Meath GAA discussion thread

cilles man

Lads , Christy Reynolds, jj mc Cormac, Gerry Cooney all got a stint with Meath back then, Rory mc Cormack , Alan Browne & Ian Kearney all came on the scene just after that Walterstown team had reached its pinocle. great team & club back then .

Carawaystick

Graham Geraghty togged out in the Sigerson Cup yesterday(Tues) for Blanch IT
about 24 years since he first togged out for Meath...

paul71

cilles man wrote: »

Lads , Christy Reynolds, jj mc Cormac, Gerry Cooney all got a stint with Meath back then, Rory mc Cormack , Alan Browne & Ian Kearney all came on the scene just after that Walterstown team had reached its pinocle. great team & club back then .

I was only in my teens so would not remember it too well, but I think JJ McCormack ended up playing/managing Wexford, in fact I think remember him playing against Meath at one stage.

chrysagon

paul71 wrote: »

I was only in my teens so would not remember it too well, but I think JJ McCormack ended up playing/managing Wexford, in fact I think remember him playing against Meath at one stage.

All fringe players really with Meath

CrabRevolution

In fairness that's still about 6 lads in a short enough space of time, especially considering that most clubs would have had 0 county players.

Summerhill and Navan have shared the last few years worth of championships between them, but dont exactly dominate the Meath team. Club dominance doesnt necessarily mean they'll fill the county team.

chrysagon

True, and when Meath won 87 and 88 All irelands, there were quite a few junior players on the team

paul71

chrysagon wrote: »

True, and when Meath won 87 and 88 All irelands, there were quite a few junior players on the team

Harnan (Moynalvey), O'Malley, Flynn, (cilles did go senior during the period), McEntee (Nobber), O'Connell (St. Micheals), Stafford (what club?), Foley (Junior club in Cork not Trim his Meath club).

Not is if these were fringe or bit-part players, I am wondering if in present era would you do as well if we trawled the junior/intermediate ranks as we did by doing it back then.

paul a newman

Stafford was Kilmainhamwood

chrysagon

i presume all adult ranks are scrutinised.. but i often feel over the past few years our underage system seemed to slacken off, could be wrong, but when u see the amount of full time coaches Dublin have, and what Meath have, we are streets behind.
Ironically when Meath were doing bad early 80s ,Walterstown did excellent in All Ireland club, and when Meath won 87/88, Meath clubs just made up numbers.

iDave

Any word of a starting XV? Hope injuries aren't causing a delay.

dixiefly

Team named. Harnan & McMahon back. Flanagan & Rooney midfield. McGill full back with Keoghan CHB. Joey Wallace startin his first league game. I have no real complaints about the lineup.

http://www.hoganstand.com/meath/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=231018

Meath (FL Division 2 v Galway) – Paddy O'Rourke; Donnacha Tobin, Conor McGill, Mickey Burke; Padraic Harnan, Donal Keogan (capt), Bryan Menton; Harry Rooney, Adam Flanagan; Graham Reilly, Stephen Bray, Andrew Tormey; Bryan McMahon, Michael Newman, Joey Wallace.

Meath Centre Forward

Meath team named:
Paddy O'Rourke
Donnacha Tobin - Conor McGill - Mickey Burke
Padraic Harnan - Donal Keoghan - Bryan Menton
Harry Rooney - Adam Flanagan
Graham Reilly - Stephen Bray - Andrew Tormey
Bryan McMahon - Mickey Newman - Joey Wallace

Not surprised to see Padraic Harnan and Joey Wallace starting even though I didn't have them in my team a few pages back. I am a bit surprised to see Damian Carroll missing out.

Interesting as well with the discussion above, there are 8 players from senior clubs, 6 from intermediate and 1 junior player. It's a nice spread.

Main thing is to start a win and have an injury free league. It's around now the cruciate curse strikes and Meath have been unlucky with it in recent seasons.

If we can keep that 15 fit for the remainder of the League and start getting the likes of Eamonn Wallace and Conor Gillespie back and towards the end of the League maybe some of Kevin Reilly, Shane O'Rourke and James McEntee back, we'd be in a good position.

There's good subs too, David Bray, Damian Carroll, Davy Dalton and Jamie Queeney with a bit of experience and Shane Melia, Neil Shortall and Mark O'Sullivan all improving players.

Royal Legend

paul71 wrote: »

The number of players from that Walterstown team who converted to intercounty was poor enough, Frank O'Sullivan (right name?) was the only one that I recall.

what about JJ ? :eek:

chrysagon

Royal Legend wrote: »

what about JJ ? :eek:

and Eamonn Barry, gerry cooney was a panel member,Christy reynolds made the odd league panel

Royal Legend

paul71 wrote: »

Harnan (Moynalvey), O'Malley, Flynn, (cilles did go senior during the period), McEntee (Nobber), O'Connell (St. Micheals), Stafford (what club?), Foley (Junior club in Cork not Trim his Meath club).

Not is if these were fringe or bit-part players, I am wondering if in present era would you do as well if we trawled the junior/intermediate ranks as we did by doing it back then.

Stafford was Kilmainham wood, PJ Gillic Carnaross is another and I think, could be wrong, that Terry Ferguson Gael Colmcille, they were intermediate at the time as well. A few years later we also had John McDermott (junior) Ollie Murphy (Carnaross) as well to name just a few

Royal Legend

Not a nice thing and something I did or would not condone now, but JJ must have been the most vilified Inter County player ever to play for Meath.
If you watched Meath at the time live, you would know what I mean

chrysagon

Royal Legend wrote: »

Not a nice thing and something I did or would not condone now, but JJ must have been the most vilified Inter County player ever to play for Meath.
If you watched Meath at the time live, you would know what I mean

why though?..he originally wexford?

Royal Legend

chrysagon wrote: »

why though?..he originally wexford?

was at a couple of league games he played in Navan and other venues and the vitriol was over the top. There was a lot of hate for Walterstown at the time and he appeared to be a figure of hate, big man, not the most mobile or possibly the most brave or tough, good club footballer though

HighKing33

Promising line-up for tomorrow's game. All that potential might not click all the time but I particularly like the look of that half-back line - Menton and Keoghan were very good during the O'Byrne cup.

Not sure about Bray at 11 and it's unlikely he'll stay there. He'll probably float around the 40 for a bit before pushing up to play off of Newman. Much more likely to see McMahon and Wallace playing as traditional half-forwards.

Has the makings of a great game providing the weather's calm.

'Hon the Royal!

dixiefly

Well that was a shambles and I am beginning to believe that Mick 'Dowd is way out of his debt here. I drove to Galway in the hope that the second half against Dublin indicated a turnaround in fortunes for this squad. i was a little surprised at some of Micko's selections but was prepared to go with it considering a decnt enough O'Byrne Cup.

However, I am now wondering how he is seeing fit to play guys that are patently too light for senior inter county football. Three Ratoath players on the team and, truth be told, all 3 are to small/ light for their places on the team. I would just about persist with MCGill but Joey Wallace and Bryan McMahon are so far out of their debt it is painful to watch. Little Joey tries hard but was played out on half forward line and makes dinky runs going nowwhere. I cannot remember him having an attempt at a score. McMahon much the same, he did try once from a bit out but the goalie had to run out to retrieve the ball! In the second half one of the Galway players pushed McMahon in an agressive manner and he just ran away! I would have had Geraghty in there today ahead of him at least he would fight back.

Regarding other areas, Michael Newman was very poor also, was well controlled by his marker in the first half and had an opportunity to get a goal in the second half and blasted over. They scored 1-3 without reply after that and finished us off.

I also think Micko has it wrong ref Keoghan at CHB. Great player and got plenty of possession but he is not a centre half back and should play in his best position. Full back line were poor with Mickey Burke struggling in the first half.

On the positive side, I thought that Flanagan and Rooney came well into after a shaky start and worked hard. Biggie was more prominent in the second and at least he didnt take any crap from his marker (though he got an undeserved yellow). Tormey battled hard and he got a black card for a tackle that might have merited a yellow. I thought that Harnan did well.

On a final note. David Bray and Sean Tobin are no world beaters by the standards of the great forwards in the past. They were imho almost our best forwards in the league (Bray was the top scorer). They are also at an age and physical development more appropriate to inter county (i.e. not lightweights). Yet neither started and the mistakes of playing a lightweight forward line that was exposed last year has continued.

This was a very important day for Meath football, we needed a win to get into a reasonable position for promotion. Galway were missing players. I had this game in my diary as a must go to / win for many weeks. We faled badly.

All in all a bad day at the office.

Meath Centre Forward

I would agree with most of that. The performance was poor.

O'Rourke was good in goals. Those kick-outs that don't go past 50 yards have got to find a Meath man. That's my only complaint but he's a great option for the long range frees.

I thought McGill was Meath's best player. The rest of the backs weren't up too much and I thought Harnan and Keoghan had their hands full. Menton and Tobin didn't do much and Burke was struggling throughout.

The midfield was shakey to start with but goy into it.

The forwards were poor. Wallace and McMahon weren't in it at all and just don't get on the ball enough or they are small enough compared to their opponents. Newman was very rsuty and didn't contribute much. Tormey and Reilly worked around the half-back line but offered nothing from an offensive point of view. And even at that Reilly's man was probably the man of the match. Bray was a threat throughout but his conversion rate was something like 2 out of 6.

The subs offered nothing. Carroll was worse than McMahon and Queeney did nothing.

It was a really disappointing start to the League. It makes next week a must win, otherwise we'll find ourselves at the wrong of the end of the table for the remainder of the League, and probably fighting relegation. Any hope I had of promotion went up in smoke with what I saw today.

rpurfield

Disappointing stuff today, I was fairly hopeful heading down that we'd pick something up. There was some awful handling and bad wides too in the first half, and we let them run through us far too easily. Much improvement needed for next week now.

HighKing33

A goal from Mickey Newman would have brought us level with fifteen minutes to go. It's still a work in progress, no doubt about that. When we had big players on the pitch we were told by the experts that it's all about pace. Now we have pace but it's all about big players.

Calm down. It's not the end of the world just yet.

dixiefly

HighKing33 wrote: »

A goal from Mickey Newman would have brought us level with fifteen minutes to go. It's still a work in progress, no doubt about that. When we had big players on the pitch we were told by the experts that it's all about pace. Now we have pace but it's all about big players.

Calm down. It's not the end of the world just yet.

I am not sure who in the county was calling for fast players that contribute very little else. Eamonn Wallace was going in the right direction last year before his unfortunate injury. I have seen Joey in several games now and struggle to see what he is bringing to the party. Totally exposed against Dublin and Armagh last year and now the same thing in our first league game.

I am not looking for big players with nothing else, what I want is a minimum size / physique unless the player is top class talent wise which (so far) Wallace and McMahon have proven not to be.

royaler83

Royal Legend wrote: »

Not a nice thing and something I did or would not condone now, but JJ must have been the most vilified Inter County player ever to play for Meath.
If you watched Meath at the time live, you would know what I mean

Who is JJ?

royaler83

Burke still in the full back line shows that Micko and co have learned nothing from the last few years :mad:

Meath Centre Forward

I think anyone following Meath senior teams over the last 10 years or so will have learned the only thing consistent about them is their inconsistency !

Meath supporters are by nature a passionate bunch too and tend to get excited by a good result/performance but very downbeat when the opposite happens.

So I can see both sides of the argument. People are rightly concerned about the direction Meath are going in but the other side is they have followed up bad performances with good performances in the past, and vice-versa.

Really wouldn't be surprised to see a different team next week, but likewise we could see a worse one too. That's the nature of Meath. On a good day we'd be topping Divison 2, on a bad one, we'd be in the relegation zone - probably wouldn't put us above or below or that. But on a given day the table topping team Meath are as likely to show up as the one fighting relegation. Would that be a fair summary of what we're dealing with here?

Hammer Archer

Think you're being a bit harsh on the Ratoath lads, dixiefly. Agree they weren't great, but in my view, Biggy was the worst player out there today. Offered next to nothing going forward and whenever we lost the ball, he simply stood where he was with his hands on his hips. At least McMahon and Wallace tracked back when we lost possession. He is one of the most infuriating players I've seen in Meath colours.

Simply atrocious today. At times it was worse than the Monaghan performances. Can't think of any player who played any way decent. But the funny thing is, we probably could have gotten something out of it were it not for 3 minutes of madness with 15 minutes to go when we went from 2 points down to 8 points down.

Anyone else think that the pitch itself was an absolute joke today?

iDave

Is it me or are we complaining about the same things we did 5, 6, 7 years ago. Inaccurate forwards, ineffective midfield and leaky defence? Nothing seems to change except the personnel.
My hope is that we have had a bad first away day 3 years in a row and now its out of our system and we can move on from here. I don't believe this Galway generation to be 8 points better than us and wouldn't fear them in the championship.
A derby against Kildare is probably the last thing we need right now and with Kildare also losing the pressure is on them as much as it is us. Wouldn't surprise me if we beat them for 5 points but conversely I wouldn't be surprise if we were beaten out the gate.
Consistently inconsistent.

HighKing33

Hammer Archer wrote: »

Simply atrocious today. At times it was worse than the Monaghan performances. Can't think of any player who played any way decent. But the funny thing is, we probably could have gotten something out of it were it not for 3 minutes of madness with 15 minutes to go when we went from 2 points down to 8 points down.

That's the thing. We've yet to see a sustained seventy minute performance from this Meath side, yet when we get a bit of momentum behind us we look lethal.

Joey Wallace and Brian McMahon seem to be the scapegoats of choice this week - not big enough for intercounty football etc., yet look at our midfield - Rooney, Flanagan, Reilly and Tormey - all big men and natural midfielders so that can't be the root of the problem. The notion that there isn't room for two quick, creative players around the 40 is kind of ludicrous.

Like I said before, we need to wise up, stop running the ball into trouble. Anyway, Division 2 could be very, very open. Next weekend's results will tell us a lot.