Controversial Leinster title success still holds pride of place for Reilly
TAKE Dublin’s all-conquering cast out of the equation and Graham Reilly is one of only two current players to win a Leinster senior football medal on the field of play.
Still just 29, Reilly has a dozen years put down, which made the long wait for promotion to Division 1 all the sweeter. While the recent Division 2 final against Donegal didn’t go to plan, Meath can look forward to the company of Dublin, Kerry and Mayo in 2020. It has been a long time coming.
‘I’ve been 12 years playing intercounty football for Meath. Playing Division 2, even one year playing Division 3. Promotion was massive. Winning a cup would have been the icing on the cake. It’s not as if we went out there not wanting to win it. We wanted to show the game up in Ballybofey wasn’t a once-off. Let’s be honest, Donegal are a top-six team. They have been for the last seven or eight years. That’s the level we want to get to,’ said Reilly.
‘I watched the game back. The first 40, 45 minutes, we were absolutely brilliant. If we played football like that for 70 minutes, we’d be a match for all the top teams.
‘The thoughts of Dublin coming to Navan next year, or Mayo and Kerry, or us going to Croke Park to play Dublin – that’s massive. It will give the whole county a lift. You’ll have twice the crowd at a Meath-Dublin game than to a Division 2 game. But we’ve parked the League now, it’s all about Offaly.’
Which leads on to the fact that he shares that opening distinction – in terms of a Leinster medal – with Ross Munnelly of Laois.
Since 2005, the Blue Wave has buried all challengers, bar 2010 when Meath came out on top in the most contentious of Leinster final finishes against Louth.
That was a day Reilly earned an individual accolade to go with an elusive medal, never thinking that there wouldn’t be plenty more days like this.
‘Over the last 12 years, I’ll be honest, I’ve had a lot more downs than ups with Meath football. 2010, winning the Leinster title – even though a lot of people probably wouldn’t think we did win it – I still have that Leinster medal. That still means a lot to me,’ he said.
‘I’ve been part of Meath teams that have been in All-Ireland semi-finals, quarterfinals. When I first came in with Meath [in 2007] we got to an All-Ireland semi-final. Then 2009, we were in an All-Ireland semi-final. In 2010 we won a Leinster title. As a young lad, I was just thinking, “This is the Meath way.” And for the next three or four years we were in Leinster finals against Dublin. But we haven’t been there in the last few years.
‘The big picture is getting to the Leinster final and then the Super 8s. But we’ve three tough games before we get there.
‘Offaly will come to Navan looking for a scalp. We’ll be very hot favourites to get to a Leinster final and probably play Dublin if they get there but we’re not looking that far at all. That’s miles down the road.’
Meath sticking five goals past Dublin in the 2010 Leinster semifinal – the last time the five-in-a-row chasing All-Ireland champions lost in the province – wasn’t even the most headline-grabbing aspect of that landmark summer campaign.
For the footballer who plays his club football with St Colmcille’s in Bettystown, right on the Louth border, he was only too aware of the fall-out from Joe Sheridan’s matchwinning goal. But the medal holds pride of place in the Reilly house for good reason.
‘I’ve a minor Leinster medal and I’ve a senior Leinster medal and they are both sitting beside each other at home. I won the minor in 2006 and the senior in 2010. For another reason, they are special. I got man of the match in the minor final and man of the match in the senior Leinster final, so I’ve the two trophies there as well.’
This spring, he’s had to live with making his main contributions off the bench. It was his raking diagonal pass to Conor McGill that led to the late penalty that swung the crucial promotion game against Kildare, and his second-half goal played a key part in tilting the succeeding Clare game in Meath’s way to all but complete that long mission to reach the top flight.
‘The Kildare game was obviously a big game. I don’t think we led the game once, until we got the penalty. It shows the determination of this team. That’s probably a game we would have lost the last couple of years,’
Although Offaly are next up early next month, the shadow of Dublin hangs over everyone else, in Leinster and beyond. ‘Dublin have won how many Leinsters, 10 of the last 11 or however many it is? But I think they’ve been the best team in the country the last seven or eight years, not just the best team in Leinster. Us and Kildare and other Leinster teams are trying to get up then to the level of All-Ireland champions, not just Leinster champions,’ he said. ‘It is a big step. Looking at Dublin’s League form, they were beaten three times but I wouldn’t read too much into it. They were away on holidays and were probably only at 50 or 60 per cent fitness.
‘I do think teams are getting closer. I can’t see it not being a competitive All-Ireland Championship. Whether it’s a competitive Leinster, it’s up to ourselves, Kildare or the likes of Laois, Westmeath or whoever to make