ROYAL PAIN
Dublin 3-19 Meath 0-12 LEINSTER SFC 1/4 FINAL Dublin dominate Meath but O’Rourke says he expects a positive response
Daire McDaid takes the game to Laois on Saturday night
COLM O’Rourke says there is “no quick fix” for Meath football after watching his side die a long, slow death in yesterday’s Leinster quarter-final encounter at Croke Park.
The fans voted with their feet as just 21,445 turned up and many of them were there for the camogie double header beforehand.
It left an eerie atmosphere at Croke Park as Dublin pulled away with relative ease after a game Meath showing, which still resulted in a 16-point defeat.
Dublin could afford for Stephen Cluxton to cough up five first half kick-outs and a couple more after the break, on his first start of the season.
Cluxton wasn’t picked in the starting line-up, but the 42-year-old replaced Evan Comerford, who played in the League final defeat by Derry.
Michael Fitzsimons also started in another pre-game change, while the third nine-time AllIreland winning Dublin legend, James McCarthy came off the bench to a big roar from the home crowd.
The job was done by the time McCarthy appeared in the 49th minute.
Lead
Dublin built a five-point lead by half-time at 1-8 to 0-6, playing into the breeze.
There were two main factors in that. Sean Bugler took around nine steps for his 20th minute goal, when Meath probably should have fouled him and didn’t after Ronan Jones had lost the ball and Niall Scully countered hard.
The other factor was linked to that. Meath kept kicking the ball away with skipper Jones and Darragh Campion giving three away apiece.
They also had seven first half misses, three of them efforts dropped short, which you can’t afford at this level, while Dublin had four first half misses, all wides.
Dublin were always able to keep the Royals at arm’s length as Meath struggled on their own kickout in the second half.
There was very little movement for Billy Hogan as the capital side pressed up with three banks of four.
There was plenty for Meath to work on ahead of the beginning of next month’s All-Ireland series.
“Well, there is no doubt the response will be positive,” said Colm O’Rourke. “They are an ambitious group.
“It was a stark reality check for them to see how far they have to go – just in case anyone was losing the run of themselves. We haven’t closed the gap on Dublin at all.
“But these players are ambitious and they are willing to work hard and as I keep saying a lot of them are very young and lacking experience.
“I still think we will get a lot better over the next year.
“I think we will even be better by the time the Sam Maguire comes around. (I) just hope we are not drawn with Dublin.
“There is no quick fix on
Meath football. It is not as if we have been dominating at under20 or 21 level.
“We haven’t been in a final (All-Ireland) for 20 something years, or a senior club final in
Leinster in over 20 years.
“It’s not as if we have this vast pool of highly qualified winners out there that we can just draft into the team.
Action
“We’ve set ourselves on a course of action on a team that we knew was not going to be properly competitive in the short term.
“But in the belief that within two to five years that this group will form the backbone of the Meath team for a continuous period of team and they would be a lot better then.
“It was a fairly sharp reminder of what football at the very, very top level is. And that we have to get bigger, faster, stronger, cuter – all of those things. We’ll work on it.”
Meath lost forward Shane Walsh in training during the week to a broken metatarsal, which will see him sidelined for eight to 10 weeks. They also replaced the goalie from their win over Longford, Sean
Brennan, with Billy Hogan.
“Sean has had a bit of a problem with his knee for the last few