Gavin’s silence shows he’s not the man I thought he was
O’Byrne success would nourish Royals
MARTIN O’NEILL got to briefly chat with Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke when he paid a dashing visit to Dundalk IT this week, and the Republic of Ireland manager clearly strained his neck in looking up at the 6ft 5in inch giant kitted out in front of him. Without moving too far left or right, and just flailing his arms and legs around, O’Rourke (right) would probably save as many shots at goal as the average Premier League shotstopper. But he will not end up in England any day soon. Instead, he will spend the best years of his adult life waiting in goals to see if Meath can beat Dublin in a Leinster final, something which also looks unlikely to happen any day soon. Small steps will be the only way forward. Tomorrow, in Newbridge, a victory in the O’Byrne Cup final over a Kildare team moving at a fair pace themselves for so early in the year would represent forward movement for Meath team boss Mick O’Dowd. Win or lose, the game will be forgotten as soon as Monday morning’s newspaper reports are tossed to one side in the rival counties, but winning rather than losing, at a time of year when it is just as easy to lose, will nourish Meath more than Kildare. And Meath look the only team out there in Leinster who have any legitimate reason to believe that they can chase down Dublin. With Laois and Kildare both troubled by failing to meet the highest expectations of Justin McNulty and Kieran McGeeney in more recent years, and now having their heads refilled with the thoughts and fancies of new managers, only Meath seem set to begin the business of clearly distancing themselves from the pack and becoming Leinster’s No 2 team. There should be evidence of this happening in Newbridge. Even though the visitors have beaten three college teams in their four fixtures in the month of January, they have turned the heads of their tired and grumpy supporters. There’s a swiftness of legs and hands and ball which is interesting — and the long diagonal ball into a far off corner of the field (a Meath trademark) has been less in use these last few weeks. Meath are playing like a team which intends picking up speed, but history still tells us that when Meath go off the boil it normally takes 20 years for a new Meath team to come good and take back Leinster and get their hands on the Sam Maguire Cup. Paddy O’Rourke is 24 years old. In 2019 it might be 20 years since Meath’s last All-Ireland victory, and Paddy will be 30 and, finally, full of the joys of life.