Kildare v Meath

fone wrote:

Joe mc Quillan is referee for Saturday night

3 pts down already ....

Watching the soccer and everyone saying Wessi shoukd gave been in are ignoring tge fact that the big lump Murphy up with Wakters upset the Austrians more...
Just saying route one works sometimes and we should drop a few bombs on top of Flynn, and Brophy if he appears. If we had Feely, Kelly or P Cribbin delivering from inside the Meath half...

Nice interview with Johnny on LMFM. Goes for a hesitant win for Kildare when pushed.

https://soundcloud.com/lmfmradio/sunday-sport-johnny-doyle-looks-ahead-to-kildare-v-meath

After listening to that I feel alot less confident than I did.

[quote="fone"]Joe mc Quillan is referee for Saturday night[/quote]

At least we wont have him for the leinster final so!!

I think that was "Agent Johnny" at work Bigball.

Dan Flynn must get his head in right frame of mind . Sometimes he get frustrated if he bening bottle up. Believe me meath are going to target all out main players big time . That there manager way of doing things . Expect this to be a real dog fight no place for the faint hearted, this game will open at 100 miles a hour. Just hope we have our home work done

Agree with that White boy. They're going to hit and hit hard as well as come thundering out of the traps. Think once we don't get caught cold and can get into a rhythm we will have enough. Think we have the better spread of players I really do. Have a feeling we could see a real big one out of Paul Cribbin. Whilst he has being playing well he has not returned to the heights we saw against Cork in Thurles. He was majestic that evening

Agree with views above. Last time we played in 14 Brophy was taken out with a cheap tackle by the Meath full back. Hope he remembers that when he comes on. Said earlier that Cribben has a lot more to offer and could be a match winner if fully fit.
Think if we can frustrate them and keep the scoreboard ticking over their confidence could drop quickly as they have had some fade outs in recent years.

The one thing that worries me is that we could have one of those days where we just never get going. We've had them in big games over recent years. Westmeath, Clare, Galway, Wexford to name a few. We don't seem to be able to up the intensity in a game when needed. It's either there at the start or it never appears.

Physically we appear to be in good shape, we beat up a supposed big physical side in Laois so I'd be hopeful we could match or impose on Meath. From reading the locals this week the tackling has been a priority (not before time) and worked on a lot, so we might overturn them and hit Flynn early to use his pace and size.

The more it gets nearer the more I see this as 50/50. The problem is when was the last 50/50 big championship game we won.

Weather coming very warm on the way for Saturday it mite come down to our strength and conditioning. We need to keep the pace up and hope some of there older players will come under pressure. E.g mickey Burke and crew!!

The big thing this year is barring the couple of injuries in the inside line, the team is very settled and has been since the start of the national league. I'd imagine Meath wouldn't have that this year. I heard they had a panel of 50 odd players at one stage in the Spring. Like us last year. This settled line up and game plan should see us in good stead. Its what we do when Meath get a run on us. Can we limit it to a couple of points and see it out or are we going to ship a 1-6 in 6 or 7 minutes and leave ourselves a mountain to climb. That's usually what does for us.

If Louth can score 3-9 I would be confident we can rack up a big score against these meath backs. Theyre midfield is poor, very poor. I think if we can get stop reilly and o sullivan we will win this game by 5 points plus.

Ps. I dont expect any changes to team. Brophy will play some part no doubt, possibly neil flynn too.

Wish I could be that confident bigball, but every time I am, I end up travelling home with the tail between my legs.

The last 2 times we met in the championship Meath looked a lot more up for it than we did. Ok the 2012 team was coming to its end and the 2014 was managed by Jason but it was still disappointing the way we failed to get going until late in the game.
Start slowly and allow them to build up momentum and its hard not to see the same result. If we adopt the same attitude that Galway had against Mayo including a few big hits then we have more than enough to beat them.

Flynn like every other forward gets frustrated when bottled up but to be I'd love if Meath tried to rattle him early as it would get him going. He has an edge to him and is no shrinking violet.
I call us by 5 IF we get a goal.

Agree with bigball on this, I think midfield gives us an edge. Menton is a terrific player but he’s a defender not a midfielder. Ronan Jones might be a good midfielder down the line but 2 years out of minor he lacks the strength for senior football. James Toher is what it says on the tin, a hurler trying to play football.

A number of players who did damage against us previously are not featuring. Conor Gillespie has long term hip problems, Damien Carroll isn’t even on the panel, Mickey Newman apparently doesn’t run 200 metres quickly enough for the McEntees to merit a place on the bench, while the next great thing at midfield Harry Rooney is off travelling.

Meath seem to put a lot of store in the Louth result. Given what Tipperary did to them in the league final, how close Wicklow ran them in the first round and the fact that Longford and Westmeath (who scored 6 – 15) beat them before the championship, I’m not sure Louth are a great benchmark. They went man to man like they did against us in 2014 and got a similar beating.

Love the hype coming from the Meath side compared to the quiet build-up on our side for this game. Pleasant change from previous meetings. In 2012 we played them the week Seanie Johnson became a dual player, we weren’t mentally right at all under the pressure of 31 counties hating us (more than usual!). In 2014 we were all overconfident. 8 of the 2014 Meath team will probably start. With the exception of Cillian O’Sullivan, none of the changes since then make them better. 7 of our 2014 team will probably start plus David Hyland and Eoin Doyle who came off the bench that day. The additions include Mick O’Grady, John Byrne, Kevin Feely, Paul Cribbin and Dan Flynn.

I’m actually ok with our old friend Joe reffing. His interpretation of some rules, such as the Tom Flynn black card last week can be a bit, ahem, unique, and he’s fussy about any shirt tugging but, like his mentor Pat McEnaney, if a forward gets held up in the tackle even slightly illegally held, he tends to give a free out rather than in. Given our greater physical strength and the work being done on the tackle, I think this might favour us more than Meath.

I really hope we can get a huge Kildare crowd down for the game. Was watching footage of the '98 Leinster Final last night, the sea of white was incredible. Hopefully we're returning to a similar period for Kildare football.
These derbies are the most exciting matches in the championship for me. Kildare v Meath is always such a physical encounter. Hopefully the lads go for it from the off and set down a marker. It's been too long since we've been in a Leinster Final. Cill Dara Abu!

Flamingo wrote:

Flynn like every other forward gets frustrated when bottled up but to be I'd love if Meath tried to rattle him early as it would get him going. He has an edge to him and is no shrinking violet.
I call us by 5 IF we get a goal.

.. and 2 if we don't?

Very surprised Meath agreed to tullamore after we had only played there.. and that should be a bit of an advantage to us.
This will be a close one with us winning by 1 or 2 me thinks,although I wouldn't rule out a draw.

mc entees son is a weakness, mickey burke is a poor man's Philly mac mahon.
the keeper is a weakness. hope he kicks it long . feely and tommy will win there fair share.
Doyle will get physical with Reilly. tight for 45 mins . we will win by 4 or 5 .
this is a decent team.

Liking the confidence in a lot of posters but I'm getting more and more nervous as the day gets nearer. For the first time in a long time it feels like a genuine Championship build up and a blood and thunder match to follow. The fact that the game is in Tullamore gives it an old school Leinster clash.

I'm looking forward to the match even though I'm as nervous as a Turkey at Christmas.

Any word on Neil Flynn? Seems to be a few rumours of him making the bench. Would be a great boost although he hasn't played a competitive game in a long time now

jj wrote:

Any word on Neil Flynn? Seems to be a few rumours of him making the bench. Would be a great boost although he hasn't played a competitive game in a long time now

from what I been told he will play part on Saturday