Meath's lady footballers an inspiration for everyone

Among those from the Royal County who were willing Meath to victory over Dublin in the Ladies All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park a few weeks ago was Conor Farrell, the captain of the Navan senior rugby team.

Farrell had a number of good reasons for hoping Eamonn Murray's team would land the big prize.

He's a proud Meath man for starters, but there was also the fact that on the panel for that historic win was his sister Aoife Farrell, who also turns out for Simonstown Gaels at club level. The achievement of the Meath ladies is something, Conor asserts, that can be looked towards as an inspirational story for teams and individuals, no matter what sport they follow.

"What they achieved was unbelievable because they moved from being a good team to becoming a brilliant, exceptional team. That was some journey," he told the Meath Chronicle.

"They are a group of players who work so well together, they are so well drilled, just a very good team in every sense of the word.

"I saw Aoife going out for training, the hard work she and the others put in, their preparation was first class. What they did was truly inspiring all right."

If he had concentrated on Gaelic football instead of rugby, Conor might also have made a big impression in the game.

Instead he focused on rugby and he has reasons to be proud of what he has achieved so far in the oval-ball game.

He is the owner of "seven or eight" international caps having played for Ireland at u-18 and u-19 levels. Not only that he captained Ireland four times in the u-18 grade.

Yet for Farrell, a back row player, there was clearly much more to wearing the green than just trying to win matches.

"It's a great honour and privilege to be picked for your country and to be named captain was obviously a nice bonus, it was a really great experience.

"The training camps, going to places like Paris and London and Cardiff to play games, but you also make great friends for life."

Working as a Dublin-based tax adviser, Farrell and his family have a strong link with Navan generally and the local rugby club specifically.

His mother Annmarie and father Colm are from the town. Colm played in the Navan colours and the current senior squad includes two of Conor's brothers - Mark and Cillian. Another sister Ellen plays camogie for Navan O'Mahonys.

Conor turned out for under-age teams at Balreask Old before moving on to Lansdowne where he played in the AIL Div 1A for a season.

He spent 18 months with Toulouse in France before returning to Navan just over three years ago.

He helped his home-town club win successive promotions from divisions 2B and 2A, but if he plays against Malone on Saturday it will be his first game in the AIL for almost two years, and his first in Div 1B.

A lingering shoulder injury added to other knocks and bruises had sidelined him last year even before Covid.

Now fully fit, he is eager to get back to action yet he knows what to expect once the whistle blows and the new campaign gets underway in earnest.

"I played in Div 1A with Lansdowne, but playing in Div 1B can still be a shock to the system because we will be coming up against teams who will have professional players.

"When Navan played Malone last year they had five or six players from the Ulster Academy, Banbridge the same, the same with the likes of St Mary's, Belvedere.

"They will all have academy players who might train four days a week and have a game at the weekend as opposed to someone just training on a Tuesday and Thursday."

He knows that in 1B the games will be invariably frantic, helter-skelter affairs where split-second decisions can make the difference between victory and defeat.

"It's about making decisions on the fly. Hopefully they will be the right decisions.

"We are stressing that in training, putting lads under pressure the same as opponents will and in that way reinforcing how to make the correct decisions while you are tired.

"Getting to grips with that is all part of playing at this level," he concluded.