No matter in what facet of life it may be, whenever something goes wrong, there has to be a fall guy or girl, doesn’t there? Whether that be how Brian Cowen and the late Brian Lenihan were vilified and excoriated even though they were forced into signing up to a bailout the country didn’t need at the time.
Or, at a more mundane level, Jarlath Burns being the one at the helm when the idiotic split season was wrongly foisted upon the GAA masses and – even worse – when the group stages of the All Ireland SFC were needlessly culled.
In neither of the above cases should the eventual outcomes be pinned on one individual or indeed a few of them. Moreover, under absolutely no circumstances should Meath’s hiccup against Westmeath be ascribed to any one individual, unless that person was the referee.
However, apart from giving the very last free of the game in the wrong direction and failing to penalise Westmeath on several occasions for failing to retreat quick enough (or at all) when frees were awarded, it was not Liam Devanney’s fault we lost.
That, though, does not give anyone – and especially nobody from outside the county, never mind the camp, to even attempt to append blame to anybody within setup for the defeat.
Yet for at least two days after the game in Tullamore, at least two players from other counties cited “The captain’s speech after the league final” as some form of arrogance or cockyness.
Bullshit. Leave Eoghan Frayne alone. The lad just indicated that is was their ambition to be and belief they would be back to lift further silverware later in the season. Which, officially speaking they still could be.
It’s not as if he said ‘We’ve no fear of Westmeath or Louth or Dublin or Kildare. Only the latter would be self absorbed and bullish enough to come out and say it.
One need only look at the Summerhill man’s devastated demeanour in post match interviews – and the fact that team manager Robbie Brennan was initially too shell shocked to do one – to understand how rocked the Meath players and mentors (and fans) were at the turn of events.
That, however, does not mean blame can or should be lumbered on anybody. Nobody, not sports people, Governments or you or me. Perhaps Donald Trump is the only one who can be single handedly earmarked as causing some of the chaos that’s going on in the world because – like the last Republican idiot who was US President before him – he started a war for no reason.
Eoghan Frayne’s Croke Park speech didn’t cost Meath victory over Westmeath and to suggest so is disingenuous and spiteful. Did it motivate the Lake County? Absolutely. But no more so than then Dublin Ladies Manager Mick Bohan saying that his charges didn’t “Just want to win (the 2021 All Ireland Final), they want(ed) to do so in style and put on a performance” against Meath. Now that was wonderful decoration for the wall of the Royal County dressing room.
But here’s the thing – all that type of hype motivation is about as useful as used chewing gum if you don’t come out and produce from the fuel of it. Did Mark McHugh’s side take oxygen from it? Of course they did, and you’d hope if the boot was on the other foot we would do likewise. However, all the hyperbole amounts to nothing but hot air unless it is weaponised.
To be fair to the Kilcar native and managerial rookie though, he clearly had his surveillance and analysis well done. Though it might seem of scant value now, it surely stands as a massive compliment to the likes of Bryan Menton, Jack Flynn and Cian McBride that he knew, for his charges to have any chance of causing the upset they eventually deservedly did, they couldn’t afford to go long with kickouts and turn the middle third into a contest.
Conversely though, it would have to be admitted that Meath appeared equally bamboozled by their opponents’ short kickout strategy. Above all else though, the bump in the road hasn’t turned Meath into a bad team overnight. Just as much as it hasn’t made Westmeath world beaters. In fact, the punter in me is tempted to have a few quid on my late mother’s Lilywhites to now go and lift the Delaney Cup.
As for our own lads – give me anybody bar Donegal and we’ll attack them with relish.
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