While there will undoubtedly have been massive disappointment at failing to progress to the All-Ireland final, Meath's minor footballers can be extremely proud of their achievements in 2006. By Brendan Boylan They ended the county's thirteen year wait for a provincial title at the grade and in so doing provided renewed hope for the future footballing fortunes of the green and gold, writes Brendan Boylan It's often very hard to access how a county minor side are going to fair from one year to the next. Primarily, of course, due to the turnover in players there is involved. The more lads a county has available for more than one year at the grade, the better chance they may have of making progress. To this end, Dudley Farrell, Sean Barry and Sean Kelly were able to call on six players, captain Paddy Brady, Johnny Ginnity, Davy Dalton, Stephen Sheppard, Shane O'Rourke and Alan Nestor, from the side that were so cruelly ousted against Offaly in the provincial semi final the previous year. Two other significant developments in recent years have been the advent of the Leinster League and the increased prominence given to the All Ireland Colleges competitions. Both were of tremendous benefit to Meath's cause in 2006. Firstly because Brady collected Meath's first bit of silverware at Minor level in over a dozen years when they captured the league title early in the year, suffering only one defeat in the process, that being actually on the day they picked up the trophy against Dublin in Pairc Tailteann. St Patrick's CS, Navan enjoyed yet another good run in the All Ireland Colleges SFC, and although they were desperately unlucky to go down to a very talented Abbey CBS, Newry, side in the final, Shane Carr, David Donegan, Shane O'Rourke, Sean Keating, Colin Clarke, Darren Mallon and Brian Sheridan made enough of an impression to make the championship panel. May 13th was the date all the months of preparations had been building towards, and the quite formidable task of tackling Kildare in St Conleth's Park Newbridge. Meath had ousted the Lilywhites the previous year in Navan when a good start proved essential to a narrow win. It was like a carbon copy this time round as the young Royals led by 0-06 to 0-04 at the interval on a day when Blackhall Gaels' Alan Nestor showed the type of form that would carry on throughout the campaign and earmarks him as a potential star of the future. The lively corner forward registered six points as Meath ground out a 0-11 to 0-09 win to ensure the county got over the first round of the U-18 competition for successive years for the first time in nearly a decade. One thing which may merit looking into is the gap which exists between when the competition starts and when it resumes again after the State exams. Now, obviously there can be no football played while the exams are in progress but maybe it would be better not starting the competition at all until they are finished because teams are bound to be rusty when they resume after so long without a game. Meath certainly looked very ring rusty when they went back to the Kildare venue to tackle Laois in the semi final in mid July, and that wasn't just the players!! Meath's victory over Laois was one that will remembered for an eternity by anyone in the decent sized crowd who witnessed it but the one thing all will be pondering is how exactly the young Royals managed to advance to a first provincial decider in the grade since 2002. The day didn't even get off to a good start for them. Minutes before the off it was discovered that the jerseys had been left behind. Luckily, some quick thinking on the part of Kildare officials managed to source a set from the local Milltown club. It was hard to know if the unusual green and red attire was throwing them off, but during the opening period there wasn't much one could recognise or understand about what the boys in the unusual shade of green were trying to do. Rarely is a team outplayed so much and still comes away with the spoils. That they did is a tribute to their spirit but it was also made possible by the profligacy of their opposition. Laois had enough possession to win the game ten times over but paid the price most teams do in such situations thanks to Carry's late net buster. Shane O'Rourke lofted over Meath's first score but after that Meath played second fiddle around the centre. Consequently, the Meath rearguard was under incessant pressure. All bar one of the scores posted by those in blue came from frees. Meath were extremely lucky to only trail by four at the change of ends, thanks mainly to a few outstanding stops from the very impressive Johnny Ginnity. Add to this that Shane Carr was on a yellow card from the very early stages and things looked decidedly bleak. Though they did make the ideal start with two points, to leave that between the sides but when Laois hit back accordingly it appeared the gap of four would remain until the end. Indeed, it ended up being extended out to five. Meath's spirit held firm however and like in the Kildare game Simonstown youngster Carr, a son of ex-Louth boss Paddy, was majestic when the fat was in the fire and once Alan Nestor drove over a '45' and the hard-working Graham Reilly cut the gap to two you could almost sense what was going to happen. And it did. Laois' wastefulness eventually caught up with them when place-kicker Colm Meredith kicked what looked an easy free into Ginnity's grateful arms and, in a throwback to something like what O'Rourke snr. and Giles were famed for Meath put together a great move, at the end of which Nestor transferred to Carry, who blasted to the net and guaranteed Meath supporters at least one more run out in Croker for the year. It is often said that the best way to get over a bad result or performance is to get back into the arena as soon as possible and try to rectify it and that was certainly the case for Meath fans after the previous night's disappointment of seeing the county seniors crash out to Laois as the following day's excursion to GAA HQ with the county minors couldn't come quick enough. Now, after the way they escaped to victory over Laois, taken in conjunction with the fact that Offaly had beaten Dublin who are always strong in the grade, it was hard to know what to expect. Chances are they knew themselves they'd under-performed, and there is absolutely no doubt they were told as much in the intervening ten days since the semi-final. However, it certainly worked because right from the off it was clear Meath were the much superior side as an Alan Nestor goal enabled them to race into a 1-02 to 0-01 lead. Good and all as the young Blackhall lad was, he played second fiddle in terms of stardom to Shane O'Rourke and Graham Reilly. The former was in vastly better form than against Laois while the latter has been Meath's most consistently impressive performer to date and with the two of them firing well Dudley Farrell's side led by 1-07 to 0-03 at the interval. They drove on in the second half as the two impressive attackers ended up posting ten points between them while Nestor also converted a very impressive free as Meath captured their first provincial title in the grade for thirteen years, when this year's team physiotherapist, one T. Giles was one of that side's stars, as was Nestor's older brother Paul, along with Darren Fay, Barry Callaghan and Ollie Murphy. Meath's reward for their provincial success was a trip to Clones for a quarter final against an Antrim side who had been comprehensively beaten by Donegal. Early on it appeared as if the Ulster side were going to be in for another heavy defeat as Meath opened up a commanding 1-08 to 0-02 advantage with Nestor netting for the second game in a row while Graham Reilly, Shane O'Rourke and Ciaran Lynch all contributed fine scores. Antrim soon sensed they were in trouble and changed their style of play to what could best be described as very physical and it certainly unsettled Meath and brought their opponents right back into the game. Meath still led by six at the break but spent the entire second half on the back foot and when Antrim got two quick goals it was almost inevitable that Meath were going to be under pressure to hang on and from being in a position of total dominance in the end it is quiet probable they were glad of the extra twenty minutes. Farrell's charges looked a completely different outfit once the extra period began. Brian Sheridan particularly upped his game when things got going again, posting two superb points as Meath looked much sharper when shooting into the goal in which they had done most of their scoring in normal time. And it also mirrored normal time as they came under tremendous pressure in the second extra period, particularly following the very harsh red carding of Nestor, who, up to that point, had accounted for 1-4, and only scored once, a point by Summerhill's Paul Larkin, but they had done enough to hold on for a 1-17 to 2-10 win. Then it was a return trip to Croke Park for a semi final clash with Connacht kingpins Roscommon. After a very tentative and scrappy opening, Alan Nestor, who was again impressing after the red card had been rescinded, freeing him up to play, registered his second score of the game to edge the Leinster holders clear by 0-03 to 0-02. Sadly for them however, that was as good as it got. Soon after arrived the score that irreparably changed the game when a Roscommon forward was bundled over in front of Hill 16 and wing forward Conor Devanney blasted low to the net, despite Johnny Ginnity's best efforts, to leave Fergal O'Donnell's side 1-03 to 0-03 clear and a half hour away from the final. Shane O'Rourke's relocation to centre field did bolster Meath's hopes for a while on the restart as Ciaran Lynch pointed twice. Though every time the young Meath men seemed to be coming back, the man from the west broke upfield and kept themselves a safe distance clear with Donal Shine and David O'Gara particularly prominent as they held on for a 1-10 to 0-09 win. Obviously, from a Meath viewpoint, there will be massive disappointment at not making the final, though all involved should be extremely proud of their achievements in bringing two Leinster titles to the county this year and many of these very talented players and their equally astute management team will surely go on to be involved with teams in green and gold for many years to come. The minor side which claimed the Leinster trophy was: J Ginnity; G Farrelly, S Sheppard, S Carr; D Donegan, E Reilly, P Brady; S O'Rourke 0-5, C Finn; G Reilly 0-5, C Lynch 0-1, D Dalton; A Nestor 1-2, S Keating 0-1, B Sheridan 0-2. Subs: C Carry, P Larkin, C Clarke. Tweet

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