Saturday, 7 June 2008

Poor discipline a culture in Meath?

Meath's disciplinary woes have continued with Kevin Reilly's yellow card last Sunday being overturned to a four-week ban.
I'm sure the county's supporters must be asking themselves why the disciplinary record is so poor at the moment.
Have they just been caught out by the GAA's renewed willingness to tackle the problem of foul play and off the ball nonsense? Or is there something ingrained into Meath's approach to the game which means that players will always push out the envelope in terms of attempting to rough an opponent up?
Graham Geraghty is one of those players I admire and loathe in equal measures.
His intelligence, courage, speed of movement, balance and ball skills are a treat to watch.
Saw him play against Antrim in the League at Casement a couple of seasons ago and in an early season game he still looked like the only thoroughbred surrounded by 29 journeymen.
On the other hand there has always been a dark, mean side to his game, hitting players sly digs, leaving his foot in an effort to hurt someone as the ball moves on but over the years cute enough to avoid the ultimate sanction most of the time.
The game has changed however, there are cameras everywhere, but his colleagues don't seem to have grasped that.
Given the way Colm Coyle's sides was depleted for their game with Wexford the last thing he needed was another key player out of the action.
Coyle himself as a player was like Geraghty a combination of the good, the bad and the ugly, always playing at the very edges of the rule book.
Is there where the current problems stem from in the Meath side?
Is the manager or his back room team too tolerant of the sort of nonsense some of the players have got up to because it was all right back in the '80s and 90s?
Or does it reflect a culture within football in the county at a club level?
Whatever the reason, a season which started with so much promise for what is an improving Royal side has been temporarily derailed and the that's a pity as Leinster and the country need sides like Meath in the shake-up.

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