Royals rattled by dominant Rebels

There was no happy return to his home ground for Mick O’Dowd as his Meath side were soundly defeated 3-13 to 0-13 by Cork in a SF challenge at Skryne today.

The former Skryne captain made a number of changes during the course of the game but could only watch as his side were steamrolled at times by the pace and power of the Corkmen.

Meath led briefly in the early stages but they trailed 0-6 to 1-8 at the interval and struggled to make an impact in the second-half.

David Bray top-scored for Meath with three points while Ratoath pair Byran McMahon and Joey Wallace scored two apiece. Shane O’Rourke, Bobby O’Brien, Andrew Tormey, David Larkin, Sean Curran and Paddy O’Rourke also pointed.

However at no stage did Meath carve out a clear-cut, goal-scoring opportunity. Among the Meath players who sat this game out were Kevin Reilly, Graham Reilly and Conor Gillespie.

Donal Og Hodnett came on as a substitute and scored two second-half goals for Cork while John Hayes also hit the net. 

The Munster side fielded a strong team wth players such as Daniel Goulding and Paul Kerrigan playing significant roles in the win.

Jimmy Geoghegan.