Runai Coiste Na Mi, Ciaran Flynn, posted a photo from the GAA awards ceremony this (Friday) evening showing the 13 Royal County representatives honoured on the night denoting the successes enjoyed by our Senior hurlers and footballers during the past season.
For the hurlers, that meant accomplishing the noteworthy double of achieving promotion in the Allianz National Hurling League before going on to lift the Christy Ring Cup for the third time.
In recognition of same, Seanie Geraghty, Simon Ennis, James Toher, Jack Regan and Eamonn Og O’Donnchadh were selected on the Champion 15 – basically the All Stars for teams in Ring, Rackard and Meagher Cup competitions.
Tonight, however, a magnificent season of achievement for our stickmen received even more merited commendation when the mercurial Jack Regan was crowned Christy Ring Cup Player Of The Year.
To any of us who’ve had the joy and pleasure of seeing the wizardry the Kiltale clubman is capable of with a hurl that would be no surprise. But it is all the more significant when one factors into the equation that the scorer-in-chief missed considerable time at the start of the season through injury.
Ironically, albeit to a lesser extent, the same could be said of the outstanding individual performer in our glorious Tailteann Cup run, Mat Costello.
Having starred in our resounding NFL opening round victory away to Cork, the Dunshaughlin forward was injured only days later playing for UCC in the dastardly Sigerson Cup. Thus, the flame haired flyer missed significant outings in the league which, had he had been available for them, could’ve left Meath’s league campaign – and thereby their entire season – looking decidedly different.
However, perhaps it is the case that whomever is in charge in the control tower up top does open a few other doors when closing one. Because, not only was Costello the only bright spark on a particularly bleak day against Offaly, his status within the team grew exponentially as the season went on.
So, as Sean Brennan, Adam O’Neill, Donal Keogan, Padraic Harnan, Conor Gray, Jack Flynn and Jordan Morris joined the classy citog on the team being honoured, Costello himself was a very worthy winner of the individual award.
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