By Kevin Egan

Of all the teams making their first championship appearance this weekend, either in football or hurling, few are as hard to pin down as the Meath hurlers. Their promotion chances in Division 2A of the Allianz Hurling league were effectively scuppered in the first half of their opening round clash with Offaly, as they conceded 1-11 without reply at one stage in the second quarter.

However for the other three quarters of the contest they were quite competitive, before following that up with a good win over Wicklow and another strong performance against Kerry, where they lost out by a goal.

The wheels came off at that stage however, with heavy defeats sustained in the final two games against Down and Carlow, albeit with nothing to play for at that stage.

Now the Royals are preparing to make the long trip up to Ballycran for their first appearance in the Joe McDonagh Cup, and captain Seanie Geraghty says that they know they have enough hurling in their group to be competitive, but putting it together for 70 minute periods back to back is key.

“No Down team up in Ballycran is ever easy to beat, it’s a tough place to go” he said this week.

“That said, I think it’s down to us really. We’re two games away from a final and if we win them both then we are right there. There’s no margin for error this week, we need to win.

“We didn’t hurl well against them in the league but we know we can be better than that. And against Kerry, I felt like we lost it rather than they won it.

“The opportunity was there for us, we were 11 points down at one stage. We got back into it but just didn’t quite get there. It was like the Offaly game, we just shipped too many scores when we were in a poor patch to recover”.

The Kilskyre/Moylagh club man remarked on the fact that if his county is to progress even further however, greater penetration in urban areas of the county will be crucial to their success.

“Right now, I think we’re in a good place. We are getting good numbers and we’re getting the best hurlers into the Meath panel, which isn’t always the case. I was looking at the minor team and they have some tidy players there. If you go back a few years ago, it’s chalk and cheese.

“But the pathway from the minor through to the U-20s and on to adult is killing us because a lot of lads hit 20 and then they drop off. Now we’ve some fantastic 20-year-olds playing colleges at a high level, and while I know these competitions aren’t happening now, but they’re incredibly important, even getting lads playing Freshers, reserve, intermediate, whatever.

“I played with St. Pat’s in Drumcondra, there were plenty of underage county players from Kilkenny, Dublin and other counties. Even just the training sessions did so much for you, you saw the speed and the sharpness that lads were going through drills at, it showed you what was required and it brought me on so much”.

But while Meath have had some good hurlers come through third level competitions, Geraghty wants to see his native county play the numbers game a little bit better.

“It’s all about the sheer volume of players needed, you need to keep finding players to bring things up, to boost competition for places, to keep lads pushing on. I’m from a rural club and there are plenty of rural clubs in Meath that have made huge contributions to Meath hurling down the years, and they will keep doing so – but you can only get so far in rural areas sometimes if you just have the same lads.

“We need to give all kids the opportunity to play the game, and some will stay at it, to try and do what we can to spread the game.

“The quality of coaches is a big thing. We are constantly promoting coaching education, and you need people motivated, and to make sure we get the right people involved in what we are trying to do. Ultimately, it comes down to money, that’s the long and short of it.

He cites examples such as Naas in Kildare, Galway city and Limerick as examples of areas where the strength of urban population centres has reinforced traditional rural bases.

“There has been progress certainly in places like Ashbourne and Ratoath, and Ratoath still have the 2020 county senior final to play so that shows what they’ve done. But we’ve a lot of population centres in the county where we’re not getting hurls into the hands of young players.

“You look at counties that are successful, hurling or football, it doesn’t matter. Their coaches are constantly being upskilled, going to workshops. Player starts to enjoy it and their friends play it. It’s a snowball effect from there. Getting the ball rolling is probably the hardest part”.

In the medium and long term, Meath’s future is not unlike the immediate short-term prognosis. Full of potential, but not easy to predict. The ball starts rolling in Ballycran tomorrow afternoon, we’ll know a lot more then.