Meath’s Ronan Jones escapes the attentions of Dublin’s Con O’Callaghan during Sunday’s Leinster SFC semi-final at Croke Park. Photo: John Quirke / www.quirke.ie

McEntee left to rue slow start again

When travelling back to Level 7 in the Hogan Stand after the post-match interviews in Croke Park following Sunday's lop-sided Leinster SFC semi-final clash between Meath and Dublin, some of the national papers’ reporters remarked that “the fight had gone out of Meath manager Andy McEntee.”

Maybe they were expecting fire and brimstone from the Meath boss when he came into the dimly light auditorium following Sunday's 13-point defeat, but what they got was a subdued McEntee who was distraught after watching his side fail yet again on the unforgiving stage of Croke Park.

McEntee sat slumped in his seat as LMFM's Brendan Cummins began the interrogation and in fairness to the Meath boss he fielded the questions with an honesty and acceptance that could easily have subsided to anger and frustration.

For the second year running McEntee had to face the inquisition after watching his side implode in the opening half and he admitted that the poor first-half showing left his side with too much to do

"It is disappointing, same sort of performance as last year and a similar result," reflected McEntee.

"Very poor first half, a lack on contact in the middle third, Dublin got up the field far too easily and got so many scores unopposed, it looked all too easy.

"I don’t know why we had such a slow start, it was something we had talked about. These things happen and sometimes it is hard to put your finger on it."

Even in his worst nightmares on Saturday night McEntee could never have envisaged a 15-point deficit at half-time and he was left to lament his side's very slow start that left them in the blocks as Dublin rushed to the winning line.

McEntee admitted that Dublin were simply devastating in their delivery of quality ball into their dangerous forwards and he exonerated his inside defensive line of much of the blame for the concession of so many first-half scores.

"Everyone knows you need to get out of the blocks quickly against them. They can build up a lead very quickly, they just did it all too quickly and easily, that’s the bottom line," he said.

"They (Dublin) were pretty ruthless, the guys on the inside line I wouldn’t blame them too much, I think the ball coming in was too good. Dublin had too much time on the ball outfield, we weren’t applying pressure, there wasn’t a physical edge to our game. There was very little about the opening half that you would be happy about."

McEntee did make three substitutions at half-time to try to inject some life into his faltering Meath side and while the new players did offer something different the game was long gone by that stage.

"Some of the subs offered us a little bit and gave us a little bit of momentum. You would expect any team that was 15 points behind to go out and have a go in the second-half. The disappointing thing is that we didn’t have the same appetite in the first-half when the game was still a contest," he said.

Frustrated as he was by the poor performance McEntee was just as annoyed by what he perceived to be two very harsh red cards for Jack Flynn and Jordan Morris.

Meath are already nursing a number of injuries and they will now be without Flynn and Morris for the qualifiers.

"I was very surprised with both of them (red cards). With Jack Flynn, Cooper got the ball and turned straight into him, he might have slightly mistimed the tackle and caught him, but was it a red card?," questioned the manager.

"I had a very good view of the second one for Jordan Morris, it happened right in front of me. Yes it was a lack of discipline but he put two hands on the guy’s chest and he (Lee Gannon) goes down like he’s been shot. The referee buys that and sends Jordan off, there has been an awful lot of physical contacts out there today and guys didn’t lie down."

With Morris and Flynn out and after suffering a 13-point defeat McEntee will have a tough task to pick his players up for the first round of qualifiers in a couple of weeks time, but the manager believes that the players have to make a decision about how much they want it.

"Guys have a decision to make now how much they want this. We have a big challenge to get guys back," remarked McEntee.

So was Sunday's defeat down to a lack of desire of is the weight of some of the heavy defeats of the past still lying hard on the shoulders of the Meath players.

"I don’t think it is a desire things, you see the effort that lads put into it. They obviously have the desire, but having it and doing it on the day are two different things," said McEntee.

"It is an unforgiving place out there, it’s very public. When things don’t go right for you it can go against you very quickly, especially against a team of that quality.

"I guess that is possible (that Meath are still haunted by the heavy defeats of the past), we have suffered at Dublin’s hands, not just in my tenure, but before that as well. There are a lot of guys who have been there for a lot of those defeats, so it is a possibility."

So are Dublin a better side this year than they were last year? "I think physically they are in better shape than they were last year, but until it is put up to them you don’t really know," said McEntee

"I thought they looked in really good shape and our lads found it very difficult to cope with the pace of the game in that first half," concluded the Meath boss.