Kildare v Meath

From a Kildare perspective, the big improvement I'm hoping for this week is around our decision making. It was awful against Offaly and led to many of our 14 wides and countless turnovers.

Meath looked sharp and in good shape, they'll be very high in confidence on Sunday and will love seeing us coming in the gate.

I think they are ahead of us at the moment so should win by 2 or 3 points.

I hope I'm very wrong

The way Meath put Wicklow to the sword yesterday (a 28 point win), highlights how we never seem to be able to do similar when we play weaker opponents. I appreciate that Offaly have a greater football pedigree than Wicklow but we should have won that game yesterday by a higher margin than we ultimately achieved.

We dominated the game (the 14 wides mentioned earlier demonstrate this) and a 4 point defeat flattered Offaly but the game still wasn't fully put to bed as we entered injury time. Defensively we were very open yesterday and a similar approach against Meath (and realistically what will change in a week) doesn't give one great confidence.

Meath scraped past Offaly last year.

We don't look like were gonna score goals, but certainly look like we'll concede them.

Any word on Conway? Was his substitution based on an injury?

I thought we were really poor yesterday and dread the thoughts of what Meath are going to do to us next week. To be honest a poor Offaly team put us to the sword and Meath absolutely destroyed Wicklow. This is what we should be doing to weaker teams but somehow we seem to sink to the level of the team we are playing.
We better do that next week or we will be beaten by half time. Meath have an ace in their pocket and they might not have to unleash him next week unless we are winning which I seriously doubt but he will play against Dublin in the final.

Giving the conditions all games are likely to be played in I find it crazy the lack of pressure we are putting on the ball carrier. Just look at games like Cork v Kerry, Donegal v Tyrone where even the best of players have struggled with a greasy when pressure is applied.

We have one player shadowing the ball carrier where other teams have 2 or 3 players tackling & surrounding. This is our must win game of the season, if we win we have a free shot at Dublin and I just hope we bring more intensity.

Not in Kildare's DNA to tackle hard or play with intensity. We lost the run of ourselves twice, 97-00 and 09-11 and gave it a shot. It coincided with our two most successful periods. You can look at the defenders from those periods, Dalton, Lacey, Ryan, Rainbow, Mcloughlin and Bolton who are miles away from our normal "nice" defenders who no forward fears.
Hope I'm wrong but we have no chance of beating Meath if we stand off them and hope they do the same to us. They are really up for this and believe they can give Dublin a rattle.
Wouldn't be a Kildare supporter without having some hope that one day we will cut loose and hammer some team. Why not Meath?

Meath are not as good as people make out, we're not as bad. It will be 2-3 points either way at the end.

O'Grady going to be back?
Was Dan Flynns and Conway withdrawal fitness related?

We have good options up top now. Neil Flynn and Paul Cribben making impact coming on. Say if Ben Mc or Dan were held back also, you'd see them making big impressions late on. Think likes of Jimmy and Kirwan will just chip away all day so I'd start them rather than expect the explosive impact from him.

Draw 15/2. Kildare 11/8, Meath 8/11.. spread is 1 point.
Hard game to call.
Hopefully a decent Referee is appointed.

Papabear wrote:

O'Grady going to be back?
Was Dan Flynns and Conway withdrawal fitness related?

We have good options up top now. Neil Flynn and Paul Cribben making impact coming on. Say if Ben Mc or Dan were held back also, you'd see them making big impressions late on. Think likes of Jimmy and Kirwan will just chip away all day so I'd start them rather than expect the explosive impact from him.

Dan Flynn is having poor season only scored 1-7 in league and championship failed to score against Laois and Clare .

We have better players than Meath, unquestionably. Keoghan and O Sullivan are the only two who would make our side. McEntee is in his fourth year and he's a good manager however so we need to be wary. At least 3 of the goals they got v Wicklow were flukey. If we turn up and play to our potential, we will win.

I think we should be starting Jimmy Hyland Ben McCormack and Kirwin in the full forward line the pitch in Croke Park will suit them. We just have to up our game bring more aggression as its do or die now

bigball wrote:

We have better players than Meath, unquestionably. Keoghan and O Sullivan are the only two who would make our side. McEntee is in his fourth year and he's a good manager however so we need to be wary. At least 3 of the goals they got v Wicklow were flukey. If we turn up and play to our potential, we will win.

Big Ball, i wish i had your optimism ! This game has the shite frightened out of me. I can't actually believe Meath are only 10/11 in the betting. For the first time ever i'm really tempted to bet against the "Lillies" !!!

Our work rate and intensity in the tackle has to come way up to win this game Can't understand for the life of me at this stage how we are not getting that part right. Surley at this level it a given, how is J O C or Ross letting this go, it's like a entrance exam to a job, if you don't bring that to the table you won't be on the field. Is our S.C not working all I know is Jim McGuinness would not let you into any of his dressing rooms without bringing that to the table. Dan Flynn for me is better comming off the bench. I think kildare is moving on without him, Kirwin is beginning to deliver the goods nearly 6p every game his confidence is getting better game by game he not even 21. 3 year ago if we were told that Dan and Paul Cribben were out we would say huge loss. Don't think you will see they 2 of them on the starting line up on Sunday. Good players but you need to deliver the goods.

bigball wrote:

We have better players than Meath, unquestionably. Keoghan and O Sullivan are the only two who would make our side. McEntee is in his fourth year and he's a good manager however so we need to be wary. At least 3 of the goals they got v Wicklow were flukey. If we turn up and play to our potential, we will win.

On what basis are you saying that our players are better??? In my opinion that is either an outrageously arrogant or incredibly naive statement.

Apologies for the strong reaction but hearing people say things like that really gets to me. Would be very interested to hear your reasons for saying it?

As long as we go down fighting I will be happy. I dont want to hear any of the phrases we heard after the Armagh or Roscommon game or indeed Super 8 games 2 years ago or Tyrone last year. I don't want to hear " we lacked intensity" or "we need to be cynical" or "we were out fought" or we were bullied.
As far as i am concerned we have better players, yes Meath have been progressing well and playing at a higher level but that means nothing on Sunday. Its all about who wants it more. I believe Kildare are the better team once we bring intensity and become the aggressors rather than pushed over. We have some great additions who stood up in the past couple of games and we can push on with the right attitude. We need go put the Offaly performance behind and seriously up the performance level and then there is no reason why we can win this one, on the other hand the offaly performance will result in some trimming.

Fair play to the progress that Meath have made in the last 18 months. They beat us in the snow in Navan by a point I think last year and have made good steady progress playing a higher intensity. To put into perspective how far they came, I recall in Navan that day they beat us that it was a big moment to turn us over and it was celebrated by players and supporters at the final whistle (not in a bad way mind you). But it meant a lot because they established themselves and it was a real sign of progress and in fairness have shown steady progress since. Now they are expected to win and it will be a big suprise if they dont beat us Sunday. We in the other hand went backways the remainder of 2019 and only showed progress late in the league. Its time for Kildare to finally step up a few levels and put down a good performance.

Cormac Reilly refereeing on Sunday!

Conor lane is referee

bigball wrote:

We have better players than Meath, unquestionably. Keoghan and O Sullivan are the only two who would make our side. McEntee is in his fourth year and he's a good manager however so we need to be wary. At least 3 of the goals they got v Wicklow were flukey. If we turn up and play to our potential, we will win.

Laughable delusion. Worryingly a lot of Kildare fans and players think like this. Meath will win this by 7 or 8 points.

Both of you seem very confident of a definite winner, Dr. Paddy Power will see you now.......

Kildare need to shake it up in defense to win Sunday. if i was JOC Id start
(1-7) Donnellan, Ogrady, Ryan, Doyle, K Flynn, L Flynn & Hyland.

Luke Flynn would be excellent at 6 as hes well able for the rough and tumble. relishes it even.

(8-15) Moolick, Feely, Conway, D Flynn , McCormack, N Flynn, Kirwan, J Hyland

Moolick in midfield instead of Masterson for me. He has never failed us yet and will die with his boots on. Feely will win the aerial battle so we need a hardy bastard alongside him. Daniel has to start as we need goals and he's our best chance if his head is in it. If he doesnt fire haul him off and bring p cribbin in.

Meath won their first game in almost a yr and a half last weekend and now have become massive favourites?. Kildare can put them to the sword if we go hard from the outset. We need a few big games from lads on Sunday and our inside forwards will be key if they are fed decent ball. Kirwin has done great so far when often living off scraps. Jimmys workrate is impressive and N Flynn is deadly accurate on the frees.

Our bench is good too. I think we have a better panel than meath and we can win if the right team turns up.

Up the lilies

Meath gone 8/11 with PP. I thought 10/11 was a little generous !!!