Meath impress as preparations get underway for new season

'Tis the season to be jolly and while many around the country were recovering from the excesses of the 12 Pubs or still suffering after a work Christmas party or celebrating the return home of a loved one for the festive season the Meath players were being put through their paces in an entertaining, hard-hitting physical challenge against Mayo in Pearse Park Longford on Sunday.

At this time of the year the result is almost irrelevant and can often be misleading and indeed dangerous, but for Meath manager Robbie Brennan it was a pleasing outcome and certainly a worthwhile exercise as his side continue preparations for a season ahead where they will no longer be camouflaged by the long grass associated with the underdog tag.

The facts of the match are that Meath won 0-29 to 3-13. Brennan used 25 players in total with plenty of household names and newcomers all impressing as the fit and firing Royals used the huge wind advantage they enjoyed in the second-half to kick 24 points of their final tally to seal the win.

No team list was supplied for Mayo, so it's hard to know just how strong the opposition was, but with the highly regarded Kobe McDonald in their half-forward line the Connacht side were good enough to use their wind advantage to open up a 2-11 to 0-5 interval lead.

Full disclosure - the game was scheduled for a 2.30pm start, but when we arrived at 2.10pm it was already underway. Mayo had requested an 2pm start and that was facilitated and by the time wer got in Andy Moran's side were already 1-4 to 0-3 ahead with Meath's early scores apparently coming from Aaron Lynch and Ruairi Kinsella.

Lynch went on to finish with nine points, including three two-pointers, while Kinsella went on the rampage in the opening minutes of the second period to bring his personal tally to eight points which included three two-pointers in quick succession that helped turn Meath's 12-point interval deficit into a lead which they never relinquished.

Mayo added two points from frees and a late, late goal from a speculative ball into the danger zone which was punched to the net, but other than that Meath were in complete control.

It was a solid first outing of the new season for the Royals and with other challenges coming up this week ahead of a few days off for Christmas before a return to action with more challenges and the O'Byrne Cup, Brennan can be pleased with the depth of his squad.

Meath were missing up to 18 players. Some like James Conlon, Jack Kinlough, Ronan Jones and Bryan Menton are still following the return to play protocol following long term injuries. Others were in Dingle celebrating James McEntee's wedding, while a few more were still working on their fitness and conditioning to get up to the pace of football at this level.

Brennan can be pleased with the impact players like Killian Smyth, Cian McBride, Shane Gibney, Gerry Dwane, Charlie O'Connor and Ross Ryan made as they seek to make sufficient impression to work their way into an established panel that reached an All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

"That was a good workout overall. Conditions are so bad there with the wind, it's very tricky, so it was definitely a game of two halves, but we're happy the way it finished out in the end," reflected Brennan before focusing on the bigger picture.

"The new lads coming in all fitted in well. We would have seen some of them through the club championship and through the Regionals, it was great for the likes of Shane (Gibney) and Rian (McConnell), there's loads of guys there.

"There was a wedding over the weekend, there's a few boys missing and things like that. So, the whole purpose is to try and strengthen that squad and that's what we're still trying to continue to do.

"We're still very much in that pre-season mode and trying to get as much work into the lads as we possibly can. There will be a few more challenge games and, obviously, you're running into the O'Byrne Cup then.

"We'll give the lads a few days off over Christmas and let them have their turkey and their stuffing and get back then ready for January and then it's just a blink of an eye and you'll be on the bus heading for Croke Park to play Derry in the league, so it's exciting, great to look forward to."

While there is a lot of hard running still being done in Dunganny and in the gym Brennan emphasised just how important it is to get games under the belt as team continue to work on game plans and ways to exploit the new rules.

"Playing challenge games like this is massive. No matter what you're doing in Dunganny, in Navan or wherever you're training, to be able to implement it in a full game, with opposition doing stuff that you don't know about, it's massively beneficial to us.

"It's still great to get those kind of games in and we need a few more before the league starts.

"The lads are at the bottom of the hill again now and that's the first step of it today, the first game out of the way. If we don't add to what we did last year, we'll be under pressure.

"I think the game will develop this year. Maybe not necessarily through the league, but as the summer kicks in, I think you'll see different tactics from different teams.

"We're trying to be to the forefront of that as much as we possibly can. Little by little, layer by layer.

"We're still trying not to forget all the good work that we got through last year and all those improvements, so we're trying to rep those again and make sure they're in the memory bank. Then any little bit that we're trying to add tactically, we're doing that slowly.

"We're not back that long, so we haven't had much time to work with the boys, but there's still a good few weeks to do that and we'll keep doing that when we can. "The players are all very focused and in decent shape. When they went back to the clubs after the end of our season we are trying to make sure lads are staying on top of things so that there's not a drop when we come back in. Obviously, there's always a little bit of rustiness in that.

"There's no old wintering well, like back in our day, where you really go off and have your few pints and your grub and all of that. You have to come back in shape and thankfully, those guys are in that mindset to do that.

"We've no hard and fast rules about guys doing that kind of stuff (having a few pints the odd time). We leave it up to themselves to run their own lives. They're all adults, they know what to do and when to do it. They're a good bunch. They're a very close group together and that's the way it finished last season. We're just trying to encourage that this year.

"So whether that's through a few pints or a few coffees, whatever they decide to do, that's up to themselves," concluded the manager who can head into the festive period full of the joys of Christmas.

The Meath team that played Mayo on Sunday was: Sean Brennan; Brian O'Halloran, Sean Rafferty, Jordan Muldoon; Killian Price, Sean Coffey, Ciaran Caulfield; Cian McBride, Jack Flynn; Cathal Hickey, Ruairi Kinsella, Mathew Costello; Aaron Lynch, Thomas O’Reilly, Diarmuid Moriarty. Subs - Shane Gibney, Gerry Dwane, John O'Regan, Conor Gray, Adam O'Neill, Charlie O'Connor, Saran O Fionnagain, Rian McConnell, Ross Ryan, Oisin Martin.