Meath and Laois

Not the foregone conclusion everyone expects it to be. Laois are to be respected. I've waited a while for them to spring to life under McNulty, and have in the past predicted it. Hopefully, they don't do it now at the expense of Meath. But they'll give it a good go, and I would imagine that if Meath are not where they should be (physically or emotionally), then Laois will be strong enough to take advantage.

We can't be too confident what Meath team will show up. This, in the past, would have been the ideal opportunity for these players to cry enough. The League campaign has mirrored the championship campaign so far, a couple of early wins followed by a narrow defeat. What happened next in the League we can only hope dosen't repeat itself.

Donegal, Mayo or Cork await in the Quarter-Finals should Meath progress (all teams who in the past have afforded Meath a bit too much respect - probably out of fear - and the Royals have proceeded to walk all over them). I'd be more confident playing Donegal, Mayo or Cork in a Quarter Final in Croke Park, than Laois in a Round 4 Qualifier in Tullamore.

As good as Meath could hope for, Tullamore.....The bigger than Newbridge pitch will favour Meath, who are noticeably stronger and appear better able to stick the pace. Laois have two useful fetchers at midfield, but there again, against progressive teams, that day is gone.

Meath by 3.......

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Not the foregone conclusion everyone expects it to be. Laois are to be respected. I've waited a while for them to spring to life under McNulty, and have in the past predicted it. Hopefully, they don't do it now at the expense of Meath. But they'll give it a good go, and I would imagine that if Meath are not where they should be (physically or emotionally), then Laois will be strong enough to take advantage.

We can't be too confident what Meath team will show up. This, in the past, would have been the ideal opportunity for these players to cry enough. The League campaign has mirrored the championship campaign so far, a couple of early wins followed by a narrow defeat. What happened next in the League we can only hope dosen't repeat itself.

Donegal, Mayo or Cork await in the Quarter-Finals should Meath progress (all teams who in the past have afforded Meath a bit too much respect - probably out of fear - and the Royals have proceeded to walk all over them). I'd be more confident playing Donegal, Mayo or Cork in a Quarter Final in Croke Park, than Laois in a Round 4 Qualifier in Tullamore.

Donegal v Meath I make as played twice with one win each, Donegal winning in 2002,the meath victory being almost 22 years ago. So unless stafford,flynn, and pj gillic are intending to put a fairly intensive few sessions in the next 10 days, im struggling to validate your observation.

To put it in perspective our no. 10's father togged out.

Not to put it too straight, but where/whom are you responding to......

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:.... or Cork await in the Quarter-Finals should Meath progress (all teams who in the past have afforded Meath a bit too much respect - probably out of fear

Aye - they shat themselves there in 2007 when walloping Meath by 10 points in the All Ireland semi .....

everyone will want these in the next round

patsymc wrote:everyone will want these in the next round

I wouldn't be all that sure of that now Patsy...The more you kick a dog the wickeder he gets.....Think about it.

Let's hope the Royals don't leave this one behind. It'd be great to get back to Croke Park into the top eight for the fourth time in six years. No doubt about it, Meath have been in the top 6 or 7 teams in the country in the last 5 years. But Laois will be tricky opponenets - they beat us in 2004 in the Leinster Championship, ended Eammon Barry's tenure as manager with a win in Navan in 2006 and were unlucky not to claim a win over Meath in 2010 Leinster Championship when a freak goal saved Meath's blushes. They do play well against Meath. They'll quietly fancy themselves in Tullamore this afternoon.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:Let's hope the Royals don't leave this one behind. It'd be great to get back to Croke Park into the top eight for the fourth time in six years. No doubt about it, Meath have been in the top 6 or 7 teams in the country in the last 5 years. But Laois will be tricky opponenets - they beat us in 2004 in the Leinster Championship, ended Eammon Barry's tenure as manager with a win in Navan in 2006 and were unlucky not to claim a win over Meath in 2010 Leinster Championship when a freak goal saved Meath's blushes. They do play well against Meath. They'll quietly fancy themselves in Tullamore this afternoon.

the 6 day turnaround hasnt favoured too many beaten provincial finalists in the past Loyal, surely that must be a worry.

Laois ruling the roost so far here, 25 minutes gone and its 7-4 in favour of Laois and Meath have just conceded a penalty

1-7 - 0-4 to Laois -

Joe McQuillan making a tit of himself waiting on the penalty to be taken and he tells a Meath sub to go back off so he can call him back on again

6 day curse strikes again. Don,t know why I picked Meath
On a more positive note I make that 33 points

OMAR wrote:6 day curse strikes again.

Or perhaps it was a (soon-to-be) division 2 side beating a (soon-to-be) division 3 side. Meath are fast becoming the masters of looking good when the game is already over - they have still a very long way to go before they are back near the top table.

Well done Laois. They look like a very strong side and they'll be coming into the QF with great momentum.

As predicted - Meath 10 points down last week and threw caution to the wind - same today. Good sides do not go 9/10 points down. All the new smashing players taken off two weeks in a row. Keogan was a big loss and it was a dirty one by Munnelly. Laois not too good a side either. Meath are light years behind still and are not in Div 3 for nothing. One decent performance all year does not a team make.

Meath were nervous today and played with a lot of fear. It's disappointing. A tough week took it's toll but you have to take satisfaction in how they finished. The same as last week. I don't think it's fair to make an allowance for Meath going so far behind and then passing off a spirited fightback as "throwing caution to the wind". Meath are a good team who work hard and if the circumstances had been different could easily be in this evening's draw.

There's been a media circus all year, a lot of injuries, some questionable refereeing decisions, and I think we've played with a lot of fear to-date, so to get this far is progress. I would like to see Banty remain, he's a good manager with a good team helping him, and they've a lot of good players to work with. The tone of some posts on here could be a lot different if one or two moments had panned out differently. But that's life, that's football, a stroke of good luck / bad luck can have a big impact.

Looking at the game, I though Laois were the better team on the day. But I would stress on the day. Meath made sone silly mistakes, unforced interceptions and some novicey goalkeeping. Laois got in for too many easy scores which a week earlier, probably would have had to work an awful lot harder.

I would also like to question some refereeing decisions not as a Meath fan but as a GAA fan. Ross Munnelly's challenge on Donal Keoghan was cowardly and devious. Taking into account that Meath's best player had to go off injured, I don't see how a punishment of a yellow card is fair. The punishment must meet the crime. Meath lost their best player, Munnelly seemed buoyed by the idea of this and stepped up to kick home a penalty not long after as well as numerous points throughout the game. Punishing this with a yellow card only encourages this type of behaviour. Another incident which I'd like to make an issue of was Padraic Clancy putting his arms round Peader Byrne's neck which I felt was dangerous. It's not so much this challenge in isolation that bothers me but the inconsistency of some of these things - a different day, a different referee, maybe if it was later in the game, and Clancy could have got a red. Instead McQuillan dealt with it by issuing a yellow. Finally a recurring theme in many games - players pretending to be injured. A lot of Meath scores were followed by a stoppage of 30 seconds to 1 minute. The GAA must find a way to take this out of the game but the referee had the opportunity to punish Laois by adding on time. He didn't. He chose 3 minutes. This was ridiculous. I genuinely felt there'd be closer to ten minutes and the way McQuillan held up the play, I felt he had it in his mind that he would add on the time. It's disappointing that his innocent refereeing was exploited. Plenty for the GAA to work on.

meath are a very poor out fit a dublin team playing at 60-70 per cent beat them handy , and a handy laois team also wiped the floor with them . meaath are a division 3 side and play like a division 3 side its a long road back for them and it be even longer if they keep blaming referees the lenght of the grass , the wind , the ball , the grass is to short . meath football people have some harsh decisions to make i wonder have they the balls to make them

There's a lot of nonsense wrote on fora like these.

It seems acceptable to make an allowance for Dublin last week because they were at 60-70% and yet we all must assume that Meath were at 100% and were again today. Parouisa likes to pass off cliches and soundbites like this to sound clever too.

meath done well for a division 3 side ,but this is the poorest meath team i have ever seen but if meath fans can live in their past glories of years gone by , but talk of meath been a super power in the gaa is well off the mark , you can live in denial loyal but it does be funny reading your silly posts about how great meath are it keeps the entertainment going

banjo wrote:meath done well for a division 3 side ,but this is the poorest meath team i have ever seen but if meath fans can live in their past glories of years gone by , but talk of meath been a super power in the gaa is well off the mark , you can live in denial loyal but it does be funny reading your silly posts about how great meath are it keeps the entertainment going

I don't see how this Meath team is any poorer than any Meath team over the last 12 or 13 years.

Aside from all that, I think you are simple.

Is it just me or is anyone else experiencing a bout of deja vu reference banjos contribution

it must be just you

banjo wrote:it must be just you

Seems so, unless hipster 3 rises from the ashes i'll have to put it down to bad meds

well loyal think what you like but if meath are to get back to where they once were they wont get there blaming everyone else , tc put a post up read that . it will take meath 3-5 years to get back to the level they once were but they have to trust a manager to do that and we all know how fickle yous meath men are

[quote="Loyal2TheRoyal"]There's a lot of nonsense wrote on fora like these.

Most of it by you in fairness.
Parouisa likes to pass off cliches and soundbites like this to sound clever too. /quote]

Cliches, soundbites or whatever I called all 4 right and I called Meath's loss too. Anyone who has Meath anywhere near the Top 10 is a fool. Even the bookies - surprisingly - were conned. They are a very average outfit.