Meath… 3-14
Wexford… 1-11
Outside of sport and farming, it might come as a surprise to some to know that my favourite other type of television is True Crime. Thus, Sky Crime, Crime And Investigation and CBS Reality are among the saved channels on the Sky Box.
Meaning that phrases like DNA and Forensic Invesitagation roll handily off the tongue. And the main thing which becomes apparent from even a loose understanding of that whole area is that DNA can be neither changed nor denied.
Meaning that, for all the travails Meath football teams have gone through in more recent times, what have always been the central fibres of our being still remain. Just a small bit under the surface.
Indeed, anyone doubting whether they were still interwoven into our makeup need only look at the matches played by our Minor and Senior hurling teams in the recent past. As good as they have been, though, last night in Chadwicks Wexford Park, there was one of the greatest chapters in our footballing history produced. Having seen all of their matches to date – either online or ‘in the flesh’, there has been a steady yet obvious pattern of improvement in their performances from one game to the next.
Even in the Dublin match, though ultimately defeated, they showed enough to suggest they were possessed of fortitude to take themselves a long way – this season and beyond – given the manner in which they worked their way back into the contest after a nightmare start. Not to mention going into a hostile bearpit against Louth and emerging with what looked like a most unlikely victory for the vast majority of the evening.
Mind you, if that resurrection seemed unlikely, even Martha and Mary would’ve got a fair land if they’d dropped into the land of purple and gold for the second half on Tuesday evening. Trailing by 0-04 to 1-08 at the break and with Harry Murphy, Michael Kavanagh and Rory Gilbert wreaking havoc, even the most fervently optimistic Meath supporter, cough, would get hard to see them extricating themselves from this particular mire.
But then, maybe it’s from more than three decades of watching Meath teams pull off the seemingly impossible the thickness, er, stubbornness, which manifests itself as ‘Tell me I can’t do something and I’ll make it my business to f*****g do it or bust a gut trying’ comes from. Yet even I was doubtful going to the well this time as to whether there were enough dregs to even partially fill a bucket.
Oh me of little faith. After Meath had slotted over a few quick points at the start of the second half to get the Slaneysiders back wiithin eyeshot, when the very versatile Cormac Liggan of Dunderry raised their first green flag it was a case of them not just being there to take part, they began to take over.
Gaeil Colmcille’s Andrew Gormley had kept the Royals afloat in the first half – with Billy Smyth of Skryne being their only other scorer. However, not for the first time, the introduction of Ben Corkery had a transformative effect on the visitors’ fortunes.
The flame-haired speed machine pointed within forty seconds of his entering the fray and also set Liggan up for that first goal to pour excellerant on the revival. Points followed courtesy of Gormley, Cian Commons, David Donnelly and team captain Eamon Armstrong.
In football terms, the foundation of any rebuild has to come from centre field. On that score, we are lucky that we appear to have another excellent generation afoot to continue the tradition of greats like Cassells, McEntee, Hayes, McDermott, McGuinness and Crawford. Hot on the heels of Conor Gray making a highly impressive senior debut against Tipperary, Commons and his sidekick Michael McIvor put their hands up in unison to prove the production line is stlll in fine working order.
Commons has caught my eye throughout their campaign to date. He has the complete package. An old style ball winner, impressively mobile for a man of his ilk who has also proven himself a prolific scorer.
For his part, Michael McIvor has been hampered by injuries at times during the run to date but, against that, when he has managed to stay sound, his influence has been growing with every outing. That fact reached a new plateau on Tuesday night when the man from Ardcath shook the Wexford net to put another coat of gloss on a truly brilliant second half effort.
MEATH – B. Colfer; O. O’Neill, J. Gormley, N. Maguire; B. Smyth (0-1), T. Sheridan, D. Donnelly (0-1); C. Commons (1-4), M. McIvor (1-0); E. Armstrong (0-1), C. Duggan, P. Crawley; C. Liggan (1-0), T. Lenehan, A. Gormley (0-6, 3F).
SUBS – B. Corkery (0-1) for Smyth, O. Maloney for Maguire, R. Crawley for P. Crawley, O. Yore for Duggan, L. Jennings for A. Gormley.
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