‘It’s a football county you accept that but at times it can be frustrating’

Saturday morning meant Meath hurlers were up and about early as they got ready to travel up North to a venue that has held little success or joy for Meath teams in the past - Ballycran.

It's doubtful however, any of the players or members of the backroom team were up and about as early as manager Seoirse Bulfin - or put in as many miles to get to the home of Down hurling located deep in the Ards Peninsula.

He left his home in Limerick at 5am and headed for Dublin where he met Mark Cooney, clearly another passionate hurling man who was named in the Meath team sheet for Saturday's game as a 'maor uisce' along with Gerry McLoughlin.

From Dublin Bulfin and Cooney embarked on the long journey up to Belfast where they met the players and the rest of the backroom team for a bite to eat.

From there it was onto the team bus and down past Newtownards into the Ards Peninsula, the home of hurling in the Mourne County; to Ballycran, surely one of the most difficult venues to reach in Ireland's hurling landscape.

Sure the locals are friendly and welcoming but once the game gets underway it's a different story. Hurling is a serious business in that part of the world - an integral part of some of the population's identity. So the county hurling team is very much representing them - and how they fare out matters.

How much it matters in Meath is another matter - the fortunes of the county team that is. Certainly, it could be argued, it doesn't matter as much in the Royal County as it does in picturesque places such as the Ards Peninsula. Some hurlers in Meath simply refuse to show up for the county team when they get the call. No thanks, they say.

"You could be doing worse on a bank holiday weekend," Bulfin added when asked about his horrowing schedule but behind the smiles there was a far more serious note struck.

It must be immensely frustrating for a deep thinking hurling man like Bulfin, from a county that is a superpower in the sport, to manage a team like Meath. It must be as frustrating too for the players who turn up week after week for training and games and give their all. Losing is no fun.

Bulfin touched on that frustration after Saturday's defeat. The fact that he is in charge of a group of hurlers in a county where football is king. Where trying to make some progress in the small-ball game, or at least bring the county team to the next level, must be like what the figure in the Greek legend, Sisyphus, felt like when he was condemned, as a punishment, to roll a huge boulder endlessly up a steep hill in Tartarus.

"It's a football county you accept that but at times it can be frustrating," Bulfin admitted after he had watched his side concede an early lead and succumb, inevitably, to another league defeat. Inevitable because Meath teams just don't win in Down.

He talked of how players come into the Meath camp, train for the league and championship, get plenty of opportunity to improve their skills. Then when they are finished it's back to the clubs, most of whom, he feels, are focused on football.

"That's a question I have been asking myself for the last couple of years now: how can things be improved in Meath? More work needs to be done in the schools but maybe it's a two-fold thing, a generational thing. If you take Eoin Donegan for argument sake, he's a real find this year, a good lad. He's in with us developing as a hurler but once he goes back to his club (Wolfe Tones) again they're very much focused on football, the same for the Na Fianna lads in with us, we have three or four of them this year. Again the main aim, once they go back, is football.

"They are not going to get the same standard of hurling when they leave the Meath set up and are back with their clubs."

The Bruff man looks at places like Ratoath, Ashbourne and Dunshaughlin and feels that in among the mushrooming populations there are plenty hurlers just waiting to be discovered, like pieces of gold in a river. It's a real resource that needs to be tapped, he feels.

For now he has his panel - and clearly his admiration for the players who turn up week in, week out runs deep. "I would do anything for those lads, they are absolutely fantastic to work with, so honest and willing," he added.

When all was said and done on Saturday at Ballycran Bulfin got on the team bus to embark on his long, long journey back home. A real hurling man looking to do his bit to spread the gospel.