Meath footballer Cian McBride at the announcement that Allianz has extended its sponsorship of the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship for a further three years. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
Two provincial football finals last weekend, two contrasting experiences for two players who once shared the same dream.
On Saturday, Oisin Gallen enjoyed the high of a terrific Ulster final performance and a victory that catapulted him and Donegal through to the All-Ireland SFC series with vital momentum.
The following day, Cian McBride was part of the extended Meath panel as the Royals came up agonisingly short of Louth in the Leinster final at Croke Park.
The 24-year-old midfielder returned to the venue for the announcement that All-Ireland SFC sponsors Allianz have extended their support for a further three years.
McBride recalled travelling to Australia with Gallen in late 2019 as the pair made their bids for professional AFL contracts.
Gallen, already a senior with Donegal, came home and continued his Gaelic football career though 2018 Leinster MFC medallist McBride was snapped up by Essendon.
He'd caught the attention of a number of clubs, returning strong scores in tests such as vertical jumps though when he blitzed a 2km time trial, Essendon offered him a contract on the spot.
"I landed back in my hotel after the 2k and they were sitting there with contracts and just said, 'That's all we needed to see'," said McBride. "It was just basically on the 2k that they had based their interest on.
"It was a bit crazy, considering they hadn't seen you touch a ball or anything like that. But they just were thinking, 'We can make a player out of an athlete - you can't make an athlete out of a footballer'. That was their kind of approach to it."
McBride spent four seasons at the club but two separate foot fractures and the pandemic, with all the restrictions that brought, contrived to ruin his ambitions of making it in the oval ball game.
Not that the powerful St Ultan's man looks back on his experience with any sort of bitterness. He grew up as a man in that period and developed in all sorts of ways he wouldn't have otherwise. And he met his partner, whom he now lives with in Dublin.
"She came over last November," smiled McBride. "I was wondering would she settle into life here. During the winter it was a bit rough. I was like, 'Just wait until the sun comes and the evenings get long!' The last couple of weeks have been nice. Thank God or I could have been in trouble!"
Life is good then. McBride is studying at TU Dublin and working in a construction company as he attempts to build a new career for himself.
He retains big sporting ambitions too and, with time on his side, is desperate to reach his potential in a green jersey with Meath.
McBride featured in 10 of Meath's 12 National League and Championship games last year, starting seven of them.
Cian McBride in action in the closing stages of the 2024 Leinster SFC Round 1 match between Longford and Meath at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park in Longford. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
But injuries have continued to be an issue since his return to Ireland in late 2023 with a hamstring setback in 2024 and a fresh bone break, in his hand, earlier this year while playing in the Sigerson Cup.
So far in 2025 he has played just one game, against Monaghan in the league, but, crucially, is fully fit again and ready to go.
Meath will play Cork on Saturday week in an All-Ireland SFC opener in Navan and McBride is keen to at least make the bench. It's a challenge he feels energised by.
"Getting stuck back into it last year was great," he said of his Gaelic football comeback. "That's all you wanted to do as a kid, all I wanted to do was play for Meath when I was a kid.
"So when you got back last year, it was great. We have a great bunch of lads there at the minute and hopefully we're going in the right direction, I think we're going in the right direction anyway. That's exciting.
"It's funny because I landed back in at 23 last year, which is still fairly young, but I didn't actually feel too young. There's an awful lot of lads younger than me again. I suppose you're thinking in your head, 'Sure I'm only a young lad' but there are lads who are 19, 20 and 21 and you're nearly in the middle of the road in terms of age.
"Myself and Mathew Costello played the whole way up together. Any Leinster title we have won, we have won together. It's been great getting back playing with Mathew and Cathal Hickey and Sean Coffey, fellas I'd have known well. There's a good few of us in there now from that same age group. Jack Flynn is around that age as well."
With a clean bill of health, the sky's the limit for a towering player who has all the attributes to thrive in the modern midfield war zone.
"It's really exciting," said McBride of football under the new rules. "I love them, it really has sped the game up. You can see all the provincial finals this year, how good they were, football is back."
