London calling for Meath hurlers

During a sparkling, success-filled career in which he won eight All-Ireland SHC medals and four Allstars, Kilkenny hurler and current Meath selector Michael Kavanagh, who has played hurling all over the world, has never showcased his talent, or even watched a game, in McGovern Park, Ruislip, the home of London GAA.
Next Saturday he will have a chance to put that right when the Royal County travel to the west London ground for the second game in their NHL Div 2A campaign.
The team will travel over on Friday afternoon just to ensure that by the time Saturday's contest (which starts at 1pm) comes around they won't be suffering from any travel-lag. 
It's the kind of forward, 'professonal' planning you would expect from this management team and which was seen on Sunday as well. Hearing that the dressingrooms at Newbridge were a little on the cramped side the Meath panel stopped off at Kildare's nearby academy grounds at Hawkfield to 'tog out' before making their way to St Conleth's Park.
The Meath management didn't want a situation where one set of players were putting on their playing gear in one dressingroom while another group were in another small dressingroom. It was about preparing for battle together. As it turned out the dressingroom at the Newbridge have been expanded with an internal wall taken down making two dressingroom areas into one. 
Buidling up that esprit de corps was a central part of Brian Cody's philosophy and it's part of the Meath ethos as well. Whether it had a significant part in helping Meath carve out a victory on Sunday is open to conjecture, but something worked. 
Now it's onto London and one thing is guaranteed in Ruislip - a warm welcome and a rugged, tough, hurling game against the home team. 
Former Kildalkey player Fergus McMahon has stayed on as London manager and on Sunday he watched as his team were defeated (1-13 to 2-30) by Kerry at Ruislip.
The large defeat is an indication of the problems he faces in trying to put a competitive team together, but with more games London are likely to get stronger.
They will look to players such as Brian Regan, Alan O'Leary, Martin Duggan and Fergal Collins to try and spark a response against the Royal County.
Meath also have their own problems going into the game with Damien Healy taking a hefty blow to an eye in the closing stages of Sunday's battle and he could miss out.
Joey Keena's hamstring "tightened" against Kildare and according to Nick Fitzgerald the Kilmessan man is a "major doubt" for the London tie while Niall Weir also took a knock. 
Despite the heavy defeat to Kerry the Meath manager is certainly not taking London for granted. As if to reinforce the point that complacency is not an option, he points to how his team endured something of a fade-out in the second-half against the Lilywhites. Work still needs to be done is clearly his point. 
He wasn't happy with the amount of frees his side gave away at Newbridge and will be working on a much better level of discipline against London. Meath's chasing and closing down was exemplary for much of Sunday's game and a similar workrate will be required in Ruislip.
The Royals should have enough to see them over the line in the pleasant surroundings of McGovern Park.