'I’m just so proud of our own lads and their spirit, character and effort'

Manager Giles heaps praise on brave side

Cruel, devastating, unfair and heartbreaking all can be used to describe sport in its most purest competitive form. People will say, well that's sport for you and while it is true, it is so difficult to summarise Meath’s loss in the Leinster MFC final to Kildare as ‘that's sport for you’.

In fairness to Meath manager Trevor Giles, he made no complaints in his post-match interview and is intent on not dwelling on the devastating result on Friday in Portlaoise for too long.

“It is tough on these young lads to lose a Leinster final that way. It is tough on adults. They will be fine though, and we knew that was the system. Those are the rules at the moment, there is extra time and penalties. We have an All-Ireland quarter-final to look forward to in two weeks so we will get over tonight and focus on that,” said Giles.

“We showed great character. We got that two-pointer after they scored the goal and we also scored a free from a tight angle. They are great lads, they work-hard and are down to earth. They are competitive and they have great character. Six weeks ago in Skryne, Kildare kept us at arms length and we didn't really get close to them. I’m delighted with the players tonight and the team's improvement over the last few weeks is a credit to the coaches as well. I'm very proud, we nearly had it won in normal-time and extra-time but we will recover from today.”

Giles went on to speak about the element of luck involved in both Meath’s first-half goal and the goal that Kildare got in injury-time. He was also gracious to the Meath fans who gave so much support to his young Royals.

“Our first goal had an element of luck about it. Their goalie dropped the ball and Liam O’Donoghue popped it in. For their goal, we got a block on the initial shot and it just fell nicely for Tennyson. You have to be in the right position and he was there and took the chance well so fair play to him. We got a couple of blocks away during the game but they went straight to Kildare lads. I felt there was nothing between the teams really,” said Giles.

“There was a huge Meath support here tonight and it was a great help to the lads. I got loads of messages over the last few days wishing us well. There was fantastic support around the county for these lads and I think everyone is very proud of them.”

One of the major elements of Friday’s contest was some of the officiating by the Westmeath referee Enda Kelly. His decision to award Kildare what transpired to be the equalising free deep into injury time was regarded as particularly questionable. However, Giles had no complaints about the official.

“When you lose a game, there are always five or six reasons of our own about stuff that we didn’t do well enough before you get to the referee's decisions. I’m sure he got a lot of decisions right as well. I have refereed underage Go Games and it is not an easy job. I have no issues with refereeing tonight, I’m just so proud of our own lads and their spirit, character and effort.”

Harry McGuirk’s penalty which was saved in the shootout was particularly heartbreaking and Giles praised the young Navan O’Mahonys star before he drew on his own experience of missed penalties. McGuirk, Giles and the Meath minors will have to pick themselves up for an All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Cork.

“Harry (McGuirk) is our leader and captain and he plays that way. We are delighted to have him. I’ve missed penalties myself in All-Ireland finals. In 2001, I missed one when we were five points down. If I scored, we would have been back to within two points but after I missed it, the game got out of our reach and we were beaten by 10 points. So I am not one to talk about penalties. It is a tough thing to score. Listen we need to focus on the 80 minutes of play where we were absolutely fantastic in,” said Giles.“The fact that we have an All-Ireland quarter-final to play makes a massive difference. In the old system, when I was playing, if you got beat in a Leinster final, that was the end of your campaign. We have two weeks to get ready for Cork now. The lads are disappointed in there but we will look after them and so will their parents and families.”

Giles concluded by saying that the experience from the Leinster MFC final and from the whole campaign will be invaluable to his young squad. He also reiterated how proud he was of his team.

“We will have played at least eight matches this year and that all helps massively with development. All those games are against good teams. A disappointing night is when you don’t perform and when you are not up for it or you don’t compete. Those are disappointing nights. Tonight we turned up and gave it everything and we were brave enough to try out things, make some mistakes and go again. We are very proud of the lads tonight and so too are the Meath supporters. It is great for the young lads to have that respect from the Meath fans.”

As gutwrenching as the defeat was, the Meath minors campaign is not over yet and they will pick themselves up for an All-Ireland MFC quarter-final clash with Cork who defeated Kerry in the Munster final.