AS DUBLIN’S DOMINANCE of the Leinster football landscape continues, one of Meath’s former greats believes the current bunch of Royals have the right mindset to catch up to the reigning All-Ireland champions.
Having collected Sam Maguire three times in the last five years, Dublin continue to look a distance ahead of their rivals in Leinster.
But Trevor Giles, one of Meath’s most celebrated players and a recent selector with the county, believes they will challenge again.
“No doubt things will change. You look at the Leinster rugby team, a few years ago everybody was saying they were brilliant, their academies were brilliant and attendances were great.
“But once you lose a couple of players, the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, they are hard to replace. I think things will change a bit.
“I would think the players that Mick (O’Dowd) and the selectors are picking, they’d only be picking them based on them having that right mind-set.
“The likes of James McEntee, a young player, he’d have that mentality. Donal Keogan would epitomise that big-time. I would say the fellas Mick will have in there will have that belief absolutely.”
Giles outlined how injuries have been a huge problem for Meath in recent seasons.
“That’s the big regret of my time being involved over the last three years, we just never got to pick our best team. I know everyone has injuries but just to compete with the top teams we needed to get our best team out.
“Look at Conor Gillespie, just incredible that his knee has curtailed his involvement. He got an ACL done in one knee and his other knee then started giving him trouble.
“To not have him, Kevin Reilly, Shane O’Rourke, you’re talking about physically big players. In fairness to those three, they would have worked really hard to try and get over their injuries.
“That’s the big regret, that you never had your full team out, just to see how good you would have been on the big days here.
“That’s just bad luck. It’s just bad fortune.”
Giles stepped away from his role as a member of the Meath backroom team last year and felt the time was right to depart.
“I suppose I had played for 12 seasons with Meath, done two years with Colm as a selector with the U21′s, had done a year as a physio with Seamus McEnaney, and then three years with Mick O’Dowd.
“Mick was staying on for another couple more seasons and I just had to weigh it up. I think for the good of the team, a change in selector is a good thing, good to hear a different voice.
“My two boys are five and seven, my girl is nine, they are involved in athletics, Gaelic, loads of stuff. And I am enjoying that now, bringing them to that and coaching them in some of the sports.
“I work for myself as a physio – it is just myself in the physio clinic and if I am not there, there is nobody there. (I) felt I had given it a lot and really enjoyed it.”
