2011 NFL Division 2

Latest betting courtesy of (Paddy) Power's Towers:

Tyrone 5/2
Kildare 5/2
Derry 3/1
Laois 7/1
Meath 8/1
Sligo 12/1
Donegal 14/1
Antrim 33/1

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:
Banty has his work cut out to emulate EOB.

Resurrecting Meath will be a big ask for Banty. I posted on here last year that the Kildare defeat could prove to be the end of this Meath side and, had EOB remained in charge, I've no doubt that it would have been. There are only so many hammerings a side can take before they eventually give up the ghost, irrespective of what age the players are.

Now, Banty and his band of merry/mercenary men are charged with preventing the slide and, given their very strong organisational and motivational qualities, they may be able to do this. What they will try and do is make Meath hard to beat - tough, dirty, fit, organised and committed - just like Meath were under Sean Boylan, before they developed the soft middle we've seen in recent seasons.

Banty has more talent available to him now than he did with Monaghan, although his preferred style of play may mean that some of that talent is jettisoned in favour of grafters. He will try and make Meath very tough to beat, the side that no-one wants to play against, like Pat Gilroy has done with Dublin.

I was disappointed that Meath appointed an outside manager for the first time, but the one that they went for is a good one, and his backroom team are excellent. They took Monaghan from division 4 to division 1, and kept them there, and made them consistently competitive. Progress may be slow but, if given time, he is likely to leave Meath in better shape than when he found them.

This weekend's games should establish some kind of pecking order in the Division. Kildare and Derry, by my reckoning the only two teams with a 100% competitive record in 2011, face off in Newbridge in what should be a mouth-watering contest. Tyrone and Donegal throws in tonight and you'd have to fancy the Red Hands to come out on top in that against what can only be described as a deceptively poor Donegal side. Nearer to home, Banty continues with his experiments but Meath are a team with more questions than answers and Sligo won't need to fear anything in making the journey to Navan. And finally, likely relegation candidates, at least from the outset, Laois and Antrim meet in another clash of Leinster -vs- Ulster with another close affair the predicted outcome in that.

I fully expect Tyrone to wipe the floor with us this evening. Jim has brought in a wile lot of U21's and if we can stay up in Div 2 this year it will be a great achievement.

RMDrive wrote:I fully expect Tyrone to wipe the floor with us this evening. Jim has brought in a wile lot of U21's and if we can stay up in Div 2 this year it will be a great achievement.

How wrong were you RMD or were you indulging in some cute hoorism - poor fair from Tyrone, 2 defeats from 2 games, not looking good.

bocerty wrote:

patrique wrote:Antrim will beat Tyrone....in Division 3 next year.

Patrique this is a football thread not a hurling one !!!!!

Getting closer............

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Latest betting courtesy of (Paddy) Power's Towers:

Tyrone 5/2
Kildare 5/2
Derry 3/1
Laois 7/1
Meath 8/1
Sligo 12/1
Donegal 14/1
Antrim 33/1

Is that to be relegated? Looks about right.

bocerty wrote:

RMDrive wrote:I fully expect Tyrone to wipe the floor with us this evening. Jim has brought in a wile lot of U21's and if we can stay up in Div 2 this year it will be a great achievement.

How wrong were you RMD or were you indulging in some cute hoorism - poor fair from Tyrone, 2 defeats from 2 games, not looking good.

Jesis no boc. No cute hoirism here at all. Id say its at leadt 70% tyrone being poor and 30% Donegal playing above theyselves. Still we are a wee bt closer to the stated aim of staying up in div 2. 6 points should so it i reckon. I watched the game tibight and Donegal were very average. Hard worjing and hard to watch. Karl lacey has been a revelation in the half lines. Happy enough all told. and hopefully we'll have a good enough few yearsd tp come.

[quote="RMDriveJesis no boc. No cute hoirism here at all. Id say its at leadt 70% tyrone being poor and 30% Donegal playing above theyselves. Still we are a wee bt closer to the stated aim of staying up in div 2. 6 points should so it i reckon. I watched the game tibight and Donegal were very average. Hard worjing and hard to watch. Karl lacey has been a revelation in the half lines. Happy enough all told. and hopefully we'll have a good enough few yearsd tp come.[/quote]

Forum legend RMD in a brave but futile effort to wrest the crown for "shouldn't post after midnight" title from the Fenagh man here....
Authorative as he may appear, RMD cunningly descends to the level of the proletariat on occasions, the true mark of a worthy leader...

Búaladh bos for RMD.....

bocerty wrote:
poor fair from Tyrone, 2 defeats from 2 games, not looking good.

I'd go further than that Boc. That was the worst Tyrone performance since the Danny Ball era (97-99). Listless, disinterested, slow, unfit - all of those words apply.

Tyrone are sliding rapidly downhill, and division 3 is now a real possibility. Whatever about the summer, how could you even pick a team for next week?

In footballing terms, Tyrone are at a 12 year low and, unless the younger players are both given the chance to impress and able to take it, we are going to fall even further before coming back.

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:
poor fair from Tyrone, 2 defeats from 2 games, not looking good.

I'd go further than that Boc. That was the worst Tyrone performance since the Danny Ball era (97-99). Listless, disinterested, slow, unfit - all of those words apply.

Tyrone are sliding rapidly downhill, and division 3 is now a real possibility. Whatever about the summer, how could you even pick a team for next week?

In footballing terms, Tyrone are at a 12 year low and, unless the younger players are both given the chance to impress and able to take it, we are going to fall even further before coming back.

I have to totally agree with you here TC, Last night was horrendous for all the reasons you have outlined. Peter Harte's performance maybe being the only positive. Lessons from across the blackwater in Armagh need to be taken into consideration as we seem to be following a similar pattern. Ageing team, poor legue form followed by Ulster championship victory and then only to be found out in croke park in the summer

mugsys_barber wrote:
I have to totally agree with you here TC, Last night was horrendous for all the reasons you have outlined. Peter Harte's performance maybe being the only positive. Lessons from across the blackwater in Armagh need to be taken into consideration as we seem to be following a similar pattern. Ageing team, poor legue form followed by Ulster championship victory and then only to be found out in croke park in the summer

Agree Mugsy, except the poor league form/Ulster title/Croke Pk defeat combination of the last 2 years is unlikely to be repeated this year, as we won't even be good enough to win Ulster the way things are going!

We have 6 games (including McKenna Cup final) until the start of the championship, and those 6 games should be about rebuilding. Major rebuilding. I'd play Harte, McNabb, McKenna, McNeice, Mattie Donnelly, Girvan and the others in every game from here on in, even if it means we are relegated. I'm convinced that it will be better in the long term than hoping we can wring one more summer out of Hughes, McGuigan, Gormley, O'Neill and McGinley. O'Neill in particular, as i wrote here 2 weeks ago, looks completely finished. Very sad to say, but he shouldn't even be on the panel at present. Sean Cavanagh is still too young and talented to get rid of, but should be dropped for a couple of games, as the 'arm around the shoulder and guide him through a bad patch' approach has not worked.

I really don't know what Mickey is doing at the minute but, given all that he has had to endure, perhaps it is the understandable case of the heart ruling the head in a lot of his decisions. How he only brought on 3 subs last night was inexplicable.

There is no doubt that the McMahons and Jordan (probably our only 3 players that would still walk onto any other side) will make a difference when they return, but we have to realise that we are regressing rapidly, and need a radical change of direction.

Sore eyes after that Meath performance. 12/13 Meath players in their own half when Sligo in possession, corner-backs and half-backs running up into the forwards when Meath in possession, seven yellow cards and one red to us, tackling Sligo players four to one and not a Bray in sight. What is Banty doing to the tradition of the Royal County? He's going to train all the football out of Meath, even the talismanic Brian Farrell looks lost.

In better news, my 2.84 back of Derry reaped dividends. Not a bad effort considering my speculative punt at 91/1 for the All-Ireland last year. Is the new management regime having an affect already? Only unbeaten side in 2011 by my reckoning.

Laois are making stealthy progess too keeping the pressure on Derry at the top of the table but the mighty Saffrons look destined for a relegation battle.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Sore eyes after that Meath performance. 12/13 Meath players in their own half when Sligo in possession, corner-backs and half-backs running up into the forwards when Meath in possession, seven yellow cards and one red to us, tackling Sligo players four to one and not a Bray in sight. What is Banty doing to the tradition of the Royal County? He's going to train all the football out of Meath, even the talismanic Brian Farrell looks lost.

In better news, my 2.84 back of Derry reaped dividends. Not a bad effort considering my speculative punt at 91/1 for the All-Ireland last year. Is the new management regime having an affect already? Only unbeaten side in 2011 by my reckoning.

Laois are making stealthy progess too keeping the pressure on Derry at the top of the table but the mighty Saffrons look destined for a relegation battle.

Don't know what Banty was at. It wasn't our talent that won us the match today it was Sligo's lack of it. Why in the name of god was Joe Sheridan allowed take a 45 in the first half? Like really that's just throwing a scoring chance away. He also needs to learn to pass more. Definitely missing S. Bray and D. Bray would also be a happy improvement.

Antrim next weekend.

What's the name of that good player they have?

McGourty or something?

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Sore eyes after that Meath performance. 12/13 Meath players in their own half when Sligo in possession, corner-backs and half-backs running up into the forwards when Meath in possession, seven yellow cards and one red to us,

I suggest that you get used to it, because that is exactly what you are going to get for the next couple of years.

Just listening to the Meath game on LMFM. Meath led 0-6 to 0-1 by sixteen minutes but have subsequently failed to score allowing Antrim take a one-point lead into the break. Assuming Banty sends his team out to play a similiar game as last week, and his team selection would indicate this, then I think it will be very hard to go deep into Ulster heartland and try to out-Ulster the opposition. Of course the next thirty-five minutes will confirm all but I confess to being worried by the new management's policies so far.

Antrim 0-14 Meath 0-11 - Final Score.

Meath finished with thirteen men. Not a disaster by any manner or means, we failed to win away from home in the League last year, but I'm worried by the direction that Meath are going in. Laois and Antrim are winnable games, even outside Navan but we've failed against both and the high yellow / red card, negative tactics and bad team selections are worrying.

Donegal (H), Kildare (A), Derry (H) and Tyrone (A) are the games to come so to gaurantee safety, 50% of the available points are a must.

I tipped Antrim and Tyrone to get relegated this season.

Antrim got two points tonight but that was the only easy fixture they have. Can they beat a few big sides to stay up?

Couldn't even listen to the match as I was out for dinner for my sister's birthday (was yummy). Hearing the results from aertel I didn't know what was going on. Not impressed.

Laois 1-21
Derry 1-07

Didn't take long for Derry to collapse after their impressive start to the year.

Looks like Laois are going well, that's three wins in a row over Meath, Antrim and Derry.

They must be red hot favourites to claim one of the promotion places at this stage.

Donegal 0-08 Kildare 1-05

Sickening for Donegal. Last minute goal from the Kildare FB. It was a poisonous puke-fest of fouling. Kildares tactic of fouling Donegal every time they got possession should have cost them a man. Is repeat fouling not against the rules? Rubbish.

Still. 4 points from 6 is grand for us.

Looking like Laois and Donegal for promotion.

And maybe Sligo and Meath for relegation.

Antrim, Derry, Tyrone and Kildare all in between.

Just a wee set back yesterday we will be up and flying again No way will we go into Div 3!

Saturday night trip to omagh, never a good place to go looking for a needed win but, we owe them one, coming of a good win v meath, who knows, they took our moment in the sun by winning ulster in 2009, we now can maybe take a bit more away from what looks to be an unfocused tyrone team (who can blame them given the events of the last couple of months).

I think we can take them, but antrim football and hurling teams normally stand in awe of superior or all ireland winning teams and only start to play when its too late, walking off with that old antrim victory is loss because its still an improvement attitude, i know dinny and baker are working to rid our teams of this mindset, so heres to hoping we can take down the red hands.