean Tobin (Simonstown Gaels), Mark O'Sullivan (Moynalvey), David Toner (Curraha); David Bray (Navan O'Mahonys), Tom McCullen (Ballinlough), Ruairi O'Dowd (Walterstown).

Good few changes from Sunday. O'Sullivan did well in the challenge games before Christmas so we'll see if he can keep it up.

Hammer Archer

Anyone know the subs that came on today?

CrabRevolution

On the topic of Graham Reilly actually being in his 8th season. I sometimes find it hard to get around how Mickey Burke made his championship debut under Sean Boylan in 2005.

iDave

Anyone in Navan tonight? Scoreline sounded convincing. Should make semi from here as DCU beaten by....wait for it.... Westmeath!

Hammer Archer

DCU are usually unpredictable. They beat Dublin last year and we hockeyed them in the next game.

If we make the semi final, it'll be against Dublin in Navan.

paul0103

CrabRevolution wrote: »

On the topic of Graham Reilly actually being in his 8th season. I sometimes find it hard to get around how Mickey Burke made his championship debut under Sean Boylan in 2005.

And was on the hurling panel three years before that in 2002!

ProudDUB

Hammer Archer wrote: »

DCU are usually unpredictable. They beat Dublin last year and we hockeyed them in the next game.

A lot of DCU's heavy hitters (Michael Murphy, Paul Flynn etc) have graduated over the past couple of years. They aren't the force that they were imo.

rpurfield

iDave wrote: »

Anyone in Navan tonight? Scoreline sounded convincing. Should make semi from here as DCU beaten by....wait for it.... Westmeath!

I'd class it as pretty much the same for the first half as Sunday, not great in the first half but picked up in the second. We struggled a bit with the packed defence but a lucky enough goal got us back into it and kicked on with the wind in the second half.

The O'dowd chap from Walterstown looked good in corner forward scored a few nice points and showed well, Jamie Queeney went in full forward for the second half and played much better in there. It's probably a bit harder to judge the second half, because Longford really faded out of it I thought. Andy Markey twisted his knee in the warm up too, hopefully its not serious.

HighKing33

Encouraging stuff. I felt we didn't kick enough points in previous years so it's nice to see us posting big scores there. DCU are probably not the force they once were but we have a patchy record against them so we can't take anything for granted.

Like I said before, if we can get a full-back or a corner back out of this cup then it will give Micko a lot of flexibility in the league, freeing up Keoghan to play 6 for example.

Will hopefully get to see the lads play in Navan on Sunday but I don't think we're guaranteed a home game in the semi-final, first name out of the hat wins home advantage.

chrysagon

Poor enough Longford team though, and poor enough attendance!

Hibbeler

How has the defense been looking in these matches lads? Who has been playing at full back?

CrabRevolution

Was looking through the much maligned "Hurling 2020" report there, there's a section dividing all the teams into 3 categories, and the work needed to be done for each. First is the clique of self appointed "traditional" counties like Tipp, Cork, Wexford, then next is the "Developing" ones of Antrim, Kerry, Laois, Westmeath etc. Lastly is the "others" section.

Disappointing to see Meath have been dumped into the "others" group though. Despite the fact that in recent years we have been at the same level as Kildare, Derry and Down, they are all in the 2nd group while we are in the 3rd, along with teams like Fingal, Warwickshire and Longford.

It cant have been judged on league placings, as that would have London ahead of Down and Kildare. Same as championship, since we have beaten all 3 of Derry, Down and Kildare in the last 3/4 years in the Christy Ring.

While we're no world beaters at hurling, I think ourselves (and Wicklow) are entitled to feel annoyed at being denied the same level of focus as similar teams.

iDave

Same thought crossed my mind also Crab. Was disappointed Meath were thrown in with the others. What have Derry done that we haven't? We've been flirting with promotion and always look to be on the brink of a CR final. Think we lost to the eventual winners 2 years in a row.
Don't think the CR has been good for us tbh. IIRC Meath always entered a team in the Leinster championship, well in the 90s anyway even though we didn't win often we still made the effort. Wicklow and Kildare didn't have this same record as us. Think we even gave Offaly a scare when they were in their pomp.
Since leaving Leinster in the early 00s for the CR I think we've gone backwards. Like I said we made the effort to play in Leinster when other counties didn't but those counties have gone on to overtake us. We were even dumped in the Nicky Rackard one year too which we breezed through. Not sure why, think it was to accommodate Westmeath who themselves were screwed by Antrim and Galway in Leinster.
The Ring, Rackard, Meagher structure needs a second look.

Hammer Archer

Got a link to the report? That's a load of bullsh!t. Meath hurling has its problems but that's downright insulting.
Doesn't really matter though because if you're not in the so-called "traditional" hurling section, you're nothing to the GAA.

CrabRevolution

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Got a link to the report? That's a load of bullsh!t. Meath hurling has its problems but that's downright insulting.
Doesn't really matter though because if you're not in the so-called "traditional" hurling section, you're nothing to the GAA.

Link is on this page.

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0601150922-hurling-2020-committee-report/

thinkstoomuch1

http://www.gaa.ie/gaa-news-and-videos/daily-news/1/0601151734-2020-report-what-will-it-means-for-hurling-/


Think you have click on link in article hammer and download it get full report as there is a lot in the document

ebbsy

Does'nt seem to do much for the smaller counties. They want to take the final out of Croke park ? I went to see Wicklow play twice in the final (and lose twice), but how many of these players would get a chance to play there otherwise ?

They have no interest in promoting the competition. Counties like Meath, Wicklow, Kildare etc punch above their weight in a sport that is given lip service in the respective counties.

At least ye have a handy one in the first round in Leinster.....we are in a bad way.

Hammer Archer

Strong team for tonight.

Meath (O'Byrne Cup v DCU) – Patrick O'Rourke, Donncha Tobin, Conor McGill, Mickey Burke; Ciaran McConnell, Donal Keogan, Shane Melia; Harry Rooney, Adam Flanagan; Graham Reilly, Mark O'Sullivan, Andy Tormey; Damien Carroll, David Bray, Joey Wallace.

HighKing33

Yeah, I think the experimentation is largely over by this stage. Tough on lads looking to break onto the panel but last year players like Joey Wallace and David Bray did not get enough competitive games so that's been addressed. Punters will get their moneys worth tonight.

iDave

Whats going on in Ashbourne? 3.09 0.00 down at ht in Hastings cup!

Hibbeler

iDave wrote: »

Whats going on in Ashbourne? 3.09 0.00 down at ht in Hastings cup!

And a big defeat to Cavan in the last round as well! From what I heard about that match the Cavan u-21 team were training together long before the Meath team were...

I know Roscommon have been good in this grade in recent times but losing 4-12 to 0-01 (I saw this as a result on twitter) can't be a good sign for any Meath team even if it's a pre-season competition.

Is this the same year of lads that got to the All Ireland at minor?

chrysagon

Thats a disaster!!!!!

Hammer Archer

There are a hell of a lot of U21 players with the seniors and with college teams as far as I know. I would expect them to be aiming for the Leinster championship.

Meath Centre Forward

The management should be resigning for sending out a team like that.

They are missing about 3 players to the seniors and another 3 to colleges so don't expect things to get much better.

That scoreline is as bad as it gets.

CrabRevolution

Whatever about lads playing with the seniors, I don't buy the college excuse. Every county has players away with colleges, or are Meath the only county that has lads pursuing a third level qualification?

Meath Centre Forward

You're dead right Crab Revolution. I'd be guessing that Roscommon were missing their fair share of players too.

Hammer Archer

Who were they missing who played in 2012?
Power, Harnan, McEntee, O'Sullivan, Flanagan, Rooney, Ward, the two Wallaces (who didn't play in 2012). Anyone else? Embarrassing defeat without a doubt but I'll reserve judgement until it comes to the Leinster Championship.

Made hard work of the point tonight. Far too many wides with the wind in the first half with Tormey being chief culprit. Poor second half performance to go from 4 points up to 3 down. Had to applaud DCU's Davey Byrne's point in the first half where he drew the ball in with the wind. Would have been disappointing not to have gotten Dublin next weekend.

rpurfield

Yeah I'd agree Hammer, it was poor stuff last night, really should have been at least 8 points up at half time. Maybe I'm being over positive but to come back after letting the lead slip was a good sign, even at that stage we had some bad wides and could've won it by two or three in the end. Onwards and upwards though