ROYALS RETURN
Meath on brink of promotion to top tier
FROM zero to hero, Andy McEntee might just be about to complete one of sports most fickle journeys. Before a ball was kicked in anger this season, the Meath manager took something of a dunt himself as he geared up for the new season.
Back at the start of October, he addressed a county board meeting, holding his hands up and admitting that the previous season had not been good enough. He informed delegates he was making changes to his management team. The most significant was the departure of his brother, Gerry, with Dublin coach Colm Nally arriving.
His address was hardly received warmly, with one delegate asking the Meath manager if he could explain the huge turnover of players, with several having opted out of the panel.
He braved it out, and told the meeting that his joint goals for the new year were promotion to Division 1 and a place in the Super 8s. It is likely that his declaration fell on deaf ears, and with reason.
Not only was there nothing in his two years of service to indicate that such progress was deliverable — he has won just two of his six games in the Championship — but greater history suggested otherwise as well.
It is 22 years since Meath last competed in an eight-team Division 1 group. Since the League was streamlined into four divisions in 2008, this is Meath’s 11th season in 12 years in Division 2.
The exception was 2013, when they spent a spring wandering the footballing badlands of Division 3.
As a result of two teams being promoted and two relegated, there is a 50 per cent change in an eight-team division annually. With that in mind, it is actually quite the achievement that Meath have occupied the safe middle ground for 10 of the last 11 years.
Mind you, especially given Meath’s size and place in Gaelic football history, that is hardly something to shout about.
But that is all set to change on Sunday. Barring a sequence of results which would see Donegal beat Kildare and Meath suffer the mother of all defeats — Fermanagh would need to win by 10 points at Navan — McEntee’s Royals are heading back to the game’s top tier. There is little doubt that the arrival of Nally as coach has had a profound impact. According to reports, the Dubliner has brought a freshness to training which the players have responded to. Dundalk goalkeeper Gary Rodgers has also been added to the coaching team. In recognising the need to changes things up in his management team, McEntee has trusted his well-honed managerial instincts. A member of Sean Boylan’s All-Ireland winning panels of the late 80s, leading Meath back to the good old days has always been his driving force. He made the most of his opportunity as manager of the county minors when he led them to the 2012 All-Ireland final, where they lost to Dublin.
He got over the All-Ireland-winning line four years later with Dublin club Ballyboden, an achievement that opened the door for him to succeed Mick O’Dowd in late summer 2016.
The step-up has hardly been stress free. The job as Meath manager has been made all the more testing given that the Royals, like everyone else in Leinster, are now living in Dublin’s world.
That might go some way to explaining the turnover of players, many of whom were disillusioned by the lack of success — the absence of Donal Lenihan, who has opted out, the most significant miss this year.
That is why this year’s run in the League has been so important to morale, even though no one is likely to be running away with themselves just yet.
There is a sense, though, that this is a group which is now benefiting from stable government.
While McEntee has given 28 players game-time thus far, his starting team has a settled feel to it. Ten players have started in all six games and while the loss of Lenihan is a blow, it has been somewhat compensated by the return of Mickey Newman, who was unavailable last year due to injury.
The latter has provided the team with a reliable freetaker — of the 1-25 Newman has racked up this spring, four points have come from open play.
Critically, there is now a clearly defined spine to the team, from Conor McGill at full-back, Donal Keogan at No 6, the midfield pair Brian Menton and Shane McEntee, Ben Brennan at centre-half forward, all the way through to Newman at full-forward.
That is the kind of stability which Meath have not enjoyed in the recent past. It has helped facilitate a transitional phase which has seen the likes of Ronan Ryan, Ethan Devine, Gavin McCoy and Darragh Campion all exposed to a sustained run in a winning team.
And there is a sense that Meath football is getting its Royal identity back.
The one notable change this spring has been how they have tightened at the back.
In McEntee’s first two years, they were conceding an average of 15 points per game through the League but that has dropped to 12 points this season.
That is as much about attitude as it is about organisation.
In the final minute of the critical game against Kildare, it was another of the fresh-faces who made an impact.
Niall Kane threw himself on top of a Kildare boot and suffered a dislocated elbow for his troubles.
More than the points on the table, a Meath team putting their bodies on the line is testament to the pride which McEntee has restored.
“Meath have
some of their identity back”