Meath captain Eoghan Frayne at Oldbridge House, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre in Drogheda, Meath during a media event for the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Final between Louth and Meath which will take place on Sunday 11th of May in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
A quick look back through the history of the Leinster football championship and the various Meath men who have captained winning teams.
Trevor Giles (2001), Graham Geraghty (1999), Tommy Dowd (1996), Colm O'Rourke (1990), Mick Lyons (1987). It's a who's who of not just Royal County greats but some of the very best to have ever played the game.
Nigel Crawford was the last Meath man to get his hands on the Delaney Cup, in 2010.
As for the next one, well, Eoghan Frayne hopes that it's going to be him, this Sunday.
At just 22, he would be one of the youngest skippers in the county's rich history to get his hands on the cup if they can overcome Louth.
He only made his Championship debut in 2023, in the Tailteann Cup, and played in the Leinster championship for the first time last year.
"I was a bit shocked when Robbie said it," said Frayne of new manager Robbie Brennan's decision to toss him the armband this year. "Maybe you had aspirations of being captain down the line but to come so soon was a bit of a shock. I didn't have to think about it though, I said yes straight away. It's a great honour. A great honour for my family and the club as well. It is what you dream of. Especially now, when we're in such a fortunate position to be in a Leinster final."
If Meath can get over the line then Frayne will be the first Summerhill man since Lyons almost 40 years ago to captain a Leinster championship winning team.
Lyons was a legendary full-back while Frayne does his business at the opposite end of the field, sniping scores and breaking hearts.
He blasted 1-5 against Longford on his Leinster championship debut last year. More recently, his 11 points against Dublin in the landmark provincial semi-final win over the 14-in-a-row title holders was decisive.
Eoghan Frayne of Meath celebrates with his girlfriend Rachel Brady after the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final match between Dublin and Meath at Laois Hire O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, Laois. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Frayne has started all 10 games that Meath have played this year, scoring in each of them and returning an impressive 1-58 overall.
That's just the sort of leadership that Brennan surely had in mind when he picked him for captaincy duties.
"I don't think it's just on me though, it's on everyone in the group," said the Maynooth student of the weight of responsibility. "There's plenty of good heads in the group. That helped me out, they all make sure we're not getting too high or too low. It's definitely a team effort.
"It can't be just one fella telling everyone what to do. That's been one of the great things since I was given the captaincy - the older fellas still taking a lot of the load. So it hasn't put any extra pressure on me, which has been great."
Brennan is clearly looking to the future because Ciaran Caulfield, who captained DCU to this season's Sigerson Cup title, is Meath's vice-captain.
It is a Meath team laced with young talent that will be around for a long time to come. That age profile was significant when they came up against Dublin in Portlaoise.
"You had a lot of young lads coming up that would be used to beating Dublin, in underage games," explained Frayne. "That probably played a part. Some lads wouldn't have had the fear factor there with Dublin that maybe older lads might have had because they were getting beaten for so long."
And yet it was far from the perfect buildup to Meath's first win over Dublin in the Championship since 2010.
Louth captain Sam Mulroy and Meath captain Eoghan Frayne at Oldbridge House, Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre in Drogheda, Meath during a media event for the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship Final between Louth and Meath which will take place on Sunday 11th of May in Croke Park, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
Losing coaches Martin Corey and Joe McMahon midway through the season had the potential to undermine their Championship challenge.
"It could have went either way, it could have been detrimental," acknowledged Frayne. "Luckily it went the other way for us. We all knuckled down and said, 'Look lads, there's no point dwelling on this'."
Conor Gillespie and Shane Supple have picked up most of the slack as coaches.
"Two really good fellas as well, we would have full faith in them," said Frayne.
A county championship winner with Summerhill in 2023, Frayne was happy to get the opportunity to play Dublin in Portlaoise in last month's Leinster semi-final. The provincial council took both semi-finals out of Croke Park for the first time since 1995, figuring that the atmosphere in the smaller provincial venues might be better.
It probably helped Meath because Dublin are far more used to playing in Croke Park, their home from home, and looked surprisingly panicked at times as they chased a 12-point half-time deficit in neutral Portlaoise.
"If that game was in Croke Park, Dublin probably would have come back," said Frayne, referencing how Dublin only lost by four in the end. "Or maybe we wouldn't have got such a big lead. I think definitely that played into our hands a bit. It's hard to know. I also think it was our best performance of the year. Everyone was up for it. It probably fed into the buildup for us, the fact that it was in Portlaoise probably gave us something to go after."
Not that he's necessarily complaining about returning to Croker this weekend for the showpiece. It will be an occasion to savour.
"Louth obviously had our number the last two times we played them, in Iniskeen," said Frayne. "They have some serious footballers and it's going to take an even better performance than we gave against Dublin to beat them. I don't think Louth have a weakness all over the field."
