Replying To southmeathgael:  "Alot hinges on James mcentee fitness, he's become a very important player and we havnt got even close to a like for like replacement. I'd like to see a stat of the percentage of attacks he actually starts for meath.......he's a game changer"

Replying To royaldunne:  "I will quote a reply to me earlier in the thread. If it's not broken why fix it? And that was about one change for 30 minutes. We are winning and playing well doing it, isn't that all that should matter?? Get bloody promoted, go to Croke Park and give whoever we meet in final a bloody good game and beat the feckers (probably donegal) have Brian walk up the steps collect the cup, we all have a great day out before championship starts, then and only then look at the team for championship, let me state though I don't really care if we win the cup (lovely as that would be) the main thing is that in 2020 we are playing in division one. Everything else is a bonus, when is the last time we were actually in division one ,? As far as I remember it was Sean boylan (or maybe I'm thinking last time we win it when O'Malley was captain) furlong help me out here :)
We have a lot of banana skins to thread gently over before all that, starting in pur on Saturday, then a home game to Kildare then away to Ennis and then hopefully a great time congratulating the team and management on the field after securing promotion against Fermanagh. To look at anything else is foolhardy, I remember the break under Banty we had won our first two games , Kildare had lost theirs . Kildare ended up been promoted to division one Louth ended up relegating us to div 3 at home. So NO ONE can get carried away. On Saturday night I want to see the same commitment from the players as I have seen in 3 previous games. And we all need to get behind the team that plays no matter who they are. We have to be the 16 man, too much crap has gone before."

Replying To Furlong1949:  "Yes its 1994 since we won national league title. Back then the league started in October 1993 and ended in the spring of 1994. There was only 1 league final. All top 2 teams in 4 divisions played each other in 4 quater finals. I think the year the div 1 final, div 2 final , div 3 final etc started was in 2008. I am open to correction on that. Playing in divsion 1 is and always has been essential for a team achieving sucess. A few points to develop.

2 The best examples of counties to show the importance of league football is Meath and Mayo.
Mayo are the county with longest unbroken run in div 1 currently. Longer then Dublin or kerry.
Mayo have spent the last 23 years in div 1 unbroken, year after year.
Mayo have played in 8 All Ireland senior finals in the last 23 years. Its linked.
Meath have spent 18 of the last 21 years in div 2.
Meath have spent 2 of the last 21 years in div 3.
Meath have spent 1 of the last 21 years in div 1.
Meath have played in 1 All Ireland final in last 18 years. Its linked.

The county who has spent most time in div 2 in last 20 years is Meath. And our position in div 2 has been so consistent.
Meath have finished 7 or 8 times 3rd in div 2 in the last 12 years they played in div 2. So Meath were in div 3 in 2013. But from 2004 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2018. Meath spent in div 2.
So in summary 7 or 8 of those 12 years Meath spent in div 2 we finished 3rd in div 2. Hopefully this year wouldnt be 8th or 9th time we finish 3rd in div 2 in over a decade.

3 Two other examples to show how league football was important in the past is Meath and kildare.
Firstly Only kerry Dublin Cork and Mayo have more national league div 1 titles. Vast majority of league titles have been dominated by few counties. So many counties have had little or no sucess. Meath 7 national league division 1 titles is a very impressive haul. Look at these examples.

Galway have won 4 league titles, there last win was nearly 40 years ago.
Down have won 4 league titles, there last win was nearly 40 years ago.
Tyrone have won 2 league titles, both won in early 00s.
Offaly have won 1 national league div 1 title and that was in 1998.
Donegal have won 1 national league div 1 title and that was in 2007.
Armagh have won 1 national league div 1 title and that was in 2005.
Cavan have won 1 national league division 1 title and hat was in late 1940s.
Roscommon have won 1 national league div 1 title and that was late 1970s.
Laois and Monaghan also have won 1 national league division 1 title apiece by winning their only titles in mid 80s.
While counties like Kildare louth longford Westmeath Fermanagh Sligo Wexford Tippearey have never won a national league div 1 title.
So Meaths haul of 7 titles is very impressive seen they were also won by so many different Meath teams.

Meath have long rich div 1 tradition. Meath won their first national league div 1 title in 1930s and played in 4 national league div 1 finals in 1930s. Meath won titles in 30s 40s 50s 70s 80s and 90s. Its no coincidence we have won the exact same number of league titles as All Irelands.

4 For example let take Meath and kildare. Both football strongholds.
Meath have won 7 national league div 1 titles from 1930s to 1990s. Meath won 7 All Ireland senior titles from 1930s to 1990s.
Kildare have never won national league div 1 title. Kildare havent won senior All-Ireland since league football began in 1930s.
Meath have played in 13 national league div 1 finals from 1930s to 1990s.
Meath have played in 15 All-Ireland senior finals from 1930s to 2001.
Kildare have played 3 national league div 1 final ( 1950s 1960s and 1990s ) in last 80 years.
Kildare have played in 1 All Ireland senior final in last 80 years.
Its all linked.

5 Only two teams have won Sam outside div 1 in last 30 years. Armagh were in div 2 when they won Sam in 2002. And Galway were I think in div 3 when they won Sam in 1998. They were not in div 1 in 1998 when they won Sam.
The last team that played in All Ireland final from div 2 was Donegal in 2014.

So its really easy to explain. Get promoted and stay in div 2 and sucess and follow. People question if Meath will win an All Ireland in next 10 or twenty years. Well if Meath or any county were stay in divsion 1 for 5 or 6 years provicial sucess and breaking into top 5 or 6 teams will happen. Stay a decade in div 1 and a county would be playing in All Ireland finals and be All Ireland contenders. Meath permanent residency in div 2 for near two decades has hampered Meath football greatly. So many players and teams were held back by playing div 2 football. Bad habits were continued year after year playing in div 2. Only by playing div 1 football regularly can a team be sucessful. It was the same 80 years, it was the same 40 years ago and its the same story now.

PS Regards Meath win 94. That team.defeated Armagh playing some brillant football in 94 final. Boylan teams never got the credit they deserved for when Boylans Meath was on song there play was attacking exciting skilful football. 94 final was one of those example when under him Meath could blow away a team with brillant entertaining football. We never got credit for some of attacking performances of football we played in 80s and 90s.

In 94 I believe we could have won Sam. There was lovely balance between old and new players. You had O Malley Coyle O Connell and Geraghty in defence. And you had Trevor Giles Colm O Rourke Tommy Dowd and Bernard Flynn in the forwards. We had much better forwards then Dublin in 1994. And only for an lucky goal for Dubs we would have beaten them in leinster in 94. We wud have had beaten Leitrim in semi-finals. And we would have had the forwards to really trouble Down in final. In 1994 we were in the top 4 or 5 teams in the country and we could have won Sam.

Anyway thats just a sidenote. The fact is the sooner we get into div 1, the better. Promotion to div 1 would be massive boost for Meath football. And it could be a turning point. And I think like Galway ,Meath would adapt to div 1 better then people think. Performances v Donegal twice Tyrone Galway Dublin and Roscommon ( all pretty much div 1 team standard teams ) in the last two years show we wouldnt definitely be in awe of the Tyrones or Donegal s of this world. So promotion is so so SO SO important. I said at the start of the year I felt a gut feeling we wud get promoted. I did predict we would get promoted in at start of the league. A n d so far with 4 from 6 things r going to plan. But that doesnt mean I am worried about the league. We r so unpredictable, we could beat kildare and Fermanagh and then lose to Clare and Cork. If we win 3 of next 4 games. Win the next 3 games in a row and we will be promoted. Its not impossible. We have probaly played the best football in the div so far, but could lose to Cork. But my gut feeling has been we will be promoted. I hope that is the way it turns out.

Our defence has been really good. And players like Campion have really improved the team. We have had very few under 21 players coming and making impact straight away in recent years. Campion and Devine are the first wave of new talented young Meath players to come thru in the next 4 to 5 years. Hopefully McEntee is in charge for the next couple of years. He is our best bet to suceed. And remember it takes time to turn around a county in doldrums. It took.Boylan 4 years twice, and it took McGee four years and Dwyer 5 years to turn around Meath Offaly and kildare. For me McEntee is only half way thru his job now. I expect we will see improvements this years. I never felt promotion or super 8 involvement was possible in year 1 or year 2. But in year 3 we sud see improvement and we r. Its in year 4 or 5 is when we should see a proper breaktbtough eg competing at div 1 or super 8 level. We r still 12 to 24 months away from that position. But we r definitely going in the right direction. But a victory Cork, something we havent achieved in league or championship since 1999 All Ireland final is another step on the road to div 1.

Finally regards Midfield I think S McEntee and B Menton have done well. But they are really two wing backs playing in midfield. We havent had really strong midfield partnership since Gillespie and Meade in 2012 and 2013. And we havent had a top class midfielder since John McDermont retired in 2001. It has been a problem area for two decades. McEntee in two years had had 7 different partners for Menton. We have changed midfield every 3 or 4 games. Mentons partners have been Shane McEntee, Adam Flanagan, Paddy Kennelly, Harry Rooney, James Toher , Ronan Jones and Brian Conlon. Jones and Rooney for me our are best out and out midfielders. When Jones comes back next year from USA it will be massive boost. Every county in Ireland would have suffered if they lost midfielders the calibre of Conor Gillespie Conor Nash Shane O Rourke Harry Rooney and Ronan Jones . Imagine if we had all.those guys available and fit now . We wud be in div 1 and competing at super 8 level.

Regards J McEntee. He has been our most improved Meath player in last 7 months. Injuries were a problem for him for years. And he found it hard to make impact at half forward. Moving back to wing back has been a masterstroke. It only happened after we lost to Cavan Tipp and Cork last year. But it has worked so well. In his last 8 league and championship matchs at wing back in 7 of them he has been contender for man of the match eg v Down and louth in league 2018 , Bynre cup final v Westmeath 2018 and Tyrone 2018. And also man of the match contender in Tipp Donegal and Armagh matchs 2019. He reminds me at times of Declan Meehan. Who also was a wing forward who excelled when moved back to wing back. All the top teams have quality wing backs. And with kane on the other wing and keoghan in the centre, that is the best Meath half back line in this decade. Leave the current 6 defenders in place for all the season. Our defence hasnt looked as good in years. This is a massive area of improvement.

The forwards is a problem. We have good quality forwards. But we lack a target man. Newman has been really good this year and is a quality forward. Someone like Shane Walsh from our under 20s team last year would be player that could be a possible full forward in the future. He concentrating on his studies this year but in the future he is an excellent prospect. Meath football has always had a target man eg Noel Curran in 60s , O Rourke in 80s , Dowd and Reilly in 90s and Geraghty in 00s. However players like Campion and Devine have been excellent addition to our forwards. A target man is still an area we need. We could do with a Comer from Galway. He would a perfect buy for us if there was imaginary gaa transfer system.

PS Has anyone any news on Alan Forde. I think he is a quality wing forward that would be a great addition to the team. A fit Alan Forde for me would start at wing forward in every Meath team."

Replying To southmeathgael:  "Alot hinges on James mcentee fitness, he's become a very important player and we havnt got even close to a like for like replacement. I'd like to see a stat of the percentage of attacks he actually starts for meath.......he's a game changer"

Replying To OLLIE:  "Furlong back in 1997-1998 they rearranged the leagues so their was no Division 1 to Division 4. Instead it was called Group A to Group D. Galway was in Group A. The top two in each group went in to Division 1 for 1998-1999, third, fourth went in to Division 2 and so on. Galway finished top of their group so they were playing Division 1 IN 1998-1999. Offaly won their first and only league title when beating Derry in the final in the 1997-1998 season."

Replying To Royal.Legend:  "Fair play furlong I love reading your posts the Jimmy Magee of meath, keep up the good work"

Replying To Royal.Legend:  "Fair play furlong I love reading your posts the Jimmy Magee of meath, keep up the good work"

Replying To Furlong1949:  "Thats correct Ollie. Its one of the years the GAA had a brainwave to draw up the groups. But Galway were actually and should have been div 3 team in 1998. Let me explain.

Galway were relegated from div 2 in 1995.
Galway finished 4th in div 3 in 1996
Galway finished 5th in divsion 3 in 1997.
So Galway were technically a division 3 team in 1998. As they were in divsion 3 the year beforehand and did not get promoted. In any other year pretty much Galway would have been in div 3 in the 1998 league campaign. But as you said the gaa broke the country into 4 groups in 1998. And the groups made feck all sense.

So in 1998 in group A which you could call division 1 was Galway but also Carlow and kilkenny footballers were in group A , div 1 for that season.
In 1998 in group C , which u could call division 3 was Dublin and kerry.

So yes Galway were in group A with kilkenny footballers in 1998. But if you look at the year before they failed to get promoted from div 3. If the GAA didnt rearrange the leagues in a sort of all.over the place which meant kilkenny footballers were in top division, Galway in any other year wud have been a division 3 team in 1998. They werent a div 3 team coz there was no division 3 and GAA just tore up all the promotions and relegations of 1997 league season and it meant a div 3 team like Galway were in group A with kilkenny and the Dubs were in group C.

So thats why I said Galway were in div 3 in 1998. They werent. But they were kind of or should have been a div 3 team in 1998. I hope that makes sense. Its fecking confusing. And 1998 was one of the years GAA messed around with the league."

Replying To royaldunne:  "Aren't they just magnificent, I sometimes can't get the exact date or something and rather than go looking it up I await furlong to clarify it, also got to give a shout-out to our wee man Ollie another encyclopedia of gaa knowledge, honestly lads you should get together and write a book , as you have in-depth knowledge of the game no pundits have."

Replying To royaldunne:  "Aren't they just magnificent, I sometimes can't get the exact date or something and rather than go looking it up I await furlong to clarify it, also got to give a shout-out to our wee man Ollie another encyclopedia of gaa knowledge, honestly lads you should get together and write a book , as you have in-depth knowledge of the game no pundits have."

Replying To OLLIE:  "Royaldunne thank you for the kind words and you are right about Furlong. He has some knowledge on GAA and I love reading his posts. What part of the Royal County is Furlong from? If he is anywhere near Drawda he could pop in to the Bull and have a pint of stout with me. And of course Royaldunne you are more than welcome to join in."

Replying To OLLIE:  "Royaldunne thank you for the kind words and you are right about Furlong. He has some knowledge on GAA and I love reading his posts. What part of the Royal County is Furlong from? If he is anywhere near Drawda he could pop in to the Bull and have a pint of stout with me. And of course Royaldunne you are more than welcome to join in."

Replying To sam1996:  "is this a trip down memory lane here or we dealing with present matters. My god"

Replying To sam1996:  "is this a trip down memory lane here or we dealing with present matters. My god"

Replying To royaldunne:  "Jasus I'd take you up on that anytime"

Replying To OLLIE:  "In the 1990's louth reached six Leinster semi-finals. That was the most Leinster semi-finals that the Wee County had reached since the glory days of the 1950's. They lost out to Laois after a replay in 1991, the Dubs in 1992, 1994 and 1996, Offaly in 1997 and in Meath in 1998. You are right Furlong. That was a missed opportunity for Louth to reach not only to reach a Leinster final but to win one. Two matches stick out for me that wee missed the boat. The first match against Laois in 1991. Laois won the replay. This was the infamous match when there was a big brawl and both teams were giving big fines. Louth and Laois build up a little bit of a rivalry in the early 1990's. Louth beat the O'Moore County in 1992 while Laois beat the Wee County in 1993. The other match was when Offaly beat Louth in 1997. Ironically if Louth had won both of their matches they would of played Meath in the Leinster finals. After the 1990's I never thought that I see Louth reach a Leinster final so when the great Paddy Keenan inspired Louth to their first Leinster final appearance in 50 years , I am not ashamed to say it that I had a few tears in my eyes that after years of semi-finals heartbreaks that Louth finally reached the promised land.

Leinster as you stated was great back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. You had the Dubs winning the All Ireland for the first time in 12 years, the great Meath teams that were never beaten till the final whistle, Kildare and Laois ending long droughts to win Leinster titles and Westmeath winning their maiden Leinster title. You also had great matches between the top three Leinster counties with Dubs v Meath, Meath v Kildare and Kldare v Meath."