JOHN HARKIN FROM the St Peter’s club in Dunboyne did something very impressive on Wednesday evening.
For the third season in a row, the young forward made Meath’s starting lineup for the opening game in the Dalata Hotel Group Leinster U20 championship.
Only the very talented make an U20 panel, let alone the starting team, three years in a row and Harkin went on to score 2-5 in the Round 1 encounter as Meath tore Carlow asunder.
In his 12th championship game at the grade for Meath, the 2024 Leinster medallist, and 2025 finalist, gave the distinct impression that he’s one to watch in the coming weeks.
Eamonn Armstrong would have been another three-season U20 starter for Meath, if he hadn’t been snapped up by AFL outfit St Kilda.
Still only 19, Armstrong is perhaps the most exceptional talent Meath has produced since, well, the county’s other AFL export, Conor Nash.
John Harkin. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Nash, now 10 seasons and 123 appearances into his oval ball career with Hawthorn, was the midfield engine that powered Simonstown Gaels to the only Meath SFC titles they’ve ever won, in 2016 and 2017.
Meath never quite overcame the departure of Nash who was a Hawthorn rookie in 2017, lamenting the loss of the six-foot-five inch powerhouse from a county struggling for new leaders at that time.
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Almost a decade on, they have lost another generational performer to the AFL in Armstrong but, crucially, are now equipped to take the hit and move on.
That’s not to say the multi-talented wing-back from the Duleek-Bellewstown club, who was on the books of St Patrick’s Athletic for a while, won’t be missed. Armstrong’s gifts – a Rolls Royce engine and high skill set, in the mould of a Tom O’Sullivan – would always come in handy.
But the production line that the former Meath minor captain rolled off has supplied many more top talents who have the potential to inspire Meath’s most successful senior era since their 1990s successes under Seán Boylan.
On Wednesday evening in Carlow, U20 captain Michael McIvor and full-forward Cian Commons supplied the brawn in a suffocating early press that Meath exerted on Carlow’s kick out, allowing the visitors to run up an early 2-10 to 0-2 lead. Harkin excelled too, one of a dozen that manager Cathal O Bric kept on from last year’s Leinster final group.
O Bric must have smiled to himself when he picked up the Meath Chronicle newspaper during the week and spotted the picture of a couple of supporters unfurling a banner in front of Robbie Brennan in Tullamore last Sunday.
Meath had just beaten Offaly comfortably to secure promotion back to Division 1, a level they’ve played at for just one season since 2006, when the fans made their move.
The banner had a picture of Brennan smiling after last year’s Croke Park win over Galway along with a picture of a Grim Reaper wearing a cloak with a Meath crest on it. There was also a quote from Tomás O Se which he delivered last summer, wondering ‘Where in the name of God are Meath after coming out of?’
Rebounding from the difficulties experienced under Colm O’Rourke in 2024, to beating Galway, Dublin, Kerry and Cork in the 2025 Championship must have appeared like instant success to many.
But O Bric has been silently powering the Meath rebuild for the guts of a decade. Brian O’Halloran, who has started every game for the Meath seniors this season, played for O Bric in 2021 when Meath won the All-Ireland minor title. So did Killian Smyth, who came on against Offaly last weekend, while another 2021 minor, Jack Kinlough, is due to return shortly after an ACL injury.
O Bric led the Meath minors to an All-Ireland title in 2021. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
O Bric’s 2024 U20 group produced more future seniors. Jamie Murphy, a powerful and two-footed forward top-scored with 1-5 in that 2024 U20 final win over Louth and made his senior debut in the recent defeat of Kildare. Charlie O’Connor was on that team too and featured in this season’s League wins over Kildare and Tyrone. John O’Regan, Conor Ennis and Rian Stafford are three more from the class of 2024 that have played competitively for the senior team in 2026.
No wonder O Bric was bullish when speaking to the Meath Chronicle about this season’s U20 team ahead of the Carlow game.
“We are here to win a Leinster title and hopefully an All-Ireland title,” he said. “There is no one that we should be afraid of in the province. After that, the standard goes up but we are starting to dine at the top table again. It’s not, ‘we might be there’ or ‘we could be there’, it’s ‘we should be there’.”
Talent identification begins at U14 in Meath when the county’s academy structure kicks in. Over 60 players were selected in December for the main 2026 U14 academy, with another 40 placed in a development group which meets less frequently. Games that amounted to trials were also played at the end of last year’s U13 season, to ensure that absolutely no stone was left unturned in the selection process.
Paul Garrigan, coach of the Meath ladies when they won back-to-back All-Ireland senior titles in 2020 and 2021, is the county’s head of football and presides over the pathway structure.
It’s not anything that many other counties aren’t doing but it’s a level of detail and an investment of time that Meath ignored over the years, to their peril.
Back at the top of the tree, senior manager Brennan has pulled it all together. A salesman by trade, he has been able to sell the vision to his senior players, who will contest this weekend’s National League Division 2 final.
“Robbie checks in with us regularly enough and they have an eye on a fair few lads with the hope of bringing them in on the development squad at least,” said O Bric.
“It is an exciting time for Meath football and our lads get a lot from watching the senior team go well and the lads know that the path for them to play senior football for Meath is there for them if they want it enough.”
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Cathal O Bric has been silently powering Meath's rebuild for the guts of a decade
JOHN HARKIN FROM the St Peter’s club in Dunboyne did something very impressive on Wednesday evening.
For the third season in a row, the young forward made Meath’s starting lineup for the opening game in the Dalata Hotel Group Leinster U20 championship.
Only the very talented make an U20 panel, let alone the starting team, three years in a row and Harkin went on to score 2-5 in the Round 1 encounter as Meath tore Carlow asunder.
In his 12th championship game at the grade for Meath, the 2024 Leinster medallist, and 2025 finalist, gave the distinct impression that he’s one to watch in the coming weeks.
Eamonn Armstrong would have been another three-season U20 starter for Meath, if he hadn’t been snapped up by AFL outfit St Kilda.
Still only 19, Armstrong is perhaps the most exceptional talent Meath has produced since, well, the county’s other AFL export, Conor Nash.
Nash, now 10 seasons and 123 appearances into his oval ball career with Hawthorn, was the midfield engine that powered Simonstown Gaels to the only Meath SFC titles they’ve ever won, in 2016 and 2017.
Meath never quite overcame the departure of Nash who was a Hawthorn rookie in 2017, lamenting the loss of the six-foot-five inch powerhouse from a county struggling for new leaders at that time.
Almost a decade on, they have lost another generational performer to the AFL in Armstrong but, crucially, are now equipped to take the hit and move on.
That’s not to say the multi-talented wing-back from the Duleek-Bellewstown club, who was on the books of St Patrick’s Athletic for a while, won’t be missed. Armstrong’s gifts – a Rolls Royce engine and high skill set, in the mould of a Tom O’Sullivan – would always come in handy.
But the production line that the former Meath minor captain rolled off has supplied many more top talents who have the potential to inspire Meath’s most successful senior era since their 1990s successes under Seán Boylan.
On Wednesday evening in Carlow, U20 captain Michael McIvor and full-forward Cian Commons supplied the brawn in a suffocating early press that Meath exerted on Carlow’s kick out, allowing the visitors to run up an early 2-10 to 0-2 lead. Harkin excelled too, one of a dozen that manager Cathal O Bric kept on from last year’s Leinster final group.
O Bric must have smiled to himself when he picked up the Meath Chronicle newspaper during the week and spotted the picture of a couple of supporters unfurling a banner in front of Robbie Brennan in Tullamore last Sunday.
Meath had just beaten Offaly comfortably to secure promotion back to Division 1, a level they’ve played at for just one season since 2006, when the fans made their move.
The banner had a picture of Brennan smiling after last year’s Croke Park win over Galway along with a picture of a Grim Reaper wearing a cloak with a Meath crest on it. There was also a quote from Tomás O Se which he delivered last summer, wondering ‘Where in the name of God are Meath after coming out of?’
Rebounding from the difficulties experienced under Colm O’Rourke in 2024, to beating Galway, Dublin, Kerry and Cork in the 2025 Championship must have appeared like instant success to many.
But O Bric has been silently powering the Meath rebuild for the guts of a decade. Brian O’Halloran, who has started every game for the Meath seniors this season, played for O Bric in 2021 when Meath won the All-Ireland minor title. So did Killian Smyth, who came on against Offaly last weekend, while another 2021 minor, Jack Kinlough, is due to return shortly after an ACL injury.
O Bric’s 2024 U20 group produced more future seniors. Jamie Murphy, a powerful and two-footed forward top-scored with 1-5 in that 2024 U20 final win over Louth and made his senior debut in the recent defeat of Kildare. Charlie O’Connor was on that team too and featured in this season’s League wins over Kildare and Tyrone. John O’Regan, Conor Ennis and Rian Stafford are three more from the class of 2024 that have played competitively for the senior team in 2026.
No wonder O Bric was bullish when speaking to the Meath Chronicle about this season’s U20 team ahead of the Carlow game.
“We are here to win a Leinster title and hopefully an All-Ireland title,” he said. “There is no one that we should be afraid of in the province. After that, the standard goes up but we are starting to dine at the top table again. It’s not, ‘we might be there’ or ‘we could be there’, it’s ‘we should be there’.”
Talent identification begins at U14 in Meath when the county’s academy structure kicks in. Over 60 players were selected in December for the main 2026 U14 academy, with another 40 placed in a development group which meets less frequently. Games that amounted to trials were also played at the end of last year’s U13 season, to ensure that absolutely no stone was left unturned in the selection process.
Paul Garrigan, coach of the Meath ladies when they won back-to-back All-Ireland senior titles in 2020 and 2021, is the county’s head of football and presides over the pathway structure.
It’s not anything that many other counties aren’t doing but it’s a level of detail and an investment of time that Meath ignored over the years, to their peril.
Back at the top of the tree, senior manager Brennan has pulled it all together. A salesman by trade, he has been able to sell the vision to his senior players, who will contest this weekend’s National League Division 2 final.
“Robbie checks in with us regularly enough and they have an eye on a fair few lads with the hope of bringing them in on the development squad at least,” said O Bric.
“It is an exciting time for Meath football and our lads get a lot from watching the senior team go well and the lads know that the path for them to play senior football for Meath is there for them if they want it enough.”
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