Burke calls on Meath supporters to "stick with us"

Longwood's Mickey Burke has made a clarion call to Meath supporters to 'stick with us' as the players in green and gold seek get their All-Ireland SFC campaign back on track.

On Saturday evening Meath host Sligo in the All-Ireland qualifiers at Paric Tailteann, 6pm with the game coming two weeks after the Royals were pummelled into submission by Kildare at Tullamore.

The poverty of Meath's performance that evening drew considerable criticism from their disappointed supporters. 

Some of the criticism heard cascading down from the terraces and stands was said to be personal and abusive although immersed in the helter-skelter of the game Burke heard none of it. 

'I didn't know that now to be honest,' he said as he talked to reporters at a media event in the Newgrange Hotel on Tuesday morninig ahead of Saturday evening's showdown.

'All I can is that every lad in there is giving everything he can, everything in their tank, trying to do the right things, the culture is very good, the effort is very good from all the lads and there is a good buzz between the management and the players.

'That's maybe easy for me to say, the buzz is great and fill ye boys up with all of that, but it is. The lads are doing their best and as I said numerous times like a broken record is that the boys are giving it everything they have.

'They wake up every morning look themselves in the mirror and if you don't win well, you have bad days you lose games but the lads are trying, a lot of good lads in there, boys like Adam Flanagan who were on the minor team in 2012 who worked with Andy (McEntee) a lot of those young lad are coming through, they're 22, 23 now, James McEntee those kind of guys, Podge Harnan, really good lads, really, really good lads. 

'I would ask the supporters to stick with us we are doing our very, very best.' 

Now Burke and his colleagues will seek to gain some sort of redemption when they face the Sligo side in what is the first ever championship meeting between the teams.

Pointing to Meath's disappointing record in the championship in recent years he talked about how the team needs to be getting more than just two or three championship games in the summer to justify all the effort put in - and help young players develop and become accustomed to the dog-eat-dog world of inter-county football. 

'It's hard to take, it's not good enough,' he adds.

An important part of the healing process following a bitter defeat, he adds, is to 'mourn' for a few days before getting back on the horse again and moving on.

He saw how Tipperary built up a head of steam last year and made it to an All-Ireland semi-final. Why not us? Burke wondered. 

The Longwoodman outlined how the team was 'down' after the defeat to Kildare but the two-week break helped to restore tired limbs and bruised morale. He would have been concerned if they were out the week after the loss to Kildare. 

Burke found himself in the thick of the storm for much of what was an uncomfortable, hot evening for the green and gold. He, and his defensive colleagues, were charged with trying to halt what proved to be a brilliant Kildare forward division that included Cathal McNally, Daniel Flynn and Paddy Brophy who clocked up 2-9 between them. 

'I think the two-week break helped, I would be a bit worried to be honest if we only had a week's turnaround but it's given us a chance to look at the (Kildare) game, do a couple of hard training sessions, talk about the game and move on.

'We did our video session, like everyteam and had a good chat about it but, look, there's no point sugar-coating it, it was very disappointing let's be honest about it. It was disappointing and I was right beside them as well makes it that little bit harder, yeah it was tough but we're trying to focus on Sligo and move on.'

Burke pointed out how Kildare scored 1-10 in the first-half, with seven of those from turnovers, a damning statistic as far as Andy McEntee's side is concerned. 

'We can't be doing that,' he said before adding that he thinks deeply about his football with a defeat like the one against Kildare cutting deep. 

'I would think a lot about my game, sure you're giving your life to football as all the boys are, yeah you're down in the dumps for a few days. Then you look out the window upstairs (in his family's Longwood pub) and you see boys in Kildare jerseys downstairs going into the pub, you'd be hiding from them!'

Burke is looking forward to playing back in Pairc Tailteann and he's hoping the game against Sligo can be a first step in building up momentum.

He points to how in 2009 Meath got better and better in the qualifiers (eventually losing out to Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-finals) and he's looking to do the same again although the primary task now is getting the better of Sligo. 

When he watched the Yeats County take on Mayo in the Connacht SFC Burke noticed how they went 'ultra-defence' in that game and he's expecting them to do something similar on Saturday.  'Then maybe not,' he adds, emphasising that Meath have to be ready for anything Niall Carew's side might throw at them. 

One thing Meath simply can't afford to do, he adds, is give the ball away like they did against Kildare. NO TURNOVERS is clearly the message Meath players have been told, in no uncertain terms.  

Burke also points out, with justification, there were some good things produced by Meath; some creative, enterprising football, there just wasn't enough of it. Now there's a chance to produce even more good stuff and wipe the slate clearn.  

With over 10 years on the inter-county front behind him Burke tends to look at and examine more than just his own performance. After the Kildare game he sought to look at the bigger picture. It didn't make for a pretty sight. 

'No, I think I'm gone by the days at looking out at myself, I did have a duty, that what I was assigned to (mark Niall Kelly who didn't score) and follow where ever he went, to annoy him, just irrirate him, do whatever I had to do. If I had played bad and Meath won that would have meant more, he would. 

'He (Kelly) is a good footballer and it was nice to do ok on him but you would rather be winning the games, I'm never going to get much praise anyway, you're a corner-back, you're in there to be roasted.'

He recalled how he would watch and carefully study Enda McNulty when he played for Armagh.

Burke carefully observed how McNulty, the archetypal tough defender would 'hound lads for a hour,' high-profile forwards eventually breaking their spirit but he never got any praise. Backs don't get praise was Burke's message. 

'You're in there to be cleaned really, yeah but I'd rather win the games,' he added wistfully.

Kildare were better, much better, or as he put it 'hopping off the ground.'

Now Meath, he says, simply have to re-focus and take on Sligo. 'It's going to be sticky, but I'm looking forward to it all the same.'

The players, he adds, will be giving it everything - and the supporters should do the same. 

 * Tickets for Saturday's game are available in Jack Kiernan's, Navan as well as SuperValu and other outlets.