Early knockout blows left Meath on the ropes

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" is a well worn quote from Mike Tyson and it couldn't have been any more appropriate than in Pairc Tailteann last Saturday as Meath were knocked out early on by a devastating flurry of blows from Carlow.

Off the back of running Carlow close in their NHL Div 2A relegation dogfight just a few weeks earlier, Meath felt they were well placed heading into last Saturday's Joe McDonagh Cup opener.

Manager Nick Weir and is highly-regarded management team had a plan in place to go one step closer than the three-point loss that saw Meath relegated in the league.

Training had gone well, confidence was high, the mood in the camp was electric and Meath were chomping at the bit - within 11 minutes it was all over. Despite playing with a strong breeze at their backs Meath struggled to muster an attack in that quarter as Carlow blitzed them with an intensity, determination and single-minded focus that put the issue to bed almost as soon as it had started.

Weir cut a frustrated figure as he saw his best laid plans unravel in front of a disappointingly small attendance for a huge championship match in Pairc Tailteann.

Post-match there were no excuses - there couldn't be. Meath were hammered by a team that was light-years ahead of them in terms of touch, striking, intensity and style. Every Carlow attack, every transition from defence was structured, well-worked, accurate and executed at a pace Meath couldn't match.

Weir held his hands up after the game and admitted he didn't see that performance coming from his side.

"A very difficult day is right, hard to take to be honest," said the Meath manager.

"I didn't see this one coming. Everything was going so well in the camp training wise, lads were putting their hands up for places and positions.

"I said it to the boys last Thursday night at training that it was probably the hardest team we had to pick in a long time.

"However, it doesn't work out like that all the time. When they cross that white line the responsibility is on the boy's shoulders after that, it went really astray today altogether."

That opening blitz that left Meath battered and beaten was hard to stomach and Weir didn't hide his disappointment as he struggled to understand why his side hardly mustered an attack in that early spell.

"We were playing with a nice strong breeze in the opening half and we didn't even get the ball over the bar in those opening 11 minutes, I don't think we even got it inside the 21-metre line.

"Then we were chasing the game, and when you are chasing a game like that against a team like Carlow who looked like a team that had stepped up another level or two since the last time we played them, we were really up against it."

To Meath's credit, and they do deserve praise for refusing to throw in the towel even when they were hanging on the ropes, after that initial flurry which left them trailing 0-1 to 2-6 they were competitive for the remainder of the opening half, staying with Carlow from there to the short whistle, 0-9 each.

However, after losing the opening half 0-10 to 2-15 they conceded another 2-15 in the second period and managed just seven more points as Carlow kept their foot on the throat and rammed home their supremacy.

After a hiding like that Weir and his management will have some task on their hands to lift the team ahead of next Saturday's trip to Tullamore to face Offaly, but they have proved in the past that when their backs are against the wall they often come out fighting - and Weir will expect a response.

The manager is aware that if a side like Meath under perform then they can expect a thumping, but he is also confident in his players ability to bounce back and he is hopeful of a response next week.

"It is a great competition, but if we are not on our game 110% then we are going to struggle, and that is what happened here today," recalled the manager.

"Carlow punished us with every opportunity. Four goals, 30 points, they never let up right to the final whistle and that is a credit to them.

"They had a goal coming up here today. They were nearly caught napping the last day here, but they really punished us today in every aspect.

"I hope we will see a bounce back out of the players next week. We said that in the dressing room there, that we have four games to redeem ourselves, eight points up for grabs. We have to take some positives.

"When these lads backs are against the wall they generally come out fighting and hopefully that is what we will see in Tullamore next Saturday."

On a more worrying note for the manager was a nasty neck injury picked up by Shane Whitty in the early seconds of the second-half that led to the Blackhall Gaels man having to be stretchered off.

Weir couldn't provide an instant update on Whitty's well-being, but he was released from hospital on Saturday night with swelling around the neck and is fortunate not to have suffered a much more serious injury.

Whitty's injury put Saturday's defeat into context for the manager and his thoughts were with his player in the immediate aftermath.

"At the end of the day it is a game of hurling and we are all volunteers doing it.

"We are doing it for the love of the game and it is something we all enjoy doing, so when you see something like that happen to a fella, it doesn't matter if it's a player from Carlow or from Meath, it brings it all back to reality.

"We are all in this together, the GAA brings everyone together and especially when something like this happens, so hopefully Shane will be good in a couple of weeks," concluded the manager.