Very few survivors from 2010 debacle
RESPECTIVE managers Mick O’Dowd and Colin Kelly will likely be in close proximity to each other as they man the sideline during Sunday’s Leinster SFC quarter final clash at Parnell Park - just as they were when the counties played out that infamous provincial final in 2010.
What’s he on about, one might ask? Ironically though, the pair were sitting beside each other that day, as the Meath boss recalled ahead of Sunday’s encounter.
‘Just by chance I was sitting beside Colin that day. We were in the Premium level. I know Colin but we weren’t at the game together. We just ended up sitting beside each other,’ O’Dowd said.
And his memory of Joe Sheridan’s ‘goal’? ‘I suppose my memory of it is I think it was when we’d come out of the actual stand that we saw the goal up close on the TV. Obviously you saw from a distance what was going on, but sure, look, enough column inches has been written about it at this stage.
‘No doubt it will be mentioned ahead of Sunday, I don’t know how many of our team would be … Mickey Burke was injured I think, Paddy O’Rourke and Graham Reilly were involved. I’m not sure how many of the Louth team were involved at that stage.
‘You know, it’s just one of those games in history that’s spoken about a lot by both sets of supporters particularly, and written about by journalists and understandably so.’
For Sunday O’Dowd has his fair share of injury worries with Conor McGill almost certain to be out with a shoulder injury while there are also major concerns surrounding the fitness of a number of other players including James McEntee and Brian Power.
The loss of Ratoath man McGill could see Meath having to come up with a makeshift fullback to fill the void.
However O’Dowd pointed out that Meath managed to win the O’Byrne Cup when McGill was unavailable last January and views the full back role different than what it was in former years.
‘It’s such a different role these days. You see Dublin with Rory O’Carroll gone playing different fellas in there, depending on who they are coming up against.
‘Generally it’s not the traditional three man full back line with a big man full back, it’s generally two inside, depending on who those are you can have a bit of a variety in there.’
Despite failing to make a real impact in the NFL O’Dowd feels that the campaign was of real benefit to his men.
‘I think it was brilliant, it was really good for us and the nature of it,’ O’Dowd continued. ‘I go back to our last league game two years ago up in Drogheda and it kind of meant nothing to anyone really, while this year our last league game was like a championship match down in Portlaoise.
‘The previous Sunday we headed to Derry and we had to get a point up there. We heard Armagh had got a point against Tyrone the night before, so we needed to get something.
‘Seven intensive games in 9/10 weeks, yeah, it was brilliant for developing the squad.’
Meath though haven’t had a competitive match since that Laois game which ensured their division 2 status for another year, almost a 10 week gap to the championship.
Not an ideal scenario according to O’Dowd.
‘When you get to the semi-final of Leinster you’re guaranteed a quarter the following year so that means we have a mid-June championship start. It’s not ideal, and not ideal at club level, we can do it better.
‘It’s easy to be another commentator, saying we should be doing this, we should be doing that. There’s a lot of good people in the GAA doing good stuff but it’s probably the one thing we need to really invest a bit of time thinking about. There’s not too many sports that would take a 10 week break from competitive action in the middle of the season. That’s literally what we’re doing.’
The Wee County have been a little more active with a NFL division 4 final against Antrim and an opening round championship match against Carlow.
Louth have had a great league,’ continued O’Dowd. ‘Their target was to get promoted back to Division 4, they did that, went to Croke Park, won the final against Antrim and kicked off the championship with a big win against Carlow, scoring 2-24. I’m sure they’ll be very happy with how the season is progressing for them.
‘We’ve got to see them up close, they’ve got really good forwards and a defensive structure in place maybe that they didn’t have last year. They are in good shape and I’d say they are looking forward to getting stuck into Meath as well.’