Barney123 (Meath) - Posts: 676 - 19/07/2019 21:10:28    2213309

David (Meath) - Posts: 566 - 19/07/2019 23:46:18    2213371

We will beat Mayo and Donegal, but it probably will be in 12 months time. All these games in super 8 and div 1. All these 10 games in next 10 months v top division 1 teams v top teams in the country is invaluable to these young Meath players. This experience is priceless. And if Meath stay in divsion 1 , more experience is gained.

Look at Roscommon last year hammered at super 8 stage and hammered by Tyrone last year, they only lost by 4 points on Sat, and Rossies beat Mayo and Galway this year. It will be the same for Meath. Next year Meath will be battle hardened by these 10 division 1 games.

Also McEntee will be in year 4 and younger players like Conlon Devine Ryan Campion and Walsh will have had great experience playing top teams , young exciting forwards coming thru eg Luke Mitchell Matthew Costello of the underage teams. And the return of maybe 8 or more ex panelist to the panel eg Donal lenihan, Ronan Jones, Eamon Wallace , Alan Forde , Ruari O Coilean, Niall kane , Paddy Kennelly. Maybe even Harry Rooney. While players like Lavin , Harnan , J McEntee, S McEntee, Sullivan , McGill , McMahon Wallace , Flanagan ,Kennelly , Forde are all around 25 age mark will start to peak as footballers next summer and the summer after.

Its pretty obvious Meath are on an upward trajectory and Meath are going to get stronger and stronger. And next summer and the following year in 2021 this team will start to peak. Remeber this team is at 12 to 24 months before it peaks . And it does take time. Every team in history of football take years of ups and downs before sucess. It took allot of that Dublin team 6 years before they got to an All Ireland final and years of bad defeats to kerry , Mayo Cork and bad hammerings to Meath and kerry before they achieved their aims. They were coming from higher level. They were 5th or 6th best team in country in 2005.It took them til 2011 til they became the best. Meath were 15th best team in country last season. They are now 8th and at lowest 9th best team in the country. We want to break into top 6 or 7 teams and stay there in divsion 1 and win leinster. That will take more morale victories hard luck losess. Again in 12 months time we will be a much better team.

Of course it would be brilliant if we beat Mayo and if we did and had a chance of reaching semi final it would be outstanding achievement by players and management from.where we were last spring being near relegated to divsion 3 and losing to longford. Now we are comprehensivly beating teams like longford eg Carlow Laois and comprehensivly beating top division 2 teams eg Armagh, kildare Fermanagh and Cork. And really putting it up two best teams in country eg Donegal and Tyrone that is serious improvement in 12 months. And looking at age profile of the team the average age is 24 , and on sunday we had Conlon 21 , Campion 20 , Devine 20 and Walsh 19 all playing in the forwards. Anyone who knows anything about sport knows sportspeople with potential who are 19 or 20 years of age can only get better. This Meath team will only get better. But beating Mayo could be step to far. Kildare and Roscommon were in. are position last year and failed to win any games. Galway were promoted in 2017 and struggled at super 8 / quater final stage. If we suceed where Galway in 2017 and kildare and Roscommon in 2018 that would be an unbelievably goof sign for the future.

And as someone said above the Sunday Game and media are ignoring Meath , but they have always ignored Meath. Even when Meath won All Irelands they were downgraded and underapreciated. Think of 1996 or when we won 2 in a row in 88. Great achievements but all.we heard about in 96 was McHale and boucing ball not the greatest performance by young team ever in an All Ireland final and 88 we heard about rough play not one great achievements modern football , one of few teams outside kerry or Dublin to put back to back All Irelands.

So the media have always being anti Meath. While other counties hyped we are ignored or downplayed or criticised. But the way things are going in the next 12 to 24 months even the Dublin media will have to take notice of Meath.

Meath are no longer going in the right direction. Meath are in a new category , Meath are a coming team with potential. A team for the future, a team to look out for in next 2 to 3 years. Some of gaa community outside county are starting to notice this.
Tomas O Se did say Meath surprised him on Sunday , Meath were very good. Kieran Donaghy said Meath were very good also and are playing some exciting football with new exciting talent. Some are taking notice. Soon the whole of the gaa will have to take notice of us. And if we beat Mayo on Sunday everyone will take notice, which will be very difficult. Kerry hammering Mayo is worst that could have happened to Meath. Mayo will be up for this on sunday. But u never know. An young up and coming team beating Mayo where did we see that before. In 1996 and 2009 of course. We are a bogey team of sorts for Mayo and all these things help. We have problem beating Ulster teams in the last ten years but for 70 or 80 years Connacht teams and Mayo teams have had problems beating Meath. U just never know. They say Meath dont lose to Mayo. If we beat them on Sunday and beat their greatest team since All Ireland winning team of 1950 and 1951. Well that saying really must be true. But overall its not what happens next sunday , its what happens next spring and next summer and in 2021 that will define this team. And the direction is upward in direction and is very much a positive one.

Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1046 - 20/07/2019 06:48:15    2213403

This Meath team is 12 to 24 months away from peaking at least

The age of 4 Meath forwards who played on Sunday v Donegal

James Conlon 21
Ethan Devine 20
Dara Campion 20
Shane Walsh 18 ( just finished his leaving cert 3 weeks ago )

and other young players on team and panel
Ronan Ryan 22
Ross Ryan 22
Niall kane 22
Gavin Mcoy 22
Jason Scully 21
Thomas Reilly 22
Thomas McGovern 22
Daragh McGovern 22
Owen McDonnell 21
Robin Clarke 22
Sean Reilly 20

These players are very young and 10 games with div 1 teams in super 8s and the league will be priceless experience.

Then u have a group of players who will peak in next 24 months as most footballers peak at 25 26 27 .

James McEntee 24
Gavin McCoy 24
Seamus Lavin 24
Shane McEntee 24
Barry Dardis 24
Ruari O Coilean 24
Padraig Harnan 24
Cillian Sullivan 25
Adam Flanagan 25
Bryan McMahon 26
Conor McGill 26
Andy Colgan 26.

Meath are one of youngest teams and panels in the country with average age 23 24. And I said 4 of the fowards on Sunday were 18 to 21. These players have potential . Meath are a coming team. Meath next summer will be much stronger. look at Roscommon this year and the difference after div 1 football and super 8s last year. This Meath team will.start to begin to peak next summer into 2021 and into summer of 2022. McEntee is just half way through his reign at the end of this season coz it is a 6 to 7 year job. And this Meath team are 12 to 24 months before reaching full potential at least . The game v Dublin game v Donegal were not peaks they were the beginning of upward trajectory that will continue into spring of 2020 and the summer and continue in 2021 to the summer of 2022. Meath are just beginning

Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1046 - 20/07/2019 06:48:56    2213404

I think we can win on Sunday. It will be tough coz u expect a Mayo backlash but we do have a chance . But Croke Park is an advantage for Mayo. If it was in Navan we would have an even better chance. Even Castlebar wud be better then Croker as Mayo have dreadful record in Castlebar. But after Dublin they have best record in the country in Croker recently.


In this decade they have won multiple All Ireland quater finals and 4 All Ireland semi finals and played in 5 All Ireland finals in Croker and recently won div 1 league title in Cro. They have beaten Dublin kerry Donegal Tyrone and Roscommon and all top teams in Croker in this decade . This Mayo team have probaly won up to 15 matchs in Croker , while this Meath team has won 1 match in Croker.


Meaths record in Croker in league and championship since 2010


]In 2010 We beat laois in Croker
In 2010 We beat Dublin in Croker
In 2010 We beat louth in Croker
In 2012 We beat kildare in Croker
In 2013 We beat Wexford in Croker
In 2014 We beat kildare in Croker
In 2019 We beat laois in Croker


We have only won once in Croker in 5 years. We have a recent poor record in Croker. Prior to 2010 we had excellent record in Croker one of the best in the Country for decades. Prior to 2010 Mayo had dreadful record in Croker. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s and up to 1989 Mayo didnt win a championship match in Croke Park for 38 years. Then they beat Donegal in 1989 semi final. They had awful hammerings by Cork in early 90s in Croker. They won 2 times in 90s in Croker v kerry in 96 and Offaly in 97. They won league title in 1970 and 2001 in Croker. But since they beat Dublin for first time ever in 2004 Mayos record has improved dramatically in Croker. Only Dublin have a better recent record in Croker then Mayo. It is an advantage to them but we still have a real chance of victory

Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1046 - 20/07/2019 06:52:25    2213408

This is a massive game in that whoever loses is out of the championship. When Meath were in this position last year in 2018 and 2017 they produced their best performance of the year. In 2017 v Donegal in a brillant game Meath threw the kitchen sink at Donegal, the game was level 8 times and Meath were ahead in 63rd min and teams were level in injury before a McBreaty wonder point won the game by 1 point. Last year v Tyrone in a do or die knockout championship match also , was Meaths best performance of the year as Meath threw the kitchen sink at Tyrone. And only for a point in 6th min of injury time from Tyrone, Meath would have won. Tyrone won by 1 point in injury time in contervesial circumstances.

The point is last year and year before in similar matchs to Mayo game on Sunday , Meath produced a massive performance, maybe they wouldnt on Sunday , but they did in 2017 and 2018 v two best teams in the country.

Allot of people seemed to be surprised by Meaths performance on Sunday. They shouldn't have been Meath have form here. Anytime they have played top teams under McEntee they have performed very well. Meath under McEntee have defeated Galway , drew with Roscommon in Roscommon and would have won only for a penalty goal for Roscommon in 4th min of injury time. Last year Tyrone were lucky to beat Meath. And in 4 games in 3 years Donegal have struggled v Meath. In 2017 Donegal won by a point in injury time but it was real tight game. In the league this year in Ballybofey Meath dominated the game til 64th min and were 4 points up at 64th min when lucky goal turned the game for Donegal. In league final Meath were 5 up at half time after dominating the first half, Donegal won by 2. And up to 56th min last Sunday Meath looked like they had a great chance of beating Donegal. Even Dublin game the game was in balance til 56 min and Meath defensively did very well keeping Dublin to their lowest first half score in near a decade.

People read allot into 4 points v Dubs. This wasnt fair. Dublin is not a fair comparsion. Dublin are one of greatest teams ever , if not the greatest. They have hammered every team in the country in this era. All the other top teams Meath have played under McEntee, Meath played performaned very well and upped their game. This is a traditional trait of Meath football McEntee has again instilled in Meath. In the past Meath always upped their game v top counties. Thats why Meath were so sucessful. Meath had one best records in the country v top teams ( Meath have the best record in the country v Dublin , a very good record v kerry , and r Cork and Mayos bogey team in the championship) , this is something McEntee has brought back to Meath.

Two teams who beat Mayo in last two years are very similar to Meath. Kildare Roscommon and Meath are young up and coming teams. All similar teams. There is little between Meath and kildare other then kildare have gone back a bit this year. Roscommon are ahead of Meath in terms of development as they were in super 8 last year and spring in div 1. But there is little between the teams. Meath have played Roscommon 4 times in the last year since Feb 2018. 3 of them challenge games but they were near first 15 as they were just before Connacht final. In the 4 games v Roscommon in last year, Meath were unbeaten with 2 draws and 2 victories v Roscommon. Roscommon and kildare beat Mayo last year and this year both are very similar teams to Meath , young and up coming teams.

On Sunday u have 7th best team Meath v 5th best team Mayo in this forums rankings. Mayo have been one of the teams of the decade while they have some new young players , their main players are in their thirties with allot of mileage on their legs. Meath are one youngest teams in the country, most of their main players are 24 or 25 and they have allot of young players on Sunday forwards that played for Meath were James Conlon 21 Ethan Devine 20 Dara Campion 20 and Shane Walsh 18.

Meath are a coming team who are improving and getting better. They are 12 to 24 months before they start peaking. But there cud be Mayo backlash. Mayo u expect will really be up for this. And Meath have been on the go since Dec when they won challenge game v Dublin. Meath had to peak for league and then to reach super 8. Mayo had to peak for now. Meath did look tired on Sunday in last ten minutes. Do Meath have energy in the tank for a push in the super 8s.

Mayo are favourites and yes there could be massive Mayo backlash but dont rule out a big performance from Meath. Their form v Donegal 4 times , Tyrone, Galway and Roscommon in last 2 years has been excellent and Meath upped their game for the above. It is an intringing contest.

Furlong1949 (Meath) - Posts: 1046 - 20/07/2019 06:53:07    2213410

RoyalSteel (Meath) - Posts: 13 - 20/07/2019 08:54:22    2213421

redser123 (Meath) - Posts: 306 - 20/07/2019 09:20:55    2213425

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 17035 - 20/07/2019 09:32:56    2213427

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 17035 - 20/07/2019 09:35:29    2213428

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 17035 - 20/07/2019 09:36:57    2213429

noluso (Meath) - Posts: 151 - 20/07/2019 09:59:32    2213433

redser123 (Meath) - Posts: 306 - 20/07/2019 10:29:51    2213445

Thejoeshow (Meath) - Posts: 468 - 20/07/2019 11:49:32    2213467

Hard to call this one. Championship perfomances have been generally poor, but i think there was a big improvement against Donegal, with Cillian, Brian etc in particular lifting their performance. Step it up a notch again and we should have a great chance of truly making a breakthrough.

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1668 - 20/07/2019 12:42:50    2213495

Meathmaster (Meath) - Posts: 251 - 20/07/2019 12:56:21    2213500

redser123 (Meath) - Posts: 306 - 20/07/2019 14:27:28    2213528

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 5955 - 20/07/2019 15:19:17    2213544

royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 17035 - 20/07/2019 15:39:11    2213549

redser123 (Meath) - Posts: 306 - 20/07/2019 16:29:19    2213561