O’DOWD: WE MUST PUT IT UP TO DUBS
MEATH manager Mick O’Dowd admitted that his county’s waning status in Leinster has done Dublin — or the Leinster Championship — no favours.
Former Mayo player and current Roscommon coach Liam McHale recently laid the blame for the uncompetitive nature of both the Leinster and Connacht Championships in previous years at the door of those counties who have fallen away in terms of competing for honours. For Roscommon and Galway in Connacht, substitute Meath and Kildare in Leinster.
And while Galway have shaken up the formbook by ambushing Mayo in the Connacht semifinal, Meath’s outsider odds have never been longer for a derby game against Dublin, 14-1 a talking point in and of itself.
‘I think Dublin need strong competitors in Leinster, whether that be Meath, Kildare, Laois or whoever it is,’ said O’Dowd.
‘They need it — you see Ulster Championship games so far this year, one-sided games. The top team in those provinces, they want strong competition and Dublin want it and obviously we want to be back as contenders.
‘Whatever about shouldn’t, the reality is I agree we did,’ admitted O’Dowd of Meath’s fall from grace. ‘We have no excuses in the county: we have the population, we have tradition and club structure.
‘While other counties were raising their standards of preparation at underage level and senior level we weren’t for a while and that was compounded for a while by constant change of manager at senior level and other issues at underage level.
‘I think we are beginning to get those things right, joining the dots so to speak. We have to be honest and say we didn’t have the standards that were required as the competition was moving on and we are trying to sort that out now.’
In O’Dowd’s first year in charge, Meath led Dublin at half-time in the 2013 Leinster final only to eventually succumb by seven points. 2014 was a 16point rout though, 3-20 to 1-10, and then came last summer’s Leinster semi-final trauma of losing to Westmeath for the first time in Championship history.
O’Dowd admitted that a connection is in danger of being lost with the supporters on the back of those latter results. ‘Year one I thought we had it. The defeat to Westmeath last year I think we may have lost some of that connection, there is no point in saying otherwise. ‘We probably need a big performance against Dublin to rebuild that connection but I would say the supporters that know what is going on within the county are very supportive.’
Asked if the 2014 Leinster final hammering was the lowest point, he replied: ‘I suppose subsequently Dublin did that to a lot of teams.
‘Last year against Westmeath wouldn’t be something you would be recapping on either. Those few days wouldn’t be good memories.
‘I always look to these things, there is learning there. If the team has the right unity and spirit and you are together about what you are trying to achieve you will learn something from the defeats.
‘How was the present Dublin team formed? The leaders of the present Dublin team, they will tell you about the bad days they had against the Kerrys and Tyrones. I don’t think anyone gets a straight line to success. You have your rocky patches and it’s how you deal with them.’
At a time when a 25-year anniversary edition DVD of the Dublin-Meath four-game saga in 1991 has been issued, O’Dowd has his own personal memories of the series.
‘I was doing my Leaving Cert. I remember it was the first time of the open draw and when it was made I knew it was in the middle of the Leaving — the Leaving started on a Wednesday, game on the Sunday,’ said O’Dowd.
‘I felt I wouldn’t be going but by Sunday morning I was going. That was a magical month, a really special Meath team, probably the last great year of that particular Meath team.’