What I believe to be the last club senior county football final of the season takes place on Sunday in Tipperary but, even before this calendar year’s business has been completed, thoughts have very much turned to the 2026 season. Panels have been drawn up – more of that anon – while, more significantly, the fixtures for the early part of the campaign were firmed up in recent days.
The first noteworthy point of which is that for once the will of the sensible was listened to and the pre season competitions – O’Byrne, McKenna and McGrath Cup and FBD Connacht League competitions in Football and Walsh Cup* and Waterford Crystal Cup events in hurling have been reinstated.
While it is disappointing that, in the case of the O’Byrne at least, the January competition has reverted to a knockout format having been run on a round robin basis for more than a decade. Still, in a world where ‘modern thinking’ snobs pay very little attention to common sense, little fish are sweet. It’s still a better scenario to have the Cup competitions in which to try players out and give them their chance rather than having to experimenting in what is, for most teams, the most important football competition of the year – the National League.
So it is that Meath will begin their second term under the direction of Robbie Brennan in Echelon Park in Aughrim against Wicklow on January 3rd in the first round of the O’Byrne Cup. The draw for the rest of which is as follows:
Round 1: Saturday, January 3rd
Laois v Dublin
Wexford v Kildare
Carlow v Offaly
Wicklow v Meath
Longford v Westmeath
Louth – Bye
Quarter-finals: Wednesday, January 7th
1 – Winners of Carlow/Offaly v Winners of Wicklow/Meath
2 – Winners of Longford/Westmeath v Louth
Semi-finals: Saturday, January 10th
Winners of Wexford/Kildare v Winners of Laois/Dublin
Winners of quarter-final 1 v Winners of quarter-final 2
Final: Friday, January 16th.
Of even greater significance, though, were the National League fixtures which were also, extremely belatedly, released midweek. Now, as I’m sure most will know at this stage, work on the long awaited, desperately needed upgrade to Pairc Tailteann is now only ten days away from beginning.
As a result of which, naturally, Meath will be playing their ‘home’ matches at Croker – it wouldn’t have been my solution to the problem but we are where we are. Thus, Robbie Brennan’s side will take on Derry, Tyrone and Louth under Saturday night lights in Drumcondra.
Admittedly, there could easily be said to be a glaring advantage to playing our home matches in Croke Park – the more experience a young developing team can get in the big field the better.
But there is a down side to it – if the old league fixture system is still in use – whereby, if a team has four away games this term they will be entitled to four on their own turf next – Meath have actually been done out of a home match they would have been due to have next spring and instead find themselves travelling to Cork for the second season in a row. Hardly fair.
However, on that, upon inquiry, if powers on high are to be believed – and not a lot would be wagered on such being the case – word is the Royal County may be given ‘extra’ home fixtures once Pairc Tailteann has re-opened and is fit for use. No breath will be held on said development becoming reality, mind you.
Regardless of where matches are played, for that matter, one element of the fallow season which becomes part of every Gaels’ coping mechanism is the debate and rancour with regard to who managers may bring in on their oversized training panels as they gear up for the new campaign. Topics of conversation here tend to be twofold – (a) will older hands like Donal Keogan and Bryan Menton and Cillian O’Sullivan and Seamus Lavin go to the well again and (b) what new faces will be drafted in or former troops given another audition to state their case?
On all of the above, speaking to the Meath Chronicle this week, Robbie Brennan said “Trials can be a worthwhile idea, but until you get lads in Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday to get a good look at them you never really know”. The St Peter’s Dunboyne clubman confirmed that his fellow parishoner Sean Ryan and Na Fianna’s Shane Walsh likely to be the only definite absentees from the 2025 group with the duo due to go travelling.
While confirming that Ryan and Walsh are leaving the panel Brennan did reveal that along with O’Connor, Na Fianna’s Oran Smullen, Meath Hill’s Gary Breslin, Ballinabrackey’s Conor Ennis and Castletown’s Killian Smyth are all included.
Once the club provincial campaigns Brennan revealed that Ross Ryan and Adam McDonnell will link up from Summerhill, while Josh Harford and Conor McWeeney will also get a chance from Kilbride.
This writer would wholeheartedly welcome all of the above, though I would also like to see Finn White and Davy O’Leary (Kilbride), Adam Kealy (Dunshaughlin), Sean Penny and Oisin Martin (Wolfe Tones), John O’Regan and Niall Finnerty (Skryne), Rian Stafford (Kilmainhamwood), Niall Smullen (Ballinabrackey), John Gormley (Gaeil Colmcille) and Gearoid O’Malley (St Michael’s) getting their chance at some stage.
One thing Brennan and his management deserve utmost credit for is the fluidity with which they operate the panel, it being very much an open door policy. So, inclination would be that – even if some or none of the above aren’t unleashed at the very start of the season there’s still a chance they might get their audition at some point in the journey. Or a call into the Development Squad at the very least.
All will be revealed in scarily quick time, and pondering and debating all of the above will get yours truly through the most difficult time of the year in the meantime.
* There was no mention of Kehoe Cup hurling in the pre season competitions.
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