Great to see Meath back in the fight with real shot at Super 8s, says Giles
OUTSIDE of Dublin, everybody is looking for cracks in the armour of the All-Ireland champions.
Trevor Giles played in an era when the Leinster Championship was truly democratic, when it wasn’t reduced to an exercise in accounting as the current holders chase an historic nine-in-a-row of titles to go with the momentous bid for a fifth All-Ireland in succession.
It’s 20 years since Giles won his second All-Ireland with Meath, a time when Dublin were to be respected but certainly not feared.
After a spring in which Jim Gavin’s team didn’t make the League final for the first time since he took charge in 2013, Giles ponders the question whether the champions are finally starting to show some vulnerabilities.
‘It’s the big question,’ he says, particularly among Meath fans, who saw their own county secure promotion back to Division One for the first time since 2006.
‘They’re wondering, “Have Dublin come back a little bit?” Maybe they have, maybe they haven’t. Maybe other teams have moved on.
‘We just haven’t seen that in other years, Dublin losing three League games. Look at Con O’Callaghan playing with UCD and losing a Sigerson semi-final, look at Paul Mannion and Cian O’Sullivan losing a Leinster club final.
‘So some Dublin players are starting to experience defeat. Maybe they’re human after all! Then it may fuel them, too. You could argue either way. Those are just things that didn’t happen in other years, the general public are excited about the Championship this year, they see it as being more open.
‘It was a massive win for Mayo winning the League, that has to do them a lot of good but, at the same time, when they played Dublin in the League they were second best. Kerry the same, and other teams.
‘There’s just a bit of excitement this year. In other years you’d watch your own team and maybe not a lot of the rest because it was predictable. This year it’s more interesting thankfully.’
Up in Croke Park to promote the Leinster GAA Beko Bua Programme which seeks to reward best practice within clubs across the province, Giles can see a few counties with the potential to emerge from the pack. ‘I’m sure the likes of Derry will come back. Their club football is really, really good. I’m sure other teams will come back into the mix. ‘If Meath could get themselves into a top six, that’s the trick for us,’ added Giles. In terms of Championship progress, it’s not a case of Meath taking the challenge of Offaly lightly in the preliminary round, or Carlow in the semi-final if they progress, or the winners of Laois/ Westmeath in a potential semi-final. It’s just Dublin are the benchmark for any team with pretensions. ‘If you could get three wins in Leinster, a couple of wins would have to be here before you play Dublin. To be really competitive with Dublin would be progress. ‘If you don’t win that game... bounce back in the qualifier game and make the Super 8s. That would be a really good year. ‘There’s probably six or seven of those places locked up but, in terms of the last two places, Meath have to be in the conversation along with four or five other teams.’ Given Meath’s struggles this past decade and more, does Giles (below, playing for Meath in 2004) cherish his medals all the more? ‘Ah you do, you look back and you’re grateful you were around at the time you were. You see the work that Meath players are putting in at the moment, they’re training harder than we did but to much less reward. ‘Back in the ’90s, you had ourselves Dublin, Kildare, Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and Louth were handy enough. Good crowds and no second chance, your season could end on any given Sunday. ‘It would be great if it was like that again, that competitive. Yeah, you cherish the medals, we only won three Leinsters but they were hard won, and two AllIrelands. You just look back and say you were lucky to be there at the right time. The Meath public look back on those days fondly. ‘When you’re reminded of that it’s a nice thing to have within your own county.’