Improvement but ...
November 30, 2006
For the first time since the summer of 1982, the Meath senior football team did not have the familiar figure of Sean Boylan along the sideline this year and although Eamonn Barry brought in a few new players, a championship exit in July was again the end product. By Noel Coogan.
Few stones were left unturned by the new management set-up in their efforts to push the Royal County back up the football charts and an outright success in the O'Byrne Cup competition in January raised expectations. Although there were further promising performances in the National League, they were not enough to prevent relegation from the top division.
Having been drawn in what was supposed to be the easier half of the Leinster SFC, there was some optimism that Meath might reach the provincial final for the first time since 2001. However, a woeful display against Wexford put an end to such dreams and after two wins over moderate opposition in the All-Ireland qualifiers, Laois blocked the way to further progress.
While Eamonn Barry expressed the view that progress had been made and a few weeks later suggested he left the team in better shape than he found them, Meath did not advance any further in the summer campaign than in the previous four years and the grim statistic that Meath have not defeated one of the top counties in the championship since the bizarre win over Kerry in 2001.
True Meath have won 11 championship games after 2001 but those were at the expense of lesser lights like Westmeath and Louth (twice each), Laois (who were very much in the doldrums in 2002), Monaghan, Wicklow, Antrim, Leitrim, Carlow and Roscommon.
Initially Eamonn Barry had Jody Devine and Andy McEntee as his fellow selectors with Benny Reddy the trainer and county junior manager Dessie Hamilton came aboard after McEntee opted out. There were a series of trials followed by a few challenge matches in November and December.
Of course, the was also conflict between Barry and the county hierarchy but that seemed to be forgotten about as Meath won four games and the O'Byrne Cup in January when the wonderful weather brought the supporters out in big numbers.
The first competitive game under Barry was on the second Sunday of the year with Dublin City University providing the opposition at Pairc Tailteann in a game which the county outfit won by 1-13 to 1-10. The college side had Kevin Reilly at midfield and Brian O'Reilly at corner back as well as other county players like Stephen Cluxton, Bryan Cullen, Conor Mortimer and Seanie Johnston.
Meath put out an unfamiliar team with newcomers including Ricky Nolan, John Donoghue, Barry Lynch, Peter Curran, Stephen McAnarney and Mairtin Doran. Seven Meath players got among the scorers with Daithi Regan the top marksman with 1-5 from play.
After the win there was the first of numerous press meetings with boss Barry under the stand in the Navan stadium. The new manager spoke about "putting the pride and the passion back into Meath football" and said "this is a new era for Meath football." Three of the four O'Byrne Cup games were at Pairc Tailteann and seven days later there was a 0-18 to 1-11 win over Westmeath. Again seven players got on target for Meath and this time Mairtin Doran did best with five points from play.
The home side had a numerical advantage after Joe Fallon was sent off 11 minutes into the second half and Nigel Crawford came on with Anthony Moyles dropping back into defence. Westmeath were two points in arrears when losing a man and still only trailed by that margin until Joe Sheridan and Barry Lynch shot over to double the advantage at the end.
Then it was off to Parnell Park for a clash with Dublin while a near full house at the north city venue lending itself to a special atmosphere. Hopefully most of the Dubs supporters who were at this game and saw their side lose by two points were not left out in the cold for the bigger matches later in the year.
Although only a third of the Dublin team would be there in the championship, Meath had good reason to be pleased with the 0-16 to 1-11 victory. They had just four starters from the clash of the previous June while Dublin had one less.
This time it was Meath's turn to finish with 14 men, Seamus Kenny having picked up a second yellow card. Daithi Regan was forced to go off with a hamstring strain after kicking three good points from play. Graham Geraghty came on and two late points from Peter Curran, who scored nine in all, eight frees, were decisive.
Meath were scoring well in those early season game and the 3-14 against Offaly, who hit 0-14, in the O'Byrne Cup final was their best of the year so far. Eamonn Barry had emulated Sean Boylan's feat of lifting the trophy not long after being elected to the position.
It was 1-10 to 0-4 at the break, Joe Sheridan netting the first goal, and after the Midlanders rallied to get the deficit down to four points, substitute Ger Robinson and Sheridan added late goals.
It was the eighth time for Meath to be presented with the O'Byrne Cup and Nigel Crawford, who was impressive at midfield and hit three points, received the trophy. Manager Barry once again made reference to the pride and passion being back in Meath football. Although delighted with the success, he spoke of the need to keep their feet on the ground as they looked ahead to the league.
The O'Byrne Cup winning team was : Ricky Nolan; Paddy Nugent, Tommy O'Connor; Caoimhin King; Niall McLoughlin, John Donoghue, Seamus Kenny; Barry Lynch, Nigel Crawford; Peter Curran, Joe Sheridan, Shane McAnarney; Rory Maguire, Graham Geraghty, Mairtin Doran. Subs - Ronan Kearns for O'Connor, Tadhg Brosnan for Maguire, Ger Robinson for Doran, Wayne Reilly for Lynch, John L. McGee for McAnarney.
In January and February Eamonn Barry's charges were in action on five successive Sundays. The National League kicked off seven days after the O'Byrne Cup final and Meath were in Division 1A and they were brought down to earth with a first round defeat to Down in Newcastle.
Meath failed to win on their travels, losing to Wexford when conceding a handsome advantage and suffering a big hiding from Galway in Salthill. Three of the home games were won, over Armagh, Laois and Derry but there was also a Pairc Tailteann loss to Kildare.
After some impressive scoring totals in January, Meath could only manage 1-8 (to the Ulster side's 0-15) at the picturesque St Patrick's Park. One local reporter was not impressed by the 'picture painted' by the visitors and suggested that even at that early stage there must be major concerns about the team's prospects of retaining their top flight status.
After leading by 0-7 to 0-6 at the break, Ger Robinson, with a goal and a point, was Meath's only scoring in the second half. Mark Ward was not long in the action when he was sent off in added time at the end.
Armagh came to Navan seven days later and when hardly anyone expected Meath to get anything from the tie, they turned on the style to score an impressive 0-19 to 1-9 victory. There were a few changes from the format in Newcastle with Anthony Moyles coming at centre back and Mairtin Doran and Brian Farrell making an impression in attack as also did Joe Sheridan and Rory Maguire.
Eamonn Barry was impressed by the midfield efforts of Nigel Crawford and Barry Lynch and remarked that there was strong competition for places on the team. The manager confirmed that neither Darren Fay or Trevor Giles would not be returning to the squad.
Then there were two free Sundays before Meath celebrated the arrival of March with a fortunate 1-11 to 0-13 win over Laois, who hit 21 wides. Joe Sheridan scored 1-3 including the winning point and Meath finished strongly after being outplayed for a while in the second period. Barry remarked "we did the simple things right including putting the ball over the bar and that's why we won." After coming on as a substitute in the first two games, Graham Geraghty was not involved for the next four after a disagreement following a challenge outing in Ratoath.
They could have done with him in Wexford Park where the visitors somehow managed to turn an advantage of eight points into a deficit of one. Two goals from Ger Robinson in the early stages gave the visitors a great start and they led by 2-8 to 0-9 at the interval. But they added just three points in the second period as Wexford finished up 1-15 to 2-11 victors.
That was the first of three defeats on the trot and the 1-12 to 1-14 loss to Kildare was quite frustrating for the supporters with Joe Sheridan and Brian Farrell, who had been showing up well in attack, both taken off before the break because "they didn't do what they were told."
Peadar Byrne was sent off on receipt of a second yellow card in the 29th minute, John Doyle, who postponed his honeymoon to play, kicked seven Kildare points and Nigel Crawford came close to snatching a dramatic win when a powerful drive from him came back off the bar in then last seconds.
Meath supporters who made the trip to Galway saw their team suffer an embarrassing 0-11 to 4-12 defeat in a game in which Michael Meehan netted four goals with Padraig Joyce the main provider But Meath recovered well from that mauling with a 0-10 to 0-8 win over Derry being the Royal County's first over the Ulster county in the league in 25 years. Only around 3,000 in comparison to near 10,000 at earlier games, turned up for that match in which Graham Geraghty returned.
Kildare and Armagh also finished up with six points but had superior score difference. The two points gained at the expense of Meath was Wexford's only return. Barry and his assistants used over 30 players in the NFL.
With 'top seeds' Dublin and Laois in the opposite half of the Leinster SFC, Meath supporters who thought in terms of getting to the final could hardly be accused of letting their imagination run away with them. After the league there were a few challenge games and the manager said morale in the camp was good with a weekend in Mayo being helpful towards keeping the spirits up.
However, Anthony Moyles had suffered a broken arm while in action with Blackhall Gaels and he would miss the opening championship outing against Louth before which there was the usual guessing about the format of the team.
Louth had won the NFL Division 2 title with a final replay victory over Donegal and Eamonn Barry said "this is a local derby and it will all depend on who performs on the day." Both sides performed, Louth in the first half and Meath in the second half, but it was the Royal County side who advanced on a 1-15 to 0-10 scoreline.
Even though they only trailed by four points (0-6 to 0-10) Meath's display in the first period was described as the worst in a few decades. There were times during the opening 35 minutes when it looked as if a Meath side fielding five players making their first championship start would be embarrassed.
But that was postponed for a fortnight and in the second half the ugly ducklings became white swans and nobody was brighter than Graham Geraghty as his side outscored the 'disappearing'
opposition by 1-9 to 0-0. Joe Sheridan got the goal after an hour and with the board reading 1-15 to 0-10, the Louth wings were clipped.
Some of us may have been carried away a bit by that stylish second-half showing and this writer was rash enough to wonder what odds would be offered against Meath playing all their 2006 championship games at Croke Park!
They played one more game at headquarters. One of the 'new' players to impress in a big way was goalkeeper Brendan Murphy, who made his senior inter-county championship debut at the age of 30. He made a few fine stops behind a back division, some of whose members may be better remembered for attacking than defending!
Did Meath go into the May 28th outing without a game plan to handle Matty Forde? Not much attention was given to marking the no.15 who hit 12 points, nine of them from play. Wexford won by 1-19 to 1-13 but their opponents were behind by a humiliating margin of 12 points before halving the deficit in the closing minutes.
Wexford netminder John Cooper challenged Forde for the 'man of the match' accolade when keeping out four goal attempts. The first of those was from Peadar Byrne at the start and later Joe Sheridan was denied three times. Perhaps Cooper got too much praise for Meath should have netted at least twice.
Daithi Regan, who shot five points from play, was one of the few Meath players to escape criticism. Anthony Moyles was brought on around the three-quarter stage and struck the goal. Meath had to play with 14 men after Byrne was sent off after 27 minutes.
Meath were made look very ordinary that day and three weeks later Wexford appeared the same when Offaly ended their hopes of getting to a first Leinster final since 1956. For Meath there was a trip to Carlow and two outings at Pairc Tailteann before the sun went down on their summer.
There was extra interest in the qualifiers clash with Carlow at Dr Cullen Park because of the Liam Hayes connection with both counties but the game which the visitors won by 1-17 to 0-12 was a bit of a shambles. Referee Aidan Mangan showed nine yellow cards and Carlow substitute Trevor Smith got a second after 69 minutes.
The game had been over as a contest for a while before the dismissal and some suggested that the contest was killed off after a couple of minutes when Graham Geraghty fired a pile driver to the net. It was 1-10 to 0-6 at the break and ten minutes into the second half Brendan Murphy, who was one of Meath's best players of the campaign, made a wonderful stop from Paddy Hickey.
Roscommon came to Pairc Tailteann and although they posed a few small problems in the first half, Meath overran them in the second period, at the end of which the winning margin was five points more than 13 days earlier. It finished 1-19 to 0-9.
The home side did not take the lead until Caoimhin King scored the goal on 24 minutes, the score leaving the board reading 1-4 to 0-4 and it was 1-7 to 0-6 at the break. Three points in the first three minutes after the restart, Peter Curran (free) and Joe Sheridan (two) was an indication of what was to follow and Roscommon failed to score from play after the change of ends.
While Roscommon's minor went to record a memorable All-Ireland triumph, their seniors weren't up to much. Still some people who should have known better were getting carried away after those two Meath wins and they were unable to jump the Laois fence with two goals from Ross Munnelly spelling the end of the road.
The home side had the better of the first and third quarters but were unable to put enough scores on the board during their best spells and could have had two goals before the break when Laois led by 0-10 to 0-6.
After going ahead by 0-4 to 0-2 in the early stages, Meath became too defence-minded. They were like a soccer side putting up barriers after taking a lead. But they not show a lot of resistance when Munnelly struck after 55 and 62 minutes and it was 2-13 to 0-13 at the end.
Before that the game was swinging in favour of Meath as they hit the first five scores after the restart. Those came after three successive wides with Peter Curran (two frees), Mark Ward, Graham Geraghty and Mairtin Doran raising the hopes of the Royal County supporters.
But seconds after Doran regained the lead, Munnelly struck for the first goal. It took a lot of toiling to score five points and with two swift swoops the work was undone.
Barry Lynch made a first championship start but was unlucky to have to go off with an injury after 12 minutes.
After the game Eamon Barry said he was proud of the players and expressed the desire to get another year at the helm. "We have made significant progress during the year and hopefully we'll all be around in September/October to build on that," he said.
"There's loads to work on, it's a work in progress. I'd love the opportunity to stay at it for another year but that's out of my hands and it goes back to the clubs," he added.
Barry accepted that Meath had slipped down the ratings but opined that they were not far off getting back into the top eight. "I counted six easy scoring chances which we missed, we ended up with 13 points, on other days you'd get 18 or 19 points," he said.
Although Eamonn Barry put in a lot of effort in his attempt to get Meath back up the football ladder, that was to be his last game in charge and it will be interesting to see if the new management team get better results in the coming months
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