The neutral view on Meath GAA
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13-06-2024 12:55pm#1
Just wondering what way Meath as a GAA county is viewed by the GAA neutral, i went into a deep dive here of GAA boards pages back to the start in 2003, christ to say i was a bit shocked was an understatement , the vitriol about Meath footballers was crazy. Just wondering what exactly did they do to anyone around 2002/03 they were very average beaten by Dublin and Donegal in chamionship in 2002 and Kildare and Fermanagh in 2003. hard to see in this day and age a county ranked 6-10 being hated so much. the only county i can think of today is Tyrone and kind of hard to fathom that as well. what do tyrone do to anyone , meath like tyrone now wouldnt have dominated the way dublin and kerry did in 70s and early 80s , would they not have been a breath of fresh air at the time? cork were as dominant at exact same time in80s and early 90s, having been in 4 all ireland finals , winning 2 and losing 2 just like meath. surely the late 90s teams were liked they wernt very negative and played open football with fay, giles, geraghty, murphy surely a team hard to dislike that put dublin in thier place as well most years. you would have thought beating kerry by 15 points in an all ireland semi final would have been championed by all the weaker counties kerry had done that to over the years in all ireland semi finals particularly dublin who got some bad doings in 70s from kerry.
also was it or is it still a thing that all Meath teams were disliked like hurlers and minors/u21s? i presume its not a thing at all now and Meath are back to the plucky underdog county of late 70s early 80s. can anyone old enough to remember the period from 1971-1985 remember were meath hated at that period ? they just won one NFL title in 1975 and centenary cup 1984, so would have been seen as an underdog favourite i think of neutral counties a bit of an Everton or Leeds Utd, a team that had good share of history and one people liked to see do well again for old time sake, would that be the view again now. Surely the Louth thing in 2010 cant be seen as a huge negative against the county when if the shoe was on the other foot nobody would be grilling louth over it. or is it a deeper cultural resentment of the county for some reason.
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Post edited by Sonny678 on0
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i have commented a lot on meath over the years , because when i was growing up in the 90s in particular they were the best team in the country to watch , they played the purist football but could mix it physically with any team that wanted to get involved
i have noticed in recent years that the game has changed and meath are not too keen on changing with it , which is fine when you are playing a clare or a cork , you get an open game , but not against teams set up defensively and usually cancel them out quickly
i also feel that in recent years there is a reluctance to put in the hard yards from some players and they dropout , while dublin get the blame for this , that level of training has taken over the country now , form the corofin club team in galway to the limerick hurlers
i feel the style of football that suited meath is gone from the game and they are suffering as a result
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Mh
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interesting to hear just often wondering how a county that didn’t dominate much or for long could be disliked so much but like I said about Tyrone they were and still are similar maybe it’s counties that rattled the dublin/kerry dominance that media didn’t like. I think a lot of navel gazing has gone on in Meath since Colm took over . He seems to have put Meath into bracket if plucky underdogs like a Longford or Offaly type team. Maybe that’s where we have been as county since around 2003. Are we overachievers staying in division 2 so long? Maybe, perhaps the tailteann cup won was actually a big achievement. The standard of club football in Meath at senior level at least would be lower than Offaly and Westmeath so we probably are right to b ranked lower than them at county level so you would imagine Meath are overachieving in div 2 and bring in Sam Maguire at all.
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You can talk all day about the standard of the Meath senior championship, structures, funding etc, being the problem, but it just serves to distract from the real problem Meath have, it's their phycology. Until someone addresses this, and puts it right in the county, they are going absolutely nowhere. They could have David Clifford in there, and they'd be just as bad.
A poison set in in the mindset of Meath football under O'Dowds reign, and it's never been put right, it's grown and passed into every player that pulls on the jersey since. Up until this point, circa 2013, as bad as Meath ever were, they always played tough, with belief, heart, intensity, pride, spirit. They could raise it for Dublin, have a go at anyone, no matter how poor they were, and often upset the odds. Every trait Meath once prided themselves on, is completely dead now. Their players look like beaten dogs most games, miserable and going through the motions, devoid of anything resembling belief, spirit, fight. It's actually quite hard to watch, sad even, to see how one of Ireland's greatest champions have been reduced to this!
There seems a lack of hunger to even fix this, that's how bad it's got, complete apathy from players and the fans. Meath fans don't even care anymore, most didn't even know Meath were playing today. Wouldn't watch them if they were playing in the back garden. You don't mind losing if your team leaves it all out there, Meath can't even give their fans that, so the attitude of the fans is what's the point of even bothering with the team anymore?
The thing is, with the right manager, there's serious individual talent in the team, that if utilised properly, would be right up there. But until the phycology is addressed, it doesn't really matter what players or system they use, they're simply rudderless!
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i was on another thread a few weeks back in regards Dublin's dominance , that is something i picked up on , on a few trips to navan over the years , kildare the same , that's the first thing that has to change , if meath were more like roscommon , monaghan or tyrone in terms of attitude they would find themselves back in the top tier faster , them counties like meath have had fine underage , but have had serious bad days but bounced back and established division 1 teams
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yeah seems the spirit of football in the county is dead, if something isnt done fast were on way to becoming another louth and cavan, glory days and dominant from 1940s to 60s and then nothing since. it seems the whole GAA youth of meath dosent know where their from or who they have allegiance to the dublin families kids going around with dublin jerseys and going to dublin games and the non dublin fans going around with Kerry jerseys on all the time either that or Galway for some reason. never seen so many Galway jerseys on teenage boys and girls around meath as the last year. and its not in the Land Commision places either.
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I wouldn't mind the Kerry/Galway jerseys. Wearing a jersey a because you like it is a thing among younger people. My own young lad of 15 is mad Meath and he has a Mayo training top because he likes it. Loads of the lads on this team have different training tops or jerseys as well as the Meath ones. I still think this thing of following Dublin will be diluted over time in the county. We've a few lads in the club whose parents moved down from Dublin and they now play at various grades with Meath so would follow the county. But like everything if you are young and your aul lad is going looking at Dublin winning All Irelands to beat the band or you can pick the county you live in who are regularly beaten out the gate the kids would go with the team winning. Its also why there is so many young Man City fans now!
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I think alot of people missed my point in the "individual performances" thread, and what I meant about Lehane's performances for Cork. Cork hurling at the time had no spark, was fairly rudderless, and seemed all doom and gloom going forward. But what Lehane did in that game, was he took it upon himself to grab Cork by the neck, and drag them up kicking and screaming. Sometimes you need a moment, a spark, to ignite confidence and belief, a leader to stand tall and lead. That's what Lehane gave Cork that day. And Cork kicked on from there!
Thats what Meath need. There's no good in me repeating what the problem is, it's finding the solution. And a leader standing up and leading, inspiring, would go along way to fixing the problem. If the team is all of a sudden playing with belief and confidence, overnight your a different prospect.
And not one Meath player has stepped up to the mark. In tight games, they all wilt, become small. Give up leads, kick wides and make mistake after mistake. As I said, I've seen one game from them in over a decade, that something did spark for them. In the 21 Leinster Championship, they got an early goal in the second half against Dublin, being thumped before this. With that goal, something woke up in them. The first time in a decade they went after Dublin, or anyone for that matter. Only for the huge deficit, they had Dublin beaten all ends up.
They were a completely different team, and we got an idea of their actual potential, one of the best in the country. Thats the difference a little belief and confidence can give. Everyone became a leader, everyone running at Dublin and tackling as if their lives depended on it. The intensity levels go right up. It's the only game I can remember from Meath in the last 12 years, where the shackles came off and the fear evaporated. They were suddenly a different animal.
The problem with the GAA season is though, Meath needed a few games in quick succession to build on that spark. Having to wait around a whole year killed it. Meath players came off that day fully believing they could take Dublin if they got them again, and attacked from the start. But that momentum went nowhere. But Meath badly need a spark to ignite something. They're dead inside at the minute.
You don't mind losing if your just bad and the players leave it all out there. With Meath it's far more depressing for their fans to watch, there's talent, but the belief and spirit is dead. That's the hardest thing to accept from Meath fans. The apathy wouldn't be there in the same way, if Meath were losing but were just bad and still giving it all. You just feel the belief and spirit is dead in the team, they look laboured and disinterested. That's obviously not the case, but its the aura they give off. They need someone to stand tall!
Post edited by The Golden Miller on0
