David Clare will meet old pal Paul Galvin on Meath SFC final day

​By Paul Keane

David Clare had a feeling he'd run into Paul Galvin at some stage in this year's Meath SFC. Fate wouldn't have had it any other way.

And so, a year after the pair collaborated and conspired as coaches with 2024 Dublin SFC finalists Kilmacud Crokes, they will draw swords and point them towards each other this Sunday in Navan.

Clare, an experienced operator who previously had stints managing teams in Kildare and Dublin, will be in charge of Summerhill while Kerry icon Galvin will have the Ratoath reins.

Robbie Brennan, the current Meath manager, brought them both together last year when he was in charge of Crokes, realising that Clare and Galvin could add real value to different departments of the team.

"He was in charge of the attack," said Clare of Galvin when they were at Crokes. "I was in charge of the defence. We were poles apart!"

Crokes came up just short in the end, losing the 2024 Dublin SFC final by a point to Cuala who went on to win AIB Leinster and All-Ireland titles.

Summerhill moved quickly afterwards to install Clare as their manager, no great surprise considering he's from nearby Dunboyne and coached Summerhill previously, when they reached county finals in 2017 and 2018.

Galvin's arrival in Ratoath was more surprising, the three-time All-Star taking on his first managerial role since departing as Wexford boss in late 2020.

In between, the game's 1,000 All-Star had had a stint as a skills coach with Kildare before joining up with Brennan at Crokes.

Clare classes Finuge native Galvin as both a friend and a top coach.

"I wouldn't agree with his style, clothes-wise!" smiled Clare, referencing Galvin's day job in the fashion world. "But his football brain and the nuances around football, it's top class."

Galvin works hard on mastering the fundamental skills of the game with his players. Correct hand, correct foot. Bilateral excellence. Head up, eyes always scanning.

"It's all the stuff that Kerry fellas do instinctively," said Clare. "He's looking at the correct use of the hands, how when you get to the top of the D, that you can scan and operate off both hands, that you don't have to change hands, all that kind of stuff, and he's instinctively working on that the whole time.

"And that stuff is crucial because in that millisecond when you're attacking, it's the difference between the ball going in the onion bag for a goal and not going in."

Galvin inherited a strong and experienced Ratoath squad full of current and former county men who have won three county titles in the last six seasons.

Clare's story in Summerhill isn't vastly different. The home club of legendary Royal County figures like Mick Lyons and Mark O'Reilly has contested five of the last eight county deciders, finally getting over the line in 2023.

They faced Ratoath in three of those finals, losing in 2019 and 2022, before coming good in that 2023 showpiece, albeit after extra-time.

At this stage, it is a bone fide grudge match with all the trimmings when the clubs meet.

And just to add a little extra intrigue, many of the same players will also meet again when Ratoath play Kiltale - who draw players from the Summerhill area - in the Meath senior hurling final.

"It'll be a lot of the same personnel again," noted Clare. "Ross Ryan, Jack Bannon, Iarla Hughes, all those guys play for Summerhill and Kiltale. Then with Ratoath there's all the McGowans, Conor McGill, Bryan McMahon, Cian Rogers, they're all dual players so it's another element to it all."

What Clare can be confident of is that his players will dig deep for him.

They weren't at their very best in the semi-final against holders Dunshaughlin but still found a way to force that game to extra-time - courtesy of a nerveless two-point free from county star Eoghan Frayne - and eventually won by a point.

They may have lived on their wits in the earlier group stage, winning just one of their three games, but when the need was greatest they have responded.

Towering midfielder Adam Flanagan missed the Dunshaughlin game due to the birth of his daughter, Isla.

"The club are putting a new rule in now that babies can only arrive in December!" joked Clare.

In Flanagan's absence, his team-mates threw the kitchen sink at it.

"We were just looking back at some of the GPS figures for players, some of our full-back line cleared over 15kms in the game, which is unheard of," said Clare.

Frayne, along with his brother, Conor, both operate at the point of Summerhill's attack.

"Eoghan, I would have said this before, he'd be Matt Connor-like because of his ability to do things," said Clare. "And people kind of say, 'Oh sure, that's Eoghan Frayne, that's what he does'. But it's more than that, he has some nerve.

"When he rocked up to take the free to bring the game (against Dunshaughlin) to extra-time, after he'd missed a 20-yard free before that...like, I said it to the lads before he kicked it, 'Prepare for extra-time, Frayner won't miss this'.

"I was just rock sure, rock solid sure that he was going to nail it."

Frayne captained Meath this season, powering them to the last four of the All-Ireland championship, a journey that included landmark wins over Dublin, Galway and Kerry. At the tail end of 2025, he continues to deliver.

"I could have told you three months before Eoghan Frayne was made Meath captain that it was going to happen because we knew he was the strongest voice in the dressing-room," said Clare. "We also knew he was a real, real leader.

"I'd often talk about culture and ethos and you'd see it in action on a Wednesday morning where lads have organised their work schedules, their college schedules, to be out kicking football. And who is it? It's the Fraynes, Diarmuid McCabe, Adam McDonnell, Jamie O'Shea who are out there at 10 or 11 o'clock on a Wednesday morning. And that's culture, that's real, real culture and that is driven by Eoghan Frayne."