‘We would be very disappointed if we don’t get out of this group’

PART ONE OF OUR TWO-PART INTERVIEW WITH THE MEATH MANAGER

As he finished his chat with the media at last week's press night ahead of the start of the All-Ireland SFC series Meath manager Colm O'Rourke recounted a poem from the great Patrick Kavanagh who hailed from Inniskeen, the venue of the Royals opening match against Louth.

We borrowed the loan of Kerr's ass

To go to Dundalk with butter,

Brought him home the evening before the market

And exile that night in Mucker.

On initial analysis the poem seems far removed from the helter-skelter and white-hot heat of championship football, but maybe Kerr's Ass brought O'Rourke's mind back to a simpler times when he foraged the fields for gold and glory.

The game of Gaelic football is almost unrecognisable from that which O'Rourke and his fellow Meath masters of the late 1980s and early '90s played. No doubt he still yearns for those simpler times, but now as a manager the Skryne legend is aware that Meath need to adapt.

The Leinster SFC final was a prime example of how much the game has transformed. Conceding kickouts with every player back inside their own '45' was Louth's way of frustrating the all-conquering Dubs.

O'Rourke accepts that needs must, but he doesn't expect Louth to adopt a similar approach when the side's meet on Kavanagh's home sod next Saturday.

"In the game against us in the league here Louth were quite defensive and that game was tight, it could have nearly gone either way," recalled O'Rourke.

"They created several very good goal chances and we were fortunate that we didn't concede a couple of other goals.

"Louth are hardly likely to run back to the 45 and give us the kick-out as they did to Dublin for all of the game last week.

"It was a most unusual sight in Croke Park to see, even when Louth had a free up one side the only player in that half of the field was the free-taker.

"It took Dublin quite a while to work it out. Louth will hardly be fearful of our attack to the same extent as Dublin. We have worked in training, over and over and over again in trying to break down mass defences.

"I thought in some of the game tonight (a challenge against Roscommon) that we were a lot better at it, especially in the second quarter, so we have improved in that regard.

"However nobody has found a key to fully breaking down the mass defence, apart from maybe Dublin. So we want to keep at it, we think we've improved and we'll see it in Inniskeen whether or not that's true.

"The big problem for us, and everybody knows it, is that we haven't been able to get beyond 10, 11, 12 points in big games. That is the task for us, we have to improve our scoring rate. A serious team has to get 1-16, 1-17 in big games to win them.

"We have to solve that part of the puzzle. We have got better at defending, now we must be able to score.

"On the bare look of it they (Louth) did a lot better against Dublin than we did. They defended very very well and they set Dublin very many puzzles and it took them a long time to figure them out.

"From their point of view they'll probably take inspiration from the game. Normally you lose a provincial final you're on a bit of a downer, but Louth probably came out of the game feeling much better about themselves maybe than at any time this year.

"We do realise they have improved significantly but we are hopeful that we also have improved."

When the draw was made for the All-Ireland SFC series Meath no doubt were pleased with the outcome, but Monaghan, Kerry and Louth would also have seen it has a huge opportunity to progress to the knockout stages.

Kerry will be hot favourites to top the group, which means that one win could be enough for two of the other three teams to advance.

Meath, Louth and Monaghan will all hold realistic ambitions of beating each other and while O'Rourke joked about needing a win over Kerry he did admit that Saturday's game against Louth is huge.

"We would be very disappointed if we don't get out of this group and we would be looking to win. Everybody has to win at least one game, we'd be hoping that we can beat Kerry anyway, we also have a couple of other difficult matches too," said the manager with a smile.

"We are very optimistic that the team is improving, that we're in a healthy place, that they're in good form and that we should be able to qualify," said the manager.