TWO GOOD TO GO DOWN
It’s life of Reilly for Royals in 2nd tier for 11 of last 12 years
AT this stage, Meath occupying Division Two competes with death and taxes as life’s certainties.
In this the 12th year of the current League format, they’ve been in the second division for 11 of them. In 2013 they won promotion from Division Three after relegation the year before. Graham Reilly’s career pre- dates all of that, the St Colmcille’s man having been called into the panel as a raw teenager in 2007, which proved to be quite a baptism of fire.
“I was 17 and Trevor Giles was finishing up,” he recalls. “Graham Geraghty was playing, Darren Fay. Boys like that, who were at the end of their career.
“I came in when Graham Geraghty had a go at a certain player, that was my first training session,” he laughs. “I was only coming out of minor.
“Yeah, that was my first hello to Graham Geraghty. It was a bit of a setback, I was only 17 and right beside it. I was just glad I wasn’t marking Graham!”
Geraghty left the panel at the time only to return and spearhead a run to that year’s All-ireland semi-final. They reached another semi in 2009 and there was the flawed Leinster title a year later but Meath have largely flattered to deceive in the last decade.
They’ve slipped from beating Dublin in Championship football to being competitive against them and then, more recently, wholly uncompetitive, all while struggling to break out of Division Two.
“If our performance levels aren’t up there, we’re not good enough just to be average,” Reilly insists. “Sometimes you’d see Dublin probably playing below par and still winning games. This Meath team can’t do that. And we know that. Our performance has to at the top or else we’re not going to win.
“We’re not naive. We as players – we’re a young enough team as well, we are progressing well, and maybe two or three of us are getting on a bit, like myself.
“But the rest of the lads are all 23, 24, 25, so they’ve loads of football ahead of them.
“I think Andy [Mcentee] is just trying to get that consistent performance, consistent workrate, to get us results.”
They started the League with a decent win over Tipperary, followed by blowing a winning position against Donegal last Saturday, with Armagh coming to Navan on Sunday.
Reilly adds: “I’ve played Armagh so many times and if you’re physically not ready for Armagh you’re going to get blown away. Armagh are probably the most physical team I’ve played in the country.
“Their players would be in your face and aggressive in their tackling. You get the ball and you know you’re going to get hit straight away, simple as.
“And they always had very classy forwards, they still do. We have to be mentally and physically ready for Armagh. If we’re not, Armagh will beat us.”