Home is the hero: Sheridan return to bolster Royals

The storm clouds that have hung over Meath football for the past two weeks produced a silver lining yesterday (Tuesday) morning with the news that star attacker Joe Sheridan will return to Ireland from Boston to help bolster the Royal County's Leinster SFC ambitions. Sheridan emigrated to the US on 12th March after Meath's NFL Div 2 defeat by Galway and following subsequent losses to Derry, Tyrone and Louth, Meath were relegated to NFL Div 3 and the pressure was heaped on manager Seamus McEnaney. Meath County Board proposed a motion to remove McEnaney from his position as senior football manager at a specially convened meeting on Wednesday last, but that proposal failed as the executive didn't achieve the two-thirds majority necessary. Within hours of securing his job as Meath manager, McEnaney made contact with Sheridan and negotions continued over the weekend to arrange for him to come home. One of the reasons for Sheridan's emigration was employment opportunities, but efforts are underway to secure employment for the Seneschalstown man back home and he is expected to return to Ireland before the end of the week. He will be back training with the Meath senior football team on Tuesday 1st May when the panel resume their preparations for the Leinster SFC opener against Wicklow later that month. Sheridan's first appearance in a green and gold jersey since his return is expected to be on Monday 7th May when Boardsmill GAA club will host a SF challenge between Meath and Westmeath to mark the official opening of their new grounds.