Despite winning the Kehoe Cup competition early in the year, 2004 was a very disappointing year for the Meath senior hurling team with little impact being made in Division 2 of the National League, the Leinster championship or the All-Ireland B competition and some players refusing to make themselves available for the team. Clare-native, Dublin-domiciled John Hunt became the new manager of the side in succession to Michael Duignan but after a promising start to the year, it was downhill after that. Offaly All-Ireland winner Duignan had been at the helm for two years and after the sensational provincial victory over Laois, there were other respectable showings in 2002. Meath have spent the last two springs in Division 2 of the NHL and the 2-10 to 0-17 defeat by Carlow at Pairc Tailteann on the first Sunday of May in 2003 turned out to be Duignan's last game in charge. Hunt had served as one of his backroom team and took up the job with a fair amount of optimism. However, it turned out to be a bumpy ride. John Hunt's first competitive outing in charge of the Meath senior hurling team was at Michael Fay Park, Longford last January when a 2-21 to 1-3 win was recorded over the Midlanders. A comfortable victory was expected and even though the Royal County outfit had 21 points to spare at the end, the new boss was not a happy man. "That kind of an insipid performance is not on. We're not playing the kind of hurling that we that we want to play or that we should be playing. The total of 2-21 is a good tally but how bad were Longford? It's a matter of lifting the team from last year. The progress is going to be slow but we'll keep plugging away," he remarked. Sean Reilly from Boardsmill scored 1-12 that day but Hunt was already aware that he faced up uphill struggle. The initial win earned Meath a final place against Wicklow and the trophy was annexed for the first time since 1997 on a 1-15 to 0-11 scoreline at Pairc Tailteann before a paltry crowd of around 200. Hurling is still losing the battle to attract decent attendances to inter county matches in Meath and that day probably more people from the county travelled to Wexford for the National Football League game than to the Navan venue. Those who made the shorter trip saw Wicklow, who won the competition in each of the previous three years, trail by 0-7 to 1-9 at the break. The goal was the first score of the game with Charlie Keena netted after just two minutes. Meath were always ahead after that with Sean Reilly sending over eight points, six frees, and Nicky Horan, who came on as a substitute towards the end of the first half, contributed four converted frees and one point from play. The Meath team which beat Wicklow in the Kehoe Cup final was : Mark Gannon; Ray Dorran, David Donnelly, Anton O'Neill; Michael Horan, Stephen Donoghue, Seamus Wallace; Cathal Sheridan (captain), Ger O'Neill; Eibhin Lynam, Tony Fox, David Dorran; Neville Reilly, Charlie Keena, Sean Reilly. Subs - Nicky Horan for Keena, Mickey Cole for David Dorran, Thomas Reilly for Ger O'Neill, Kevin Dowd for Sheridan, Padraig Coone for Sean Reilly. But after the winning run of two games, John Hunt's charges then finished in front in only three of their nine games for the rest of the year. Two of the defeats were at the hands of Wicklow, the first of them in the opening round of the league. Meath were expected to repeat the earlier win over the Garden County side but although the team had played ten challenge games as well the couple of Kehoe Cup outings and the services of Eamonn Cregan had been recruited, the NHL opener at Pairc Tailteann was a real downer. There were a few more of those to follow. The display by the home side was described as 'the most abject performance put in by the team in a while' Meath were behind by 0-5 to 2-9 at the break and despite two goals from Nicky Horan in the second half, Wicklow won by 2-14 to 2-9. The losers hit a total of 17 wides compared to five by their opponents. There were early headaches for Hunt and they would increase to migraine proportions later in the year. Kerry, who had beaten Mayo and Carlow, were the next opponents and the trip to Killarney was not something to relish. The Kingdom led by 0-8 to 0-2 at half time and Martin Horan was sent off before the break. With Mike Dooley netting twice, Kerry ran out 2-15 to 0-12 victors. Those two defeats put Meath well out of contention for promotion but they won their next two games, both against lesser lights of the group. The squad was hit by injuries and that situation worsened when Nicky Horan went off with a shoulder injury after scoring 1-3 in the 1-13 to 1-10 win over Mayo at Pairc Tailteann. Despite that unimpressive win, Meath were still in danger of being relegated. But they got out of that hole with a 1-13 to 0-12 win over Carlow at Dr Cullen Park. After leading by 1-10 to 0-1 at the break and increasing the advantage to 13 points on the restart, Meath lost their way in the second half. With Horan sidelined, Mickey Cole sent over five frees and James Canty netted the goal. Meath then went into the second phase with the top teams in the other Division 2 group and two more losses and an unfulfilled fixture ensued. Roscommon were led by 0-13 to 0-7 after 45 minutes at Athleague but there was another fade out as the Connacht side turned things around for a 3-13 to 0-15 success. When Westmeath visited Trim there was little besides pride at stake as our neighbours won by 2-9 to 0-10 after leading by 2-6 to 0-6 at the break. Stephen Clynch, Tony Fox and Thomas Reilly battled well for the men in green and gold but they lacked power in attack and goalie Mark Gannon was switched up to full forward. Meath's last league game was supposed to be against Down but it did not take place. The Royal County squad made the long trip to Strangford for the tie at Portaferry but the ferry could not travel across the lough because of fog. After waiting around two hours they had to return home. The game was re-fixed for the same venue but Meath did not travel and Down went on to claim the title with a big final win over Westmeath. That left Meath without another game before taking on Laois in the Leinster SHC at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise and the 2002 result was reversed as the side in blue and white strolled to a 1-13 to 0-8 win. Having Thomas Reilly sent off in the 27th minute made matters more difficult for the visitors and they trailed by 0-4 to 1-9 at the break. It was another sluggish display by the Meath side. On occasions they were slow to get rid of the ball and had a number of pucks blocked down. But they won the second half by 1-4 to 0-4 and John Hunt remarked that they had enough chances to win not only one but two games in that period! As well as a number of disappointing defeats, manager Hunt and his assistants had to contend with a number of players not making themselves available for selection with Nicky Horan being the most notable of the absentees. Horan was a spectator at the St. Loman's grounds, Mullingar when Roscommon were outscored by 1-17 to 1-9 in the All-Ireland B championship opener. Before that game there were doubts as to whether Meath would be able to field a team but they had more than enough players and they scored 1-8 from play. Calvin Ryan netted their goal and 1-2 without reply in the closing stages boosted them to an encouraging win. Although doing much better against Wicklow than in their previous clash, Meath still bowed out of the secondary competition when the Garden County men outscored them by 4-13 to 3-15 after extra time at Parnell Park. It was 4-9 to 3-12 after 70 minutes just after Mickey Cole was wide from a 65 which could have earned Meath a semi-final place. Kildare went on to take the B hurling title with a final win over Mayo and while Meath ended their year on a more promising note, they still slipped further down the ratings in 2004. The hurling board may be treading on dangerous ground by calling in players who are reluctant to wear the green and gold and it would better to talk to them rather than talk down at them. Hopefully the problems can be sorted out before the National Hurling League in the spring. Meath need their strongest possible side on the pitch and it would be a step in the right direction if the rift between the management and some dissenting players can be healed. Meath won't be playing in the real championship come the summer but they have two Division 2 titles to aim at. Tweet

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