Meath v Kildare

tomoneillandhissisteranne wrote:

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

More or less the first post after the game is one defending CON - a case of getting your retaliation in first?

I suppose it wasn't CON's fault we suffered a humiliating defeat to Carlow last year or had seven defeats in a row in Division One? I accept it's not all CON's fault and the player's have to take the blame as well but something is not right when you see the level of indiscipline displayed in every game and it seems to be getting worse. That starts with the manager - he is the one who should set the standards. He is also the one who is selecting the players who are so indisciplined.

jimmers wrote:

tomoneillandhissisteranne wrote:

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

More or less the first post after the game is one defending CON - a case of getting your retaliation in first?

I suppose it wasn't CON's fault we suffered a humiliating defeat to Carlow last year or had seven defeats in a row in Division One? I accept it's not all CON's fault and the player's have to take the blame as well but something is not right when you see the level of indiscipline displayed in every game and it seems to be getting worse. That starts with the manager - he is the one who should set the standards. He is also the one who is selecting the players who are so indisciplined.

I have no interest in retaliation - first or last. Simply that what I saw today (and other days) is about the players. It's my belief that some players on the panel do not have the nous to keep the head and the ball and that is about their ability not about the manager's position. His motivational skills were to the fore in the lead up to Mayo but now they count for nothing apparently. Where does that leave the players in terms of responsibility for THEIR actions and performances. It was Kieran McGeeney's fault; it was Jason Ryan's fault; it's Cian O'Neill's fault - never the players fault. Well, what I saw today fell on the shoulders of the players in my opinion.

Without Dan Flynn's goal scoring and Paul Cribben's long range point scoring we are a much less potent team.
I think promotion was decided once we lost to Fermanagh as it meant we would have to beat Donegal away.
It's not all the manager's fault but he should be a lot better on indiscipline, can't remember him mentioning it in interviews but maybe others can.
But we really lack leaders on the field and the ability to up our game when things are going against us. Hard to believe Fermanagh are doing so much better than us. Div 2 is our level and mid table at best.

3 lads going off was a big blow, using up the subs and having to go with what we had. Masterson would have been a better choice for sub no.5 imo. Can't fault the effort today, you could see what it meant to Neath at the end.

First off, congrats to Meath on well-deserved victory.

As for us, that’s the final nail in the coffin for the O’Neill era - and probably for this team. We now won’t be playing Div 1 football til 2021 at the earliest.

They must all bitterly regret not digging out a couple of results in Div 1 last year. Think about this: one of Cavan & Roscommon might actually stay up this year.

Anyway, we’ll be residing amongst football’s also-rans for the foreseeable. Grim times.

All I can say is, what a waste. We saw late summer how much weight we carry in the GAA. But now people can legitimately throw back in our faces: Kildare whinging about inequality in the GAA & they can’t even keep pace with Fermanagh.

It’s absolutely pitiful. Ourselves & Mayo are genuinely the most deluded counties in the association. At least they actually make it to finals occasionally.

I have huge time for O’Neill but the most fatal line he ever uttered was “we might have arrived in Div 1 too early.”

There’s no such thing. You have to be utterly ruthless when these chances arrive - and we’ve been found badly wanting.

Even when Kerry and Dublin were kicking 7 shades of shite out of us and beating us by 20 odd points I don't think I've seen us make as many mistakes, create as few chances, give the ball away as much and as easily or generally play as poorly as we did today.

Serious regression since 2017. Meath could have won that by triple scores with the amount of chances they created.

At least we scored a goal from play I suppose, plus division 2 will be easier for a new manager to settle in next year.

I honestly don’t know what match Ger McNally was watching - we were good in first half, but Meath pulverized in second & could have won by about 10 points.

Anyway, as If In Doubt says, Div 2 less testing for next manager.

That was demoralising after a good first half performance, great goal by Ben!! Second half was a disaster reminded me of the league match away to Galway in 2012, we could not get the ball to stick up front at all in the second half, couldn't win any ball in the middle either, Masterson should have been brought on. Massive pity the minute I seen there full back ghosting up I knew we were in trouble why the fuck did we foul him, discipline is a massive problem... Poor decision making all round tbh!! We really need to be cuter with kickouts too if the high ball to Feely doesn't work we are in trouble....Pissed off anyway possibly the coldest match I've been at...Anyway congrats on Meath's all Ireland win and I know I'm being a salty prick but no doubt about it if they get promoted they will be back down soon enough...

A really top quality team wins that game. All we needed was that little bit of composure & quality to craft a couple of chances but - yet again in a tight game under O’Neill - we blew it.

Anyway, Leinster council won’t have to worry about boycott this summer - they’ll be doing well to find anyone who’ll willingly go in the first place.

All a load of rubbish in my opinion. No one has learned anything in 3 years. Pretty sick of seeing players do the most stupid things on a pitch. No other County is as brainless as our lot. No other County can go from playing well to a shit show in 15 minutes after half time like our lot. No other County can throw away injury time leads like our lot. No other County are as undisciplined as our lot. Jesus I could go on. It hasn't changed in 3 years and it ain't changing now. I was all for CON getting the job but his record is diabolical in the last 18 months. When do we say enough is enough. The shadow of Davy Burke is getting longer.

One point in the second half, add that to the Fermanagh game and it is totally unacceptable for any team. This loss could have serious consequences. We're not a team that takes set backs like this well. I think the chances of us getting relegated have increased massively. It would be ironic but not surprising if CON will takes us from Div 3 to Div 1 and back again in his tenure.

Going nowhere but backwards. Change needed.

Beat Tipp and we stay up, lose and we deserve div3. Agree on Davy Burke, his team were unlike any Kildare sides I saw in recent years. They were able to defend leads in semi final and final last year. They also able to tackle.
U20 and senior I know but the regression since 2017 is as remarkable as unexpected.

In 2017 and in the qualifiers last year - even into the Super 8s - this team showed the ability they have, which is why we’re all so utterly disgusted.

But we have reached the point where there is no consistency from game to game - as we saw today, even from half to half.

A huge part of that is management - the Jim McGuinnesses of the world sear the gameplan into their heads and don’t tolerate any deviation. As Rex says, it is just bullshit at this point. Change needed as a matter of urgency.

Incidentally - stating the obvious - but yes, Davy Burke is definitely leading candidate by a mile.

Tommy Keegan is putting his hat in the ring.

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

Incidentally - stating the obvious - but yes, Davy Burke is definitely leading candidate by a mile.

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Anybody going up this year from Division 2 won't win a game next year.

That is how mediocre the whole thing is.

So disappointing. I was expecting a Meath win and that level of hunger from Meath but it so awful throwing away that lead. We struggled so much in the 2nd half to even get beyond the half way line. It is simply not acceptable that we couldn't tack on a score or two in the 2nd half which would have stemmed the tide. There was a decent work rate but terrible mistakes. Since Daniel Flynn's departure, route one is never considered. We need an opinion to mix it up sometimes with long ball. Meath deserved the victory. On a side note I thought it was pretty dismal refeering performance too.

Dress it up whatever way we want but one point from a free in the second half tells us all we need to know, time up in the last chance saloon

Dress it up whatever way we want but one point from a free in the second half tells us all we need to know, time up in the last chance saloon

Another headless performance. Can we just give Glen the job ffs?

I was just absolutely distraught after staying up until 3am to listen to us blow any chance of getting the league football we need until at least 2021.

I think this particularly hurts because I've spent a decade watching us produce far, far better underage talent than Meath. I've been very patient with results because you have to wait for our best players to be at their peak before expecting big improvement.

Well, we're at that time, with a lot of our best players in or entering their late 20s, and a new crop of All-Ireland winners ready to start gradually introducing, and yet we've somehow arrived at a situation where at least three of the biggest talents we've produced in my lifetime don't even play football for us at the moment. Half the under 20s we had hopes for are already gone from the panel.

Instead we end up with club players on the pitch at a crucial time, with predictable results. I say this with the usual disclaimer about not denigrating any player that's putting in the effort to represent Kildare blah blah fuckin blah but some of them just aren't serious inter-county class. The team we had out to finish the game was similar in quality to what we were putting out in the Crofton era.

I think it's a problem that goes beyond any management team. It's a problem with the culture of Kildare football.

You can have any manager you want but if we're not getting our best players to play football we are and will remain at nothing. Lads will say the missing players I'm referring to aren't wired to commit but jesus lads, Dublin got serious years out of Diarmuid Connolly and he is hardly a stable personality. Half the Donegal team were soaks when McGuinness took over. We just need to figure out what we have to do to have our best players playing consistently or there's f*** all point in producing them in the first place.

You can say it's O'Neill's set up failing to inspire them but it can't always be the manager's fault. Are we that unlucky that every manager we appoint is a dud while every manager Dublin, Kerry and Mayo appoint does well? It goes back to how we as a county are organised, finding jobs for lads, making life easier for them, removing distractions and letting them focus on playing football.

You can talk about Jim Gavin being a great manager but if half his best players weren't available, how good would he be then?

I honestly don't give a shyte whether Cian stays or goes at the end of the season. Replace him if ye want. Same thing will end up happening to Davy Burke or Glenn Ryan as happened O'Dwyer, Nolan, Crofton, McGeeney, Ryan and O'Neill. If we don't change how we run things it will happen with every Kildare manager in an endless cycle of false dawns until I go to the grave.

Jesus Ohtobe that post nearly has me ringing the Samaritans, I don't really agree with you, I think Gavin or McGuinness would get better results from this lot, however I think Dan Flynn is a bigger loss than most of us realise