Take Five from Meath's narrow loss to Kerry

FERGAL LYNCH takes a look at five aspects of last Sunday's narrow loss to Kerry that caught his attention.

 

IT'S THE HOPE THAT KILLS YOU

After Meath's inaugural steps into the world of the Super 8s last summer the overwhelming feeling was that the big days were on the way back.
That was despite losing to Mayo and Donegal by nine points and shipping a 10-point defeat to Kerry in Navan.
Fast forward a few months and those green shoots of positivity are starting to bud once more with Sunday's performance, when going down by just three points to a strong Kerry side, offering plenty of hope for the future. 
Meath manager Andy McEntee has insisted that Meath will be a better side at the end of this NFL Div 1 campaign even if relegation back to Div 2 is the inevitable outcome. At this stage and it is hard to argue against that claim.
Players that might not have expected much game time have been launched into the firing line and for the most part they have performed well.
Of course the display against Donegal a few weeks ago will ensure doubts remain, but if progression continues then maybe, just maybe, we can start to consider Meath as a regular top eight side once again.
 

BLACK CARDS

Sometimes you'd pull your hair out at the application of the black card rule.
It seems you can swing out of a player's neck and pick up just a yellow card while a tangling of legs in midfield which results in a player being taken down warrants a 10-minute spell out of the game.
Cillian O'Sullivan picked up a black card four minutes into Sunday's clash with Kerry and it had a devastating effect on the outcome.
The 'foul' took place inside Kerry's own half and could hardly be described as cynical, yet O'Sullivan was sent-off for 10 minutes.
Late in that spell David Clifford scored what proved to be the killer goal. Clifford was involved in another incident in the 46th minute when he pulled a Meath player to the ground around the neck, yet he only picked up a yellow. What was the difference? O’Sullivan's was deemed cynical, Clifford's dangerous!
At that stage Meath had closed the gap to 1-8 to 1-11 and if Kerry had been reduced to 14 men the outcome might have been completely different.
Referee Derek O'Mahoney did issue black cards to two Kerry players late on, but as Andy McEntee suggested after the game “it's easy to dish out black cards in injury-time”.
All we want is consistency from the men in black.
 

MEATH SUPPORTERS

Killarney was awash with green and gold on Saturday night and it wasn't Kerry supporters that were taking the town by storm.
Against Mayo the Meath support was badly, and sadly, lacking. The home supporters in Navan that day were outnumbered by the visitors and the noise levels were very much in Mayo's favour.
Last Saturday night the loyal, hard-core Meath fans made their presence felt in Killarney and the general consensus from the good folk of the Kerry town is that they were well-behaved and added great colour and voice to the wonderful place.
The Meath supporters in the 8,500 crowd also got behind the team brilliantly in Fitzgerald Stadium and even when the game looked to be running away from the Royals the Meath army never gave up and they were almost rewarded with a shock win.
 

STRENGTH IN DEPTH

The one positive outcome from Meath's extensive injury list is that players who might not have expected to get much game time in NFL Div 1 have found themselves thrown into the limelight. 
Meath's injury worries are well documented and even one cocky member of the Kerry press suggested that while Kerry weren't going particularly well “thank God it was only Meath we are playing”. She nearly ended up eating her words as Meath produced a fine performance and while they ultimately fell short and look doomed to relegation there is plenty of optimism.
Andy McEntee did lament the injury crisis in his post-match musings.
He was delighted to get Donal Lenihan back on the field, but he admitted it was like “one step forward and two steps back" when it came to the injury crisis with the news that Shane Walsh had tweaked a groin in training during the week.
Walsh isn't expected to be a long term casualty, but another injury disrupted his progression.
There is also bad injury news for Shane Gallagher and Ben Brennan as both picked up knocks in a challenge match against Armagh and in training respectively and could be out for some time.
 

CHRONICLE CHOICE

Any one of five or six players could be considered as Meath's most outstanding performer in Killarney against Kerry, but for sheer consistency and impact on the game Donal Keogan was once again magnificent throughtout (apart from his 10 minutes in the sin-bin!). Defensively sublime, Keogan was a constant threat galloping forward and chipped in with a superb goal for good measure. He could have had a second goal, but was denied by a fine save.
Almost every positive passage of play from Meath saw Keogan at the centre of it.
He inspired those around him to greater things and his presence is crucial if Meath's progress is to be maintained.