Lack of discipline was a factor in defeat

ANALYSIS

During the opening half of last Saturday's Joe McDonagh Cup game at Ballycran something happened that is rarely seen in hurling - or indeed in any other field sport such as Gaelic football, soccer or rugby.

It occurred at a time when Down (who went on to win the game 1-27 to 2-16) were clearly fired up to put their marker on the game and get an early foothold.

They were attacking in waves, putting the Meath defence under pressure. With about 12 minutes played they launched another assault.

A Down player was making his way through the centre of the Meath defence when he was brought down amid a frenzy of flailing legs, arms and hurling sticks.

A free to Down indicated referee Patrick Murphy who along with his umpires had travelled all the way from Carlow.

However, before Down's marksman Paul Sheehan took the free the match official took out his his yellow card and flashed it to not one but TWO Meath players - James Kelly and Stephen Morris.

Two bookings, two tackles, one opponent, all within seconds of each other.

Kelly committed the initial foul, advantage was played, seconds later Morris was deemed to have committed an infringement on the same player, hence the two bookings at the same time.

It was unusual and was one of the decisions by the referee that caused some irritation from the small contingent of Meath supporters who made the trip up north.

The two for one concept was comical in once sense, but the incident had a more serious dimension too in that it underlined a problem, that in turn, undermined Meath's hopes of taking something from the game - a lack of discipline.

That's not to suggest that Kelly and Morris were the main perpetrators of such indiscipline. They weren't. They were diligent and committed to their respective duties. It's just that they were unwittingly caught up in this one, unusual incident.

Meath picked up five yellow cards on Saturday, but unlike Down they didn't have a player sinbinned - and yet the Royal County undoubtedly did themselves no favours by conceding frees.

They were generally for minor infringements - a push in the back here, an over-robust tackle there - yet they steadily accumulated and with a marksman like Paul Sheehan around Down took full advantage - and why wouldn't they. Gift-wrapped scores are generally not easily found in inter-county hurling.

That tendency to yield up frees in the white heat of battle was referred to afterwards by Meath manager Nick Weir. More than that he put it down as one of the chief reasons why his side ended up losing.

"The indiscipline, especially in the first-half was a killer, absolute killer, we've told the lads that those kind of fouls that were committed is what the referee is looking for," he said afterwards as he tried to put some sense on how the afternoon had panned out.

Missed chances were another bone of contention for Weir who felt his team registered some "suicidal wides" although Down also missed good chances.

Both sides hit 10 wides, which could hardly be deemed to be an example of an outbreak of squandramania, but it must have been intensely irritating for the Meath manager to see his team work so hard for scores only to let the opportunity of a score to pass.

On the credit side the overall Meath performance was miles better than they shown in the leagues games against both Carlow and Down.

Weir had asked for more "character" and "leadership" from his players and he got it.

"They showed great character in the second-half. When we had that purple patch (that included a goal) we really need to push on, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way."

Weir felt that his team didn't get many breaks.

"I did feel they got a lot of the softer frees that were going as well for stuff that we weren't getting frees for," added Weir.

"I think if you looked back on the game you would see that yourself. You probably get those kind of frees on your home ground but that's neither here or there now, fair play to Down they went on to win."

About 30 minutes before the throw-in Weir had brought his players to a corner of the field and gave a rousing speech; a real call to arms and he felt they responded. He picked out some for special praise.

"I thought James Toher was very good in the middle of the field, Mark O'Sullivan put his hand up as well," said Weir.

"Ger Murphy was given the task of marking McCrickard (Pearse Og) and he did very well.

"If everybody had the attitude Ger has you would be moving mountains, he is brilliant. He wasn't getting his game, but he kept coming back. He got his chance today and he took full advantage.

"The backs did well, but discipline was an issue, giving away frees."

So plenty of work for Weir to do this week as he prepares his side to take on Kerry on Saturday and no doubt he'll be making a clarion call to the players - keep your discipline, give nothing away.

* Members of the Down hurling fraternity Jarlath Donnelly and Dermot Donnelly were on duty and they were a great help to the Meath Chronicle in sorting out communication issues and details of the local team on a day when the local GAA folk in Ballycran showed plenty of warm hospitality to the visitors from the south - except on the pitch.