AFTER LOSING THEIR four opening Division 1 games, Meath know they need to start picking up points soon if they’re to avoid an immediate return to the second tier.
Table toppers Galway arrive in Navan this weekend, buoyed by the heavy beating they dished out to Tyrone last Sunday.
Meath performed well against Kerry in Killarney but lost by three points, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the table.
“Galway seem to be flying well at the minute, top of Division 1, score difference, playing a really nice brand of football, Pádraic Joyce has them there,” says defender Donal Keogan.
“Them coming to Navan, it’s an opportunity for us in our home ground to potentially get a result there.
“If the result goes your way there that weekend, you can look forward to the next weekend. Potentially four points might do it, six points probably will do it.
“You’ve three games left, there’s six points on offer there, so… Obviously it starts with Galway this weekend. It’s a big game.”
Kildare suffered seven straight defeats in top flight back in 2018 and it dented their confidence, leading to their shock Leinster SFC exit to Carlow that summer.
The Royals haven’t won a competitive game since they saw off Clare in round 4 of the qualifiers last July. They suffered three straight defeats in the Super 8s, making it seven losses in-a-row for Andy McEntee’s side.
But Keogan is confident Meath are learning all the time as they get accustomed to games against the best teams in the country.
“Compared to this time last year we definitely are in a better place. The overall and overarching trend is that we are improving. It has been an almost stepway improvement, getting out of Division 2, then the Super 8s, they have all been building on each other.
“Now Division 1 football week in, week out is improving and I hope we see it later on in the year is it true. I hope that it will stand to us. Okay whatever happens at the end of the year whether we stay up or go down I definitely think we will be in a better position towards the end of the league than we were last year.
“This year we’ve been unfortunate that we’ve been struck with a few injuries to key players. You can lament your injuries if you want but you’re not going to get any sympathy for that. It’s a matter for the new lads and the younger lads seizing the opportunity.”
Bryan Menton, Conor McGill and Keogan all received All-Star nominations after impressive 2019 campaigns for Meath that the latter describes as a “very enjoyable year of football.”
“The Super 8s was one thing we really targeted last year. After getting out of Division 2, the natural progression was obviously Leinster, deal with Leinster, whatever comes there, but ultimately we had to get to the Super 8s to get that exposure to those Division 1 teams. I think they were invaluable to us.
“Given you had to pit yourself against the best teams in the country. We had Donegal, Kerry and Mayo. Brilliant teams there to pit yourself (against) and see what you’re made of. Then also to learn the lessons pre-Division 1.
“The running theme of the Super 8s for us was after 50 minutes we had a last 15 minutes collapse. That was the advantage of having played the Super 8s last year. We could address that over the winter, to look at why was the reason that was happening.
“We spent a lot of time on that over the winter dissecting it almost, looking at ways to improve on how to last the last 15 minutes longer.
“We seem to have that now, in the Mayo game we finished well as well, the Tyrone game we were going right at it until the final whistle. We were always looking at ways to improve and that was one we really were targeting towards the back end of last year.
“It was better to learn the lessons in the Super 8s and having the winter to work on them, rather than going into the first three games of Division 1 this year and only learning your lessons then. So it’s been building nicely and we’ve been learning from the previous games, so that’s continuing this year.”
Keogan was a raiding threat from wing-back, laying on a handful of goals for team-mates in the championship after his overlapping runs from deep.
“I think a lot of it is pure luck. I’d say if you asked other defenders why I’m up there, they’ll give you a different answer – ‘Get the hell back!’ Sometimes you just end up there, you follow the play.
“Maybe you’ve carried it to half-way and a run might take you into the opposition half and you might be lucky enough to be picked out by one of your team-mates. There’s nothing really in particular that I’m doing, I just seem to sometimes find myself there.
“Probably the wrong man at the right time or the right place, but if I can set-up scores that’s some of my job done as well.”
He says the All-Star nomination only made him “hungrier for this year.”
“It’s nice to get the recognition but the team is the number one thing in the whole set-up,” he says.
“Other lads were eager to get back to training and push the performances. Three of us got nominated, I think that opened other lads’ eyes to say, ‘Why not me next year?’ The vibe since we came back has been really good and lads are pushing really hard.
“I think the All-Star nomination for me personally, and Bryan and Conor, it’s more than that. It goes to show for other lads in the set-up that the opportunities are there. If we put in the performances that we can, it could be any number of us this year.”
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