Meath v Kildare

And away we go, again....

Can't overstate the importance of this match. Win and a whole new vista of possibilities open up. Team have to recapture spirit of Mayo game last year and play like their lives depend on it. Do that and – straight up – we have more quality and will win. But we have to go to war, end of.

Controlled aggression though: no reds or stupid blacks. O'Neill needs to be drilling all this into them this week.

I really liked his interview after Clare game though – he said after Fermanagh loss, they set themselves a target of winning every remaining game. Let's do it.

''Controlled aggression though: no reds or stupid blacks..''

I dont think we should be selective in which Meathmen to take out, regardless of hair colour, intellect or ethnicity.

Lilysavage – that's the best post I've ever read on here.

The lowdown on Meath...

They are currently paying the price for neglecting underage structures and there is an overall lack of quality in their team. They've started to steady the ship with a couple of minor titles but they're still a long way off the success we've enjoyed – and we need to continue beating them at all levels to demoralise them as much as possible.

McEntee has got them better organised and defensively solid this year, and they have resolve – but you when you strip it down, they're still not much better than the team we annihilated twice in 2017. If you can block off the space for them to run into, they swiftly run out of ideas as they lack really top quality, ball-playing forwards - they're all hard-running athletic types.

Realistically, if they do get promoted, they'll be coming straight back down (ditto Fermanagh).

Also, for those complaining about our fade-outs - Meath are as bad as us. From a commanding position, they nearly imploded against an Armagh team without Jamie Clarke.

In the credit column, Newman can do damage – I'd imagine O'Grady will take him – and they've been getting a good impact from their bench courtesy of Reilly, Dardis and Devine. And if it develops into a close game, they will keep going and take it to the wire, particularly with the home crowd roaring them on.

But hopefully, we can get in the driving seat early doors – preferably driving in a goal or two – and stay there. They are a bit more defensive this year, so we might have to be patient at times, but Hyland, Flynn and McCormack will make hay if we can get them a good supply. Would also be an opportune moment for the old Paddy Brophy to emerge.

And Paul Cribbin would be a nice (well, nasty) surprise to spring on them as well if he's back...

Wouldn't rely on us scoring goals, 2 in 4 games and both from the penalty spot. Don't think we even created one chance the last day . Our opponents meanwhile have been butchering chances for fun, the goal that never was for Armagh and the brain fart by the Clare forward when through on goal.
Can't continue surely and won't the next day. Meath have always been good at getting goals and I will be amazed if they don't score a few. We give up to many chances to ever be a successful team imo. Hope I'm wrong.

murof wrote:

Wouldn't rely on us scoring goals, 2 in 4 games and both from the penalty spot. Don't think we even created one chance the last day . Our opponents meanwhile have been butchering chances for fun, the goal that never was for Armagh and the brain fart by the Clare forward when through on goal.
Can't continue surely and won't the next day. Meath have always been good at getting goals and I will be amazed if they don't score a few. We give up to many chances to ever be a successful team imo. Hope I'm wrong.

Hard to disagree. We don't look like scoring goals and it shows what a miss Dan Flynn is. Saying that, if they have got their flakey performance out of the system then they might have a chance. In Newbridge I would be confident we beat them but since it's in GAA law we have to play them in Navan it might go against us.

I just hope we don't have one of those days all to familiar lately where nothing works and everyone has an off day. A win would be a damn good result. Lets go for it.

Meath 4/5. Kildare 5/4.

Haunted I think you are looking at this through white tinted glasses, what recent performance exactly is the source of your optimism?, I think Murof has nailed it, I never wanted to be more wrong but I don't think this will end well for us.

I don't see why people think Meath's form is that scary. Two of their three wins have come against the bottom two sides. True, their results are a shade better than ours, but we're getting players back every week now and if Paul Cribbin is ready to go I would expect us to win.

I am very sceptical but obviously hope that I am wrong. Meath have come close to promotion for a number of seasons over the past 11 years and apparently extremely determined this year. I am hearing they are confident and very motivated for this game not just to put them in pole position for promotion but they feel it's about time they turned the tables on Kildare and are sick of shifting beatings from Kildare. Considering Kildare's form has been patchy, I think anything less than hugely motivated team runs the risk of a bit of a beating here.

Team v Meath

Donnellan, Dempsey, O'Grady, D Hyland, O'Donoghue, Doyle, Kelly, Feely, Moolick, Brophy, Conway, K Cribben, N Flynn, McCormack, J Hyland

Meath have named the same team that won last day out. They have a good bench with their subs making a big impact this year. I would be concerned with the damage Graham Reilly could do as an impact sub. He is playing well and when interviewed recently he was annoyed to be on sub bench and determined to get back into the team, sometimes he doesn't follow through on the potential and he has had some disappointing performances against Kildare. we all know what potential he has dropping deep and running straight through defence, I would rather see Cian O'Donoghue being a sub and brought on when Reilly is brought on. Cian has the legs to stay with Reilly and would also keep him occupied too as Cian gets forward.

Massive game today. We haven’t played well so far this year but a win would really kickstart our season.

Best of luck to all involved. Hon the Lillies!

Can somebody please explain to me how you can lose every league game, get beaten comfortably in the first round of Leinster by Carlow and still keep your job? Another year that's going to be a write off with nothing learned and no improvement's made. No progress made in the the last 3 years even with the level of young talent coming through. Embarrassing really

Let no one tell me Cian O'Neill is to blame for that inept. idiotic and indisciplined display today.
Down to 14 men for the closing stages of both halves; within sight of a win after another one-point half and then we hand Meath a penalty. The blame for this lies on the field, not on the sideline. Footballing stupidity par-excellence. An abject lesson in how to lose a game you've won. Not, of course, for the first time. Bring in as many managers as you like and it still won't plant footballing brains in some players. Thankfully, Division 1 is more or less beyond some of these players

Twentyeight wrote:

Can somebody please explain to me how you can lose every league game, get beaten comfortably in the first round of Leinster by Carlow and still keep your job? Another year that's going to be a write off with nothing learned and no improvement's made. No progress made in the the last 3 years even with the level of young talent coming through. Embarrassing really

Can somebody explain how this team has managed that feat...of keeping their places and learning nothing about discipline and footballing cop on. C O'N didn't get guys black-carded and nor did he give away the penalty

I didn’t get to today’s game but was listening on KFM and turned it off as soon as the penalty went in. Sounded very toothless and Ill disciplined. Granted, conditions were shocking but 1 point from a free is not good enough. We are not going well this year, that’s another 2 points dropped. Division 2 for another year it seems. Very frustrating defeat.

tomoneillandhissisteranne wrote:

Twentyeight wrote:

Can somebody please explain to me how you can lose every league game, get beaten comfortably in the first round of Leinster by Carlow and still keep your job? Another year that's going to be a write off with nothing learned and no improvement's made. No progress made in the the last 3 years even with the level of young talent coming through. Embarrassing really

Can somebody explain how this team has managed that feat...of keeping their places and learning nothing about discipline and footballing cop on. C O'N didn't get guys black-carded and nor did he give away the penalty

And who leads the discipline within the team? Would Kildare managers of the past tolerated this level of indiscipline? Look at any top manager from any sport, one thing they all have in common is that they demand discipline from their players and indiscipline isn't tolerated.

What improvements have Kildare actually made over the past 3 years. They make the same mistakes both skills and tactical without ever improving on them.

Given the fact that we have underage provincial and All-Ireland winning players coming through the ranks how are we finding ourselves losing to Carlow and now battling to avoid relegation to Division 3?

How anyone can possibly defend Cian O'Neills position at this stage is beyond me.

As I see it, the remaining games will go:
Kil beat Tipp; Don beat Cork; Mth beat Clare; Arm beat Fermanagh
Don beat Kildare; Arm beat Ck; Clare beat Tipp; Meath beat Fer
The table then would be:
Meath 10
Donegal 10
Arm 8
Kildare 7
Fer 6
Clare 5
Tipp 3
Cork 3

Which would leave us in Div 2 (where we belong) with Cavan and Roscommon probably coming down and Laois and Down probably coming up and will also leave us scrapping for third place in Leinster with Laois!!!!!

Twentyeight wrote:

tomoneillandhissisteranne wrote:

Twentyeight wrote:

Can somebody please explain to me how you can lose every league game, get beaten comfortably in the first round of Leinster by Carlow and still keep your job? Another year that's going to be a write off with nothing learned and no improvement's made. No progress made in the the last 3 years even with the level of young talent coming through. Embarrassing really

Can somebody explain how this team has managed that feat...of keeping their places and learning nothing about discipline and footballing cop on. C O'N didn't get guys black-carded and nor did he give away the penalty

And who leads the discipline within the team? Would Kildare managers of the past tolerated this level of indiscipline? Look at any top manager from any sport, one thing they all have in common is that they demand discipline from their players and indiscipline isn't tolerated.

What improvements have Kildare actually made over the past 3 years. They make the same mistakes both skills and tactical without ever improving on them.

Given the fact that we have underage provincial and All-Ireland winning players coming through the ranks how are we finding ourselves losing to Carlow and now battling to avoid relegation to Division 3?

How anyone can possibly defend Cian O'Neills position at this stage is beyond me.

Can you explain to me how these All-Ireland winners have been contaminated by Cian O'Neill? Does it ever strike you that the manager is always the first one to get the slap from some people on this forum . C O'N is not a manager who encourages indiscipline or hard-man stuff and neither can he control the madness that seems to overtake some players. How can you blame him for the ridiculous behaviour that led to the black card in the closing minutes of the first half? And was it necessary to give away a penalty and take another black card in injury time? It's not as if the players have been drilled by O'Neill to take players out. Much of the stupidity happens away from the ball - THAT is clearly down to the indiscipline (or footballing stupidity) of certain players. Put any manager you like in there and they will still behave in that way.

Sickening. We don't have the players to play direct particularly in the half forward line and when Ben McCormack went off our forward play deteriorated like the weather. Ended up penned in our own half. Some bad decisions taking ball into contact and doubt Alan Flynn is telling them to do that every week. As painful as it is the injury situation is a bigger concern coming out of the league.

Second half sounded like we were battered and deserved to lose. We clinging on from 30 out having been better tea,, although that's just radio observation, those there obviously know way more.

Need to beat Tipp to ensure we don't go down which I think we will.

But if you'd told me before the league that we'd be five up on Meath at half-time, but also be out of the promotion hunt in a tight and really average division after five games, I'd have said a crap campaign with questions in need of answers. Look at the body of work. Two wins with Cork not exactly impressive, a draw at home to Armagh, and two loses to Meath and Fermanagh.

Honestly, that's very poor. Maybe we make amends and get momentum for summer but at start of March for that to be the ceiling is disappointing.