Players involved in club action
After all the furore of the Leinster SFC final it was back to normality for Meath football last weekend as the championships resumed with some interesting results and notable absentees. The most notable absentee was Meath captain Nigel Crawford. The Dunboyne man missed his club's shock SFC defeat by St Patrick's because of injury. However, Eamonn O'Brien's talismatic captain is not expected to miss Meath's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final on August Bank Holiday weekend as it is believed he sat out his club's game as a precaution. With Dunboyne already assured of a place in the Keegan Cup knock-out stages there was no need for Crawford to risk further problems. He had just returned to action for Meath following a back problem that had ruled him out for a few weeks. Another Meath player who was absent for his club's championship outing was Na Fianna's Jamie Queeney who was suspended. The Enfield/Baconstown club were expected to coast past Syddan, but they found the going tough without and struggled on the way to a 2-7 to 1-8 win. "We won't know how the players came through the weekend until they report for training," O'Brien told the Meath Chronicle on Tuesday morning. "Hopefully no one picked up an injury and every one should be okay. I'm really looking forward to getting back to training and preparing for the All-Ireland quarter-final. That is our sole focus now," said the manager. The rest of O'Brien's Meath panel did feature for their clubs, although the Navan O'Mahonys contingent were not in championship action. Instead they played Cortown in A FL Div 2 on Monday night and it has been reported that Mark Ward received a red card. Another member of the Meath panel to be issued a red card was substitute goalkeeper Davy Lyons. The Seneschalstown man was apparently red-carded by referee Joe Synnott following his side's SFC win over Blackhall Gaels. That game ended in confusion with the referee allegedly awarding a late penalty before changing his mind and blowing the final whistle. Following a subsequent goalmouth scuffle the referee showed Lyons a red card. Aside from Dunboyne's reversal against St Patrick's, the biggest shock of the weekend saw Duleek/Bellewstown dump pre-championship favourites Summerhill out of contention with a shock win at Dunshaughlin on Sunday. Rathkenny and Walterstown continued their unlikely march towards the SFC quarter-finals with impressive wins over Dunshaughlin and St Ultan's respectively. Champions Seneschalstown remain on course to defend their crown, they defeated Blackhall Gaels.