Fox believes hurlers are underperforming
November 27, 2011In his 11 years as an inter-county hurler, Kildalkey's Tony Fox has seen Meath slip from a team that was capable of competing with the best to one that failed to challenge for promotion from Division 3A of this year's NHL and reached a Christy Ring Cup quarter final.
New manager Cillian Farrell couldn't have asked for a better start to his reign when they captured the Kehoe Cup at Wicklow's expense at the start of the year. But three straight defeats to London, Wicklow and Derry in their first three games in Division 3A left them with only the Christy Ring Cup to play for. They beat Armagh in their first outing in Navan, but subsequent defeats to Kerry and Down ended their interests for another year.
"When I started with Meath, we were competing at a much higher level," Fox remembers.
"John Davis gave me my debut in a Division 1 league match against Galway and I was marking Ollie Canning, who was a forward back then. We had some excellent players like Pat Potterton, Mark Gannon, the Donnellys and Mickey Cole, who is still going strong. Those lads had run Offaly close in the Leinster championship at Croke Park a few years earlier and we went on to beat Laois in the championship under Michael Duignan a couple of years after I joined the squad.
"But we've slipped back a fair bit since then and I would put that down to the fact that we've had very little continuity in terms of team management and we are not doing enough to promote hurling. The first thing you're handed in this county is a big ball which is a shame because there are some fantastic hurlers out there. Tommy Dowd, Jimmy McGuinness and Enda McManus were great hurlers, but they put football first because Meath is a football county."
While taking encouragement from the achievement of the minors in winning the All-Ireland 'B' title this year and the U21 team's appearance in last year's All-Ireland 'B' final against Kerry, the 29-year-old feels the Royals are lagging way behind their neighbours Dublin and Westmeath in terms of developing young hurlers and bringing them through to the senior ranks.
"We were able to compete with Dublin five or six years ago and Westmeath couldn't beat us for years, but that's all changed now," he laments.
"Dublin have put a huge amount of work into their underage over the past decade or so and it's starting to pay off for them now at senior level. They're probably the third best team in the country now after Kilkenny and Tipperary. And when you see the strides Westmeath are making at underage level as well, it makes you wonder what Meath hurling would be like if we did the same.
"While winning the All-Ireland minor 'B' was great, it won't count for much if the young lads aren't looked after. We are very lucky to have a wonderful sponsor in Martin Donnelly, but the county board have also to do their bit to keep the youngsters interested. We need to have five or six new players coming through every year."
Tony believes refereeing standards in Meath need to be addressed if the county team is to prosper. On a more positive note, he welcomes the decision to ratify Cillian Farrell for another season.
"The hurling referees in this county are too strict in their application of the rules. They need to let the game go more. When you go out to play county hurling, you feel like you're playing a different game altogether," he says.
"Even though we didn't have the greatest of years, I'm delighted to see that Cillian Farrell is staying on in 2012. He knows his stuff, having won an All-Ireland medal with Offaly in 1998, and is a young manager trying to make a name for himself. He's talking about upping the training to three or four nights a week and it's needed the way things are going.
"Look at Dublin this year. Both their hurling and football teams were training at 6.30 in the morning in January and February. That's the sort of commitment you are looking at now."
After winning their last two games to secure their NHL Division 3A status, Meath hit the ground running in the Christy Ring Cup with a 2-21 to 1-17 victory away to Armagh. Nicky Horan bagged 2-6 in a man of the match display, while Peter Kirby also chipped in with 0-7. The Royals started and finished the game well, outscoring the home side by 0-6 to 0-1 in the first 13 minutes and by 0-4 to 0-1 in the final six.
A week later, Meath were on the road again, this time to Tralee where they faced eventual Ring Cup winners Kerry. When Nicky Horan pointed a 55th minute free to give the Royals a 0-17 to 0-16 lead, an upset looked to be on the cards, but Kerry hit back with a goal from John Egan with 10 minutes to go.
The evergreen Mickey Cole pulled back a goal late on, but couldn't prevent Meath from going down to a 1-17 to 1-20 defeat. All was not lost, however, as Meath could still look forward to a quarter-final against Down. But much to their dismay, the game was fixed for the Ards Penisula, meaning another daylong trip for Cillian Farrell's men.
Like Kerry, Down plied their trade in Division 2 last spring and it showed as they stormed into a 1-12 to 0-1 interval lead. Meath salvaged some pride in the second half when they outscored the home side by 1-6 to 0-6, but the damage was done in the first half.
"It was a big ask to expect us to beat both Kerry and Down after all the travelling we had to. It's very hard to go out and play to your full ability after sitting on a bus for four or five hours. We had to do it two weeks running and the trip to Armagh wasn't exactly a short one either. It's unfortunate the way things worked out. If we had got either Kerry or Down at home, the year might have turned out differently."
"I'd love to see Meath hurling getting back up to the level it was at 10 years ago," Fox continues.
"We won the Rackard Cup a few years ago, but we now need to take the next step which is to win the Ring Cup. In the meantime, we have to try and win promotion in the league. Winning is a habit and if we could get one trophy in the cabinet it would leave us in a strong position going into the championship."
Fox had plenty to smile about at club level this year when he won a senior championship and league double with Kildalkey and a junior football championship medal with Ballivor.
"After waiting over 100 years to win our first senior championship, it's crazy to think we have now won three-in-a-row. And I don't think we're finished yet," he concludes on an upbeat note. Tweet
