‘Strength and fitness better than last year’

WITHOUT at least half a dozen potential starters from last year for a variety of reasons, Meath boss Andy McEntee (below) said the loss of so many players hasn’t set the county back, following a runaway win in the O’Byrne Cup at Pairc Tailteann. ‘I don’t think the changes in the panel have set us back,’ McEntee said after the 18-point victory. ‘All the new additions have added something to the panel. They have brought an enthusiasm, an appetite and a workrate that I couldn’t complain about. ‘The likes of Luke Moran, Liam Ferguson, Eoghan Greene and Conor Dempsey coming in there are applying themselves remarkably well in training. Mark McCabe has had a really good outing there today also. As regards the panel, I’m really happy with the players that we have. I think we are a little bit further on from a strength and a fitness perspective than we were this time lastast year. ‘We are playingngcatchother catchup with a lot of other counties. It wasimyo important the players came back to us pretty much in the same condition as they left following the All-Ireland d qualifier defeat at to Donegal. To be fair to them, thee vast majority did that.’ t.’ McEntee admitted that they hadn’t got to where they wanted to be in his first year at the helm, but they weren’t a million miles away. ‘I think everyone was disappointed with last year, but it wouldn’t have taken a lot more for it to be a good year. Had we got another point in the league it would have got us into Division 1 - that would have been a good year. Another point against Donegal in the qualifiers would have got us into the next round and that would have been a good year.’ Meath now take on Longford in a semi-final in another home tie next Sunday and at this early stage McEntee is happy to get in as many competitive games as possible prior to the start of the Division 2 league campaign against Roscommon on the last Sunday in January. ‘I’m more than happy to have games. You don’t really know where you are until you get games and II’mm gglad to have that game next Sunday. ‘You need match fitnes fitness and we hav have a number of lads who are coming ba back and you co could see it out the there, lads who had hadn’t played in a while, so game games will bring them oon,’ the manager ager conc concluded.