Cora Staunton says Colm O’Rourke was ‘tactically naive’ against Dublin

"I just don't know what Colm's system of play was yesterday."

Cora Staunton has said that Colm O'Rourke was tactically 'naive' to set his Meath team up the way that he did against Dublin in the National League. Meath went man-to-man against their Leinster rivals, and they were taken apart with ease, as the opposition just found it so easy to break through. Killian O'Gara looked like he had infinite amount of time on the ball and at the other end, Meath weren't offering very much going forward. During his time as a pundit on RTÉ, O'Rourke has always been critical of teams that play the blanket defences and has claimed that kicking the ball is the only way to go in terms of moving forward. However, it looks like he's now under a bit of pressure, and after losing 2-19 to 1-11 at home to the Leinster kingpins, Staunton didn't take it easy on her former RTÉ colleague. "It was an 11-point defeat for Meath but it could have been so much more. They got a fortuitous goal and Dublin missed a lot of goal chances," said the Mayo legend on The League on Sunday.

"I think it was very naive the way they set up, especially in the first half - a strong wind in Navan and the Meath defenders go man on man. "I just thought it was so naive. In football these days, you see teams setting up with blanket defences, a lot of men behind the ball, and they're probably one of the best attacking teams in the country.

"For them to go man on man, they were wide open at the back. You would hope they don't do that against them in Croke Park, but normally the league is the place that you start to put your systems in place. "I just don't know what Colm's system of play was yesterday, it was probably back to the old school, it was 15 v 15, and teams like Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, the top teams - they are just going to eat you up and that's what happened to Meath yesterday. It was an 11-point hammering." Related links:

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