MEATH…0-16
DOWN…1-15
It would probably be fairly widely accepted that there are a cohort of teams around the same level as Meath in the overall hurling picture. Whilst there’s always a bit of angst about naming names and categorising entities, it would, you suspect, be a common view that the stickmen of the Royal County are on a commensurate plateau to those from the Mountains O’Mourne.
However, selling such a narrative would have a sticky wicket at half time in this Kehoe Cup opener in Dunganny might have been a task and a half, given that Johnny Greville’s charges trailed by 0-02 to 1-11 at the change of ends. To their utmost credit, though, the youngsters in green and gold put in a right gutsy shift thereafter. Outscoring their Ulster guests by 0-14 to 0-04 once Dublin’s Dean Alford got the action under way again.
No secret has ever been made of the difficulty yours truly has in following the sliotar once it goes airborne, but, be that as it may, I’d still like to consider myself fairly well up to speed with goings on in the small ball code with the county.
Such inclinations certainly weren’t done any harm from the viewpoint of believing the Shine twins, Daire and Tom to be among the brightest hurling prospects in the county at present. Instincts absolutely endorsed when the latter of the pair hit a handful of scores – three from play – as a stirring comeback effort grew in momentum.
Indeed, the Kilskyre/Moylagh clubman might have completed the resurrection altogether but his late free went whizzing up and over and there wasn’t enough time to eradicate the deficit even though experienced corner back Jarlath Ennis stole forward to flash over late on.
SCORERS – T. Shine (0-5, 2F), M. Cole and D. O’Higgins (0-2 each), J. Ennis, S. Ennis, D. Healy, S. Doyle, M. Leavey, C. Barron and J. Walsh (0-1 each).
MEATH – P. O’Brien; C. Leavey, D. Shine, J. Ennis; D. Heffernan, S. Ennis, K. Donnelly; J. Cole, T. Shine; D. Healy, M. Cole, E. Donegan; D. O’Higgins, S. Doyle, M. Leavey.
SUBS – G. King for O’Brien, C. Barron for Doyle, J. Walsh for Healy, F. Flynn for M. Cole.
Referee – Dean Alford (Dublin)
Leave a Reply