Meath 1-17 Westmeath 0-7: A CRISP January afternoon in Navan to witness the opening salvo of yet another marathon GAA season and this opening O'Byrne Cup encounter between midland neighbours had an interesting subplot due to Liam O'Neill's experimental rules coming into effect yesterday. The former Leinster Council chairman and GAA presidential candidate will forever be associated with this trial period as he chaired the committee and has repeatedly staked his legacy on cleaning up foul play.
Basically, certain fouls have been deemed a yellow card, which now means a player must be replaced. And so the fourth estate were glued to the actions of Wexford referee Tomás Quigley - waiting for him to use his new powers. The main idea of the new sanctions is to provide referees with the courage to make the hard decision in the face of any cynical actions. All told, Quigley only dismissed one player and maintained a healthy level of common sense throughout.
He was in no hurry to banish the black card either and there were initial signs of defenders backing off their marker rather than grabbing the jersey or diving in like when Westmeath centre forward Enda Leonard turned Barry Egan too easily after the centre back attempted to punch the ball from his grasp. Football has changed, seemingly.
The first black mark came on 19 minutes, for Meath full back Andrew Collins. His opposite number, Barry Murphy, followed him into Quigley's notebook soon after. It got confusing from the press box as the yellow card could be seen every time Quigley raised his notebook in the air.
It all proved anti-climatic until Shane McAnarney caught Joe Clarke high, near the sideline, just before half-time. It was a yellow-card offence but lacked the cynical aspect referees have been told to stamp out. Another new rule is that the subsequent replacement cannot come on until the next break in play and so Stephen McKenna replaced McAnarney.
There was also a lively enough match taking place. Well, that is until a shadow Westmeath side's scores dried up after 20 minutes. It then got boring and very cold. It should be reiterated Tomás Ó Flatharta brought an experimental Westmeath side over to meet Eamonn O'Brien's slightly less experimental team.
Meath were without several senior players, while Graham Geraghty and Darren Fay have retired, but O'Brien's tenure began with the return of big Joe Sheridan at full forward. He should have put Meath clear early in the second half but he blasted a penalty over after Declan McGuinness hauled down David Bray. Quigley only showed McGuinness the black book despite Sanction One of the new rules stating a player must be yellow-carded, and duly replaced, should he "pull an opponent down".
As mentioned, the contest ended in the 21st minute when Dermott Bannon kicked Westmeath's seventh point. We just didn't know it then. Meath had laboured, only coming to life on 15 minutes when Eoin Reilly and Stephen Bray combined for a fine goal by Cian Ward. Sheridan should have added a second moments later but a bad solo meant he had to settle for a point. It made little difference as two Ward frees and an impressive score from Reilly had Meath 1-5 to 0-7 in front at the turn. Meath registered 0-12 in the second half without reply.
Ó Flatharta would have again noticed that without the likes of Dessie Dolan, Denis Glennon and John Keane Westmeath will always struggle. "Damien Healy is definitely gone away and we have a few serious injuries," he noted. "Martin Flanagan is probably going to be out for a good while. David Duffy as well, he had ankle surgery just before Christmas. Martin is going to have surgery as well on his ankle."
MEATH: P O'Rourke; S McAnarney, A Collins, E Harrington; S Kenny, B Regan, T Kelly; M Ward, D Sheridan; D Bray (0-1, free), E Reilly (0-2), G Reilly (0-3); S Bray (0-2), J Sheridan (0-2, one pen), C Ward (1-5, five frees). Subs: S McKenna for S McAnarney (35 mins, yellow card), J Queeney (0-2) for E Reilly (62 mins), D Flood for A Collins, M Kennedy for D Sheridan (both 63 mins), T Johnson for S Bray (65 mins).
WESTMEATH: C Mullen; A Caffrey, B Murphy, F O'Boyle; K Scally, J Clarke, D McGuinness (0-1); A Browne, P Bannon (0-1); P Kelly (0-1), E Leonard (0-1), D Harte; P Tormey (0-2, frees), D Bannon (0-1), K Martin. Subs: D Kilmartin for D McGuinness (17 mins), D O'Donoghue for J Clarke (40 mins), T Mcdaniel for D Bannon (51 mins), E Farrell for K Scally (56 mins), F Spollen for K Martin (65 mins).
Black cards: Meath - A Collins (19 mins), S Kenny (30 mins). Westmeath - B Murphy (27 mins), D McGuinness (36 mins), D Kilmartin (55 mins), E Farrell (67 mins), A Browne (72 mins).
Referee: T Quigley (Wexford).
