Henry's men make it five-in-a-row
November 27, 2011It is measure of the level of expectation surrounding the Meath Vocational Schools senior football team that they are no longer satisfied with winning Leinster titles.
In 2011, the Royals completed a fantastic five-in-a-row of provincial successes, but their failure to capture that elusive All-Ireland crown was a source of huge disappointment for their manager Kit Henry.
"When you win out your province, you want to kick on and take the next step which is to win the All-Ireland. Unfortunately - and it hasn't been for the lack of trying - we haven't managed to do that yet," the former Cortown player says ruefully.
"I've been over this team for the past five years and we've won Leinster titles each year. But it's frustrating to think that we haven't won at least one All-Ireland in that time. We'll give it another go next year and hopefully we'll finally be able to get across that line."
Meath have certainly been the 'nearly men' of the All-Ireland Vocational Schools championship in recent years. The closest they came to achieving All-Ireland honours was in 2007 when they lost the final to Tyrone. Since then, they lost four semi-finals on the trot to Galway, Monaghan, Cork and Donegal in that order.
Those defeats have left Henry and his selectors Peter McCormack (Nobber), Pat Kenny (Dunshaughlin), Joe Gibney (Ashbourne) and Ultan Fitzpatrick (Oldcastle) scratching their heads as to what is needed to take the final step. And the Meath boss has come to the conclusion that the players the county is producing at that age aren't physically strong enough.
"The teams that have beaten us over the past five years have always been that little bit physically stronger than us," he concedes.
"We're as good as them from a footballing point of view, but we can't compete with them physically and that's something we are going to have to look at if we're to get up to the same level as the Corks, Donegals, Galways and Tyrones of this world."
The Royals had only to play two games to retain their provincial crown. They beat Offaly by 1-11 to 1-7 in the semi-final before edging out Wicklow by 0-10 to 0-8 in the decider at Roundwood in early February.
The final could have gone either way with Wicklow's tally of 12 wides (compared to Meath's seven) proving costly from their perspective. The visitors were also grateful to their goalkeeper Colm O'Riordan who made a vital save to deny Conor Smullen when the Garden County trailed by just a point midway through the second half.
Wicklow continued to apply strong pressure after that but were unable to regain parity, and a late point from Bryan Davis ensured the Leinster cup stayed in the Royal County for another year.
Davis opened the scoring in the first minute, but Wicklow hit back with scores from Paddy Crowley and two from their top scorer Theo Smith to lead by 0-3 to 0-1 after nine minutes. However, Meath stuck to their task and points from Robert Farrelly and Bryan McMahon had the sides level on 0-5 each at half-time.
Despite the pressure that would come from Wicklow later, the visitors were never headed after a David Donnellan free gave them the lead early in the second half. Aaron Ennis doubled Meath's advantage before he was forced off with a shoulder injury. Wicklow cut the deficit to the minimum on a couple of occasions but scores at the other end from Shane McEntee and Davis ensured that Meath had their noses in front at the final whistle.
Ballyconnell in Co. Cavan was the venue for Meath's All-Ireland semi-final joust with Donegal. Sporting the black and red of O'Carolan College in Nobber due to a clash of colours, the Leinster champions led early on but were always playing catch-up after Shaun Boyle netted Donegal's opening goal in the 23rd minute, and they eventually won by double scorers, 2-6 to 0-6.
Patrick McBrearty, who subsequently made a big impression with the Donegal seniors in the Ulster championship, was the standout performer for the Ulster champions who went on to beat Cork after a replay in the All-Ireland final.
The game was slow to come to life with Bryan Davis' 10th minute free to only score in the opening quarter. David Donnellan doubled Meath's advantage six minutes later, but the Royals were then dealt a major blow when McMahon sustained a broken collarbone and was forced to retire.
McBrearty finally opened Donegal's account in the 19th minute and four minutes later they hit the front when McBrearty teed up Boyle for a goal. The Tir Chonnaill men were never headed after that with two McBrearty frees giving them a 1-3 to 0-3 lead at the break.
On the restart, Bryan Davis landed two frees to leave the minimum in it, only for Donegal to restore their three-point advantage thanks to efforts from McBrearty and Shaun McGarvey. Donnellan's second score from a free in the 47th minute closed the gap once more, but the result was effectively decided two minutes later when McBrearty provided the assist for Donegal's second goal from John O'Malley. Substitute Brendan McNelis tagged on a further point to end Meath's All-Ireland dream for another year.
"While we couldn't have any excuses, it was a big blow to lose Bryan McMahon so early in the game. He was one of our main score-getters and was on the team last year as well. If we had him for the whole game, things might have turned out differently," says Henry, who also managed Trim this year and led Mattock Rangers to back-to-back Louth SFC triumphs in 2009 and 2010.
Henry is fulsome in his praise of all the squad members and their schools for making them available.
"We got great cooperation from the schools this year. Nine different schools were represented - Ashbourne, Ratoath, Dunboyne, Longwood, Dunshaughlin, Oldcastle, Athboy, Nobber and Kells.
"I would also like to acknowledge the excellent coaching work that's being done by Games Manager Dudley Farrell and his fellow coaches Debbie Walsh, Maria Kealey, Christine O'Brien and Jenny Rispin in the secondary schools."
Kit cannot understand why so many counties snub the Vocational Schools inter-county championship, and contends that there are huge benefits to be gained from taking part.
"It's a great stepping stone for any young lad who wants to better himself as a footballer. It puts them in the shop window for selection on county minor panels, etc. We had eight or nine lads on this year's Meath minor panel and it's the same every year. From my experience, lads have a huge desire to pull on the county jersey and the Vocational Schools team gives them that opportunity," he concludes.
The Meath team which lost the All-Ireland Vocational Schools SFC semi-final to Donegal was: C. O'Riordan; C. Finn, C. McGill, G. Deery; P. Haslam, S. Melia, J. Welby; S. McEntee, N. Shortall; D. Donnellan (0-2, fs), A. Ennis, R. Farrelly; P. Lynch, B. Davis (0-4, 2 fs), B. McMahon. Subs - A. Gannon for McMahon (16), P. McGrath for Ennis (39), D. Murtagh for Lynch (49), J. Farrelly for Shortall (53), P. Gallagher for Donnellan (57). Tweet
