McDonnell has no real complaints

FORMER Louth hitman Ollie McDonnell has been on the end of his fair share of near misses against Meath, but there was nothing close about Sunday’s clash at Croke Park and the Reds’ boss admitted that the better team won.

‘They seemed to have too much all over the pitch for us. When they attacked they really looked like scoring and we struggled all over the field to contain them.

‘Wwe only had four points on the board 10 minutes into the second-half and we hadn’t missed a huge amount of chances. I think they missed more than we had.’

McDonnell conceded it was a frustrating experience on the sideline, while David Quigley’s sending off before the break made it even more difficult to affect the game with changes.

‘You’re looking on trying to figure out what you can fix but there were problems all over and they just seemed to be a better team on the day.

‘The sending off made it that bit more difficult. We were under pressure at that stage and I’m not sure what the score was, they were probably four or five ahead. We had to re-jig the team and it’s not ideal when you have to do that. We might have been able to stick closer to them if it didn’t happen and maybe if you nicked a goal you’d be still in it. But ultimately it looked like Meath had too much either way.’

The St Joseph’s clubman conceded that the occasion may have got to his troops, but pointed out that it’s very hard to tell.

‘When you play in Croke Park it’s a different experience for sure, but you just don’t know. It looked like that because we played better in the other games, but you’re never sure if it’s because the opposition are that much better than the other teams you played. But we probably didn’t perform as well today as we have done. Our kick-passes were intercepted and we looked slow coming out with the ball. It may have been nerves or whatever, but you just can’t be sure.

‘Overall we enjoyed the run. Sometimes you don’t get over the first round and it’s dead in the water before it begins, but we put together a good squad of fellas, who might be off the radar once they leave U-21 and they acquitted themselves well over the three games, even in the last 15 or 20 minutes today.

It was a good experience for them and they had a good attitude.

‘I thought Niall McCabe looked good at the back. Robbie Brodigan competed well in the middle. Willie Woods even though we didn’t get as much ball into him as we would have liked today and Aaron O’Brien impressed when he came on. I thought Ciaran Sheridan did well too on the wing and when we moved him back to centre half.’ MEATH didn’t quite scale the same scoring heights as Dublin in the main event at Croke Park on Sunday, but as a meaningful contest the curtain-raiser was done and dusted just as swiftly.

The Royals were hotly fancied going into the Leinster Junior decider and they duly delivered, storming into 0-8 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes.

If Louth were on the ropes at that stage, they hit the canvas with a thud in the run-in to half-time, losing David Quigley to a straight red card and shipping five points without reply to trail by 0-14 to 0-3 at the interval.

The Wee County were playing for pride thereafter and they restored some with a gutsy second-half display, despite their numerical handicap.

But the Royals continue to rule their neighbours with an iron fist and they didn’t really have to come out of second gear to land their first Leinster crown since the great unmentionable of 2010.

The deck was perhaps loaded in Meath’s favour with Louth operating under the same restriction as the Royals which limits their pick to intermediate and junior clubs.

In recent years Louth have been able to pick what was effectively their ‘B’ team in the Junior grade and that did level the playing field somewhat in their clashes with the so-called bigger guns in Leinster - Meath, Dublin and Kildare.

And yet this year’s competition enabled Louth boss Ollie McDonnell the opportunity to offer inter-county action to players who by and large have only played at underage level, while the fixing of the final for Croke Park was an added bonus.

However, as Westmeath will also testify, the vast open spaces of the hallowed turf offer