When they beat Kildare in the semi-final with a mixture of old hands and young guns, it turned out Séamus McEnaney had found his team, writes MALACHY CLERKIN
ANY FISHERMAN will tell you bad weather is no great excuse for bad catches. So even as the storm swirled around Séamus McEnaney’s trawler between the end of last year’s championship and the beginning of this year’s league, he resisted all temptation to take it as a reason not to venture out on the water.
“I looked at over 100 players last year to get the panel to where it is now,” he chirruped to The Irish Times back in January. “We had a couple of games in late October where we found a few new players but the whole thing is a revolving door. Players will come in and out of the panel. Anyone who’s playing well for the their club will be brought in to play games at training to see if they’re up to the standard we’re looking for.”
Thing is, everyone watched on as Banty went about his business but so bad were the results nobody really noticed he was building a team. It all seemed a little higgledy-piggledy, to the point where looking at over 100 players began to sound not so much like a manager leaving no stone unturned but rather one desperately casting around in the hope he’d stumble upon what he was looking for. Pick a player, any player.
But when they beat Kildare in the Leinster semi-final with a mix of old hands and eight players who were under the age of 23, everything was turned on its head. It turned out that McEnaney had found his team along the way and had hidden it in plain sight. That Conor Gillespie lad that had been hanging around base camp since 2010 without ever getting a toe into the mountain all of a sudden was leading the expedition.
Beside Graham Reilly in the half-forward line was one kid – Alan Forde – who was still trying to win a Hogan Cup for St Pat’s, Navan, less than 18 months ago and another – Damien Carroll – who had only made his first championship start in the replay against Carlow. In all, McEnaney has thrown championship starter’s jerseys for the first time to six players so far this summer, the aforementioned trio of Gillespie, Carroll and Forde, as well as Donnacha Tobin, Donal Keoghan and Mark Collins.
Add in defenders Bryan Menton and Ciarán Lenihan, both of whom started against Kildare having made their championship bows last summer, and you find that youth runs through the side like the writing in a stick of rock.
Did we see it coming? We’re liars if we say we did. The born-under-a-bad-sign feeling that has followed Meath around since the 2010 Leinster final convinced most of us that not only was the present a mess in Meath but the future hadn’t a whole lot more to say for itself.
Pat Coyle saw it though. Currently over the Meath juniors, he did a two-year stint as county minor manager in 2008 and 2009 and came out the other side of it with a Leinster title. Carroll, Menton, Lenihan, Keoghan, Tobin and Collins all came through under his watch, as did Paddy Gilsenan. Anyone who asked him what he thought before the semi-final got the same reply. Nothing to be afraid of, not with those players all in the same side at the same time.
“Everybody has short memories,” says Coyle. “Everybody came out of Croke Park after the Kildare game going, ‘Where did those lads come out of?’ The minor team from 2008 was just forgotten about. These players have a background and they didn’t get here by accident.”
The minor team from Coyle’s first year had to inch and claw their way to everything they got.
After beating Louth in the opener, they dug out an extra-time win over Dublin in Parnell Park – a Gerry McEntee-managed Dublin, no less – in the quarter-final. After that, they came from four points down with 15 minutes to go against Longford to make the final and in the decider against Offaly, they coughed up a five-point lead in the closing stages before dredging a winner from the depths in injury-time. After a fine win over Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final, they ran into one of the best minor teams in years in Tyrone.
“That Tyrone team was very strong,” says Coyle. “It had Kyle Coney and Peter Harte and Matthew Donnelly, all those lads who are playing with Tyrone now at the minute were on it. Coming up to half-time, we were only two points behind and I was saying on the sideline that if we can just get them in and sit them down, two points is nothing.
“But then Peter Harte robbed a ball off one of our lads and passed it in and Conor O’Neill scored the goal. It meant we went in five points down and it’s very hard to get young lads to turn that around. It’s hard to get them into the frame of mind for it.
“Without a doubt, we knew we had players coming through. We had a trainer in, Paul Clarke, for a couple of years and I remember one night watching them with him and we were saying that if we don’t get a half-dozen of these young lads through to play senior intercounty, we’re doing something wrong. We knew what we had. We knew that they had talent but we knew they were really hard workers as well.”
Gillespie is older than the players Coyle had under him and was drafted into the senior set-up in Eamonn O’Brien’s time. But aside from the occasional appearance off the bench, his opportunities were limited enough. It wasn’t until Mark Ward’s injury left a hole in the midfield for the replay against Carlow this summer that he got his chance – in all likelihood, he wouldn’t have got it had Shane O’Rourke not been similarly struck down for the season. Yet along with the others, he grabbed everything going and ended the Kildare game as the man of the match.
How they fare against the All-Ireland champions now will tell a new tale. Lenihan’s tendency to overdo the physicality of his marking from time to time looks to have cost him his place in the reshuffle brought about by Kevin Reilly’s return. If Meath line out as named, Tobin and Menton will be tasked with coupling up on Bryan Cullen and Paul Flynn, guaranteeing them the kind of afternoon young legs are made for.
Keoghan, their best man-marker, will likely be on Bernard Brogan duty. This is grading on a whole new curve, yet Coyle isn’t worried about watching them sit their stiffest exam so far.
“I rang a few of them during the week before the Kildare game and said, ‘Listen, keep in their faces, lads. Don’t give them a minute’s peace’. And they did, in fairness to them. They never let up and they realised the chance they had. The key was to not back down from them and these young lads are good that way. It will be the same against Dublin. There’s no fear there.”
Lack of fear might not be quite enough tomorrow but no matter. Whatever happens, Meath have reason to hope again. However long the rest of their summer lasts, Banty will have left that legacy at least.
HOW DUBLIN MEATH HAVE EVOLVED: Leinster SFC semi-final, June 27th, 2010 - Meath 5-9 Dublin 0-13
Dublin
Stephen Cluxton: Hasn't conceded more than a single goal in a championship match since.
Mick Fitzsimons, Rory O'Carroll, Philly McMahon:All three line up in the same position tomorrow as they did two years ago.
Ger Brennan, Bryan Cullen, Barry Cahill: Cullen and Cahill have been reinvented as forwards and Brennan has lost his place. James McCarthy, Kevin Nolan and Cian O'Sullivan start tomorrow.
Eamon Fennell, Ross McConnell:Fennell is back in favour but McConnell hasn't started a championship game since the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final. Denis Bastick and Michael Darragh Macauley are the mainstays.
Niall Corkery, Alan Brogan, Paul Flynn: Corkery moved to London after 2010. Bryan Cullen has slotted in.
Conal Keaney, Bernard Brogan, Tomás Quinn: Keaney left for the hurlers after 2010, Quinn fell out of favour. Kevin McManamon looks a fixture now. Michael Darragh Macauley is named at 14 tomorrow but will play out the field.
Since that day:6 personnel changes
9 positional changes
Meath
Brendan Murphy: Retired last winter and became goalkeeping coach. Dave Gallagher is the current number one.
Chris O'Connor, Kevin Reilly, Eoghan Harrington: Reilly returns tomorrow after injury, alongside Donal Keoghan and Micky Burke. O'Connor and Harrington squad members now.
Anthony Moyles, Gary O'Brien, Caomhin King: Moyles and King left the panel after disagreements with the management, O'Brien has had injury troubles this spring. Donnacha Tobin, Shane McAnarney and Bryan Menton line out against Dublin.
Brian Meade, Mark Ward:Meade still in situ but Ward's injury has given Conor Gillespie a chance to shine.
Séamus Kenny, Joe Sheridan, Graham Reilly:Team captain Kenny is out for the season, leaving room for Alan Forde to come in. Damien Carroll's form has moved Sheridan to full forward. Reilly remains.
Cian Ward, Shane O'Rourke, Stephen Bray:O'Rourke is another long-term injury victim so the full forward line tomorrow reads Brian Farrell, Sheridan, Bray. Ward drops to the bench.
Since that day:10 personnel changes
11 positional changes
