Meath players impress as Maynooth pick up opening win

GAA news

Maynooth University, featuring a sizeable cohort of Meath players, opened their Sigerson campaign with a narrow 1-22 to 1-20 win over St Mary’s at Davitt Park in Belfast on Wednesday.

The Kildare college led 1-11 to 1-7 at half-time, with Dunshaughlin’s Conor Duke in sparkling form in attack, and withstood a strong second-half comeback from 'the Ranch' before running out two-point winners.

Manager Aidan Minnock was impressed with the contributions of the Royals cohort. Along with Duke, Brian O'Halloran (Ballivor), Conor Grey (Dunshaughlin), Charlie O'Connor (Dunshaughlin) were all on the match-day squad, while Minnock confirmed that Royal seniors Eoghan Frayne and Ruairi Kinsella are currently on the injured list but hope to return later in the competition.

“Conor Duke had a very good game, he racked up a lot of scores. St Mary’s moved Finn Murdock (Down senior) on to him to man-mark him. The run with Meath last year is really standing to him, it brought him on. He’s got a great left foot, he’s a reliable freetaker and a two-point kicker,” Minnock said.

The all-Dunshaughlin midfield pairing of Grey and O’Connor also impressed.

“Conor Grey is really coming back to himself, for a couple of years there he didn’t really get a run at it but he has had a full pre-season with Meath this year and is injury-free, thank God,” Minnock said.

“He was our Freshers captain three years ago when we won the All-Ireland. He’s a huge man, athletic, he has great hands and he’s really getting back to his best.

“The two lads have worked well together at midfield, Charlie has done very well,” said Minnock, who also highlighted the contribution of O’Halloran, whom he described as “a typical old school Meath corner-back”.

“He’s a leader, he’s vocal and he drives fellas on. He was with the Meath U20s and was on the extended panel last year. He played in the O’Byrne Cup against Wicklow at the weekend.”

Next up for Maynooth is UCD on Tuesday in Belfield (7.30pm).

“Happy to get the win, it’s always hard to get a win on the road so we’re very pleased with it,” said the manager.

“We had a good league and then there was a bit of a gap in November and December so it was nice to push on. You’re going into it not sure where you are really after the gap – we had a few challenge matches and obviously training sessions but we didn’t have our full panel.

“So I’m relieved because you’d be on the back foot if you lost your first game.”