July 11th last marked a dozen years since Joe Sheridan scored the most controversial goal ever recorded in Croke Park. A guess would be hazarded that even at this stage Meath supporters are sick talking about it.
Yet in recent days, once again, it has been returned to for comparative purposes. You see, only weeks after guiding the county to a first provincial title in nine years, Eamonn O’Brien was relieved of his position as Meath Senior Football Manager.
A grotesque insult to the Walterstown native. Somebody who had given decades of glory-laden service to the county. As a player, under the management of his brother Mick, and, then, years later, as a selector with Sean Boylan.
Last week, a similar fate befell erstwhile Tipperary hurling manager Colm Bonnar. Now, unlike Eamonn when he was shafted, Colm hadn’t won anything with the Premier County, even at the end of their odyssey for this term it was clear the building blocks for a project were in place.
As if that wasn’t enough to fuel misgivings about Bonnar’s dismissal, seeing Liam Cahill parachuted into the job only a week later rubber stamped them. However, from a neutral perspective, maybe the most disconcerting feeling is that July isn’t even finished yet, the inter county season is all but finished and the arrangements being put in place won’t be of any relevance for at least six months.
Utter lunacy. On several levels. Firstly and most obviously in terms of the way Bonnar has been treated. Also, mind you, because the inter county season is being wound up, but the mere fact that the process – which has culminated in Liam Cahill taking over from Bonnar last night – was put into place with such rapidity that it wouldn’t take Einstein to figure out such moves had been afoot for quite some time.
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All the while, similar matters in other places remain in lazy limbo, which in itself will lead to a further negative domino effect as matters which should have been dealt with long ago will set operations elsewhere back too. Meaning that what could and should have been a period of excited anticipation has become one of fretful angst.
From a personal perspective, what is magnifying upset felt at a portion of the above is not having what has always been the safety net of choice for as long as wheels have turned here.
Compounding matters is the fact that it is in fact not what might be the most obvious circumstances close to home which have upset the apple cart. Rather, a combination of a banjaxed wheelchair and a sickly driver thereof.
That is to say, a wheelchair throwing serious gearbox issues and yours truly eventually getting walloped by Covid after dodging the rotten thing for 28 months. Meaning that both cuts of silage and the start of the grain harvest went on without me.
Not to mention club GAA matches, the Meath ladies victory over Donegal in Croke Park and several functions in RehabCare. But I would be lying if it wasn’t admitted that missing out on the farming hurt more than all the others combined.
Being honest, it’s at this point matters regarding one’s operations close to home kick rather painfully. Accentuating the feeling of not belonging to that whole world anymore. Which in turn adds so much baggage to what’s already there, silage sides would get hard to hold in all the load.
And, regretably, gut instinct is to feel things will get worse before they get better. Simply because, in a little more than ten days time, the GAA season as we know it will be over until when? Next February most likely.
Which, speaking for myself at least, leaves an awful lot of time to be filled in and not the foggiest notion as to how exactly that will be done. Already, a few projects have been begun and the confidence to finish them can be felt ebbing away.
Having said all of the above, it would take very little to turn things in a much better direction. The darkest hour may well be just before the dawn, but, on a lot of fronts, there is no sense the torch will be in line for retirement anytime soon.
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