Three years ago, Kildare convincingly sent Meath crashing out of the Leinster MFC on a damp night in Newbridge. Conditions were a lot better in O'Connor Park, Tullamore on Easter Sunday, but a below par first half display ultimately condemned Benny Reddy's side to a similar fate. There are those within the higher echelons of the G.A.A. that have been calling for the All Ireland U-21 Championship to be scrapped but to this writer to do such a thing would be nothing short of lunacy. Admittedly, Meath haven't had great luck in the competition since David Gallagher led the county to provincial honours three years ago, and one must also acknowledge the strain that is being put on our young players between club, colleges and county football. But the grade provides an important stepping stone from minor to senior level. It can also often be the case that a player may not make the grade as a minor but may do so three years later. When Meath won the All Ireland Minor Championship in 1990, men like Graham Geraghty, Enda McManus, Conor Martin and Cathal Sheridan went on to be the backbone of the team that won the U-21 title three years later and all of the players mentioned were part of the panel that brought Sean Boylan his third All Ireland SFC in 1996. Jimmy McGuinness fits into the other category; he never featured at U-18 level but was one of the stars of the 1993 campaign and went on to collect senior souvenirs in 1996 and 1999. Meath again reached the U-21 decider in 1997 where they were beaten by Derry. As well as Cormac Sullivan, Mark O'Reilly, Darren Fay, Paddy Reynolds, Trevor Giles, Stephen O'Rourke and Barry Callaghan, all of whom Sean Boylan had blooded already, the other major find of that U-21 season was Ray Magee, who has gone on to make many fine contributions to Boylan's senior squad. In 2001, as already stated, David Gallagher captained the side that won the Leinster Championship and could quite easily have won the All Ireland but were unlucky to lose to Mayo having played the whole second half with a man less as Glen Loughran was harshly dismissed. Gallagher had been a member of the senior squad since 1999 but from that good U-21 crop has been joined by Niall Kelly, Seamus Kenny, Christy Reynolds, Charles McCarthy and Adrian Kenny, all of whom have figured prominently with Sean Boylan's side since. Unusually, it could be said that the strongest players available for U-21 selection had made their names with the seniors before Benny Reddy's team took the field at all. Both Joe Sheridan and Brian Farrell score prolifically for Meath during their National League campaign, Tommy O'Connor featured in defence in all Meath's games while Mark Ward had also featured for Sean Boylan during the early spring. O'Connor, Farrell and Sheridan were all part of the excellent Meath side that reached the All-Ireland MFC Final in 2002 and when reunited with lads like Caoimhin King, Joe Melia, Frankie Murphy as well as older players like Ricky Nolan, Niall McLoughlin and Stephen Corrigan, it meant that Meath had a team strong enough to go quite a distance. March 28th was the day the campaign kicked off in O'Connor Park Tullamore against an Offaly side that boasted talented senior performers of their own in the shape of Thomas Deehan, James Coughlan and Niall McNamee. Meath opened the brighter and the fear in which defences hold Joe Sheridan was very obvious as he was hauled down three times in the opening five minutes and the big Seneschalstown man made no mistake each time as Meath led by 0-03 to 0-01. Offaly then took over for the remainder of the opening half as McNamee and Coughlan caused the Meath rearguard no end of problems. Laz Molloy's side dominated the remainder of the half and when Coughlan fired past Ricky Nolan it gave the home side a deserved 1-07 to 0-05 half time lead. It looked bleak for Meath at that stage, but the astute move of taking Sheridan out of the corner and onto the edge of the square worked a treat as within a minute the deficit was back to three. However, every team needs its unsung heroes and on that day Meath found one in Mickey Burke. The Longwood player would be better known throughout the Royal County as a hurler but during the U-21's short campaign he gave some eye catching displays of football that marked him out as one to definitely watch for the future. He knocked over two inspirational points and also created the penalty which Sheridan buried to put Meath back on level terms. Once they got there, you always got the impression Meath were going to go on and claim the spoils. Brian Farrell had been having what you could best describe as a nightmare up to that but all of a sudden the whole team seemed to get a lift. Sheridan brought his tally to 2-7 while Farrell tagged on 1-3 all of a sudden and sub Ray Maloney also got in on the scoring act as Meath ran out 3-11 to 1-07 winners. You may notice that Offaly failed to score in the second half, which bore testament to the outstanding defensive displays of Ricky Nolan, Caomhin King, Niall McLoughlin, Tommy O'Connor and Joe Melia. Two weeks later, Easter Sunday, April 11th, Meath returned to the midlands venue to take on Kildare. This time it was the Lilywhites that opened that brighter before Sheridan got Meath off the mark and then put Meath in front when fisting O'Connor's excellent long ball to the net. Kildare then shipped a heavy blow when full forward Adrian Kelly, their most productive forward in the championship to that point, was forced out after a collision with an advertising hoarding. Though anybody with any length of memory will have been well aware of what his replacement, Eamon McCormack, is capable of. He scored 0-10 on that damp night in Newbridge three years ago and it wasn't long before the Sallins' clubman had a similarly big impact on this encounter. Turning point number one arrived when Nobber's Brian O'Reilly was adjudged to have felled him, wrongly in my view, and the resultant spot kick was duly buried. Then, in a two minute spell, the fickle nature of football was very amply demonstrated as two of the heroes of Meath's win in the last round had moments that they would doubtless rather forget. Firstly, Joe Sheridan fisted inches wide of the Kildare posts and was then off the mark with a penalty, again created by Mickey Burke. The full cost of that was clearly demonstrated seconds later when Nolan advanced from his goal to see the ball flicked over him into an unguarded onion sack. With Willie Heffernan dominant in midfield and McCormack and Tommy Archibald lively in the Kildare front line, a salvage operation looked unlikely but, Meath being Meath; they made one hell of an attempt at it. Burke's electric pace and strong running caused Kildare no end of problems, he slotted over two points himself and when Brian Farrell flicked his centre to the net it appeared as if the latest Meath cased chapter of the great escape was going to be realised. However, in those frantic dying minutes, the miniscule line that exists between victory and defeat was to become all too obvious to Meath folk. Sheridan (twice) and Burke missed chances that would have won it, and then the Dublin referee either didn't see or chose to ignore Joe Melia's shot being blatantly foot blocked and that the Kildare defender then picked the ball clean off the ground. The anger felt by Meath's players, officials and supporters at the end was very understandable. Though in hindsight, while those few minutes of refereeing were appalling, it was probably the bad start that cost Meath the win. It is always disappointing to lose, though with eleven of the starting fifteen eligible again in 2005, Meath should be well capable of making a big impact, and with these talented young players always gaining in experience, the future would seem certain to be a bright one. The Meath team that went under to Kildare was: R. Nolan (Duleek); J. Geoghegan (Walterstown), C. King (Dunshaughlin), B. O'Reilly (Nobber); N. McLoughlin (Wolfe Tones), T. O'Connor (St Peter's, Dunboyne), J. Melia (Moylagh); F. Murphy (Trim), S. Corrigan (Wolfe Tones); M. Burke (Longwood, 0-2), M. Ward (O'Mahonys), T. Farrelly (Oldcastle); B. Farrell (Nobber, 1-0), R. Maloney (Dunshaughlin), J. Sheridan (Senes-chalstown, 1-5). Subs - G. McCloskey (St Colmcilles) for Maloney, M. Shankey (Kilmain-hamwood) for McCloskey. Tweet

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