Colm O’Rourke revels in ‘fantastic experience’ as Meath claim Tailteann Cup

Tailteann Cup final: Meath 2-13 Down 0-14

At last year’s draw for the inaugural Tailteann Cup competition, GAA President Larry McCarthy expressed hope that “some county grabs it and marches through the summer and has a wonderful occasion in Croke Park”.

It turned out to be pretty much a blueprint for how Meath turned a poor 2023 season into a successful one.

Half a dozen consecutive wins, half a dozen more Championship debuts given out, a first piece of serious silverware since 2010 and a golden ticket to the 2024 Sam Maguire Cup competition. Their investment in the Tailteann Cup clearly paid off.

“It’s as satisfying as anything I was ever involved with,” said veteran manager Colm O’Rourke.

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Success seemed a long way off back in April, when Meath lost to Offaly in the Leinster SFC. At that stage, they’d gone half a dozen games without a win.

Bottoming out like that gave O’Rourke the opportunity to rip up the script and both Sean Brennan and Conor Gray, two of his debutants in the Tailteann Cup, were terrific in Saturday’s landmark win.

Ronan Ryan was brilliant at the back too, though it was goalscorers Ronan Jones and Jack O’Connor who had the biggest influence on proceedings.

Jones’ fortunate deflected goal in the 16th minute hauled Meath back after a slow start, sapping Down’s early momentum, while O’Connor’s solo strike in the 76th minute following a turnover set the seal on a slightly flattering five-point win.

In between, Jack Flynn lorded it with four crucial points, all of which came in a period between the 53rd and 65th minutes when Meath turned the screw.

In all, O’Rourke handed out 12 Championship debuts this summer with six more starting for the first time in that defeat to Offaly. The sky appears to be the limit for his talented young group, even if the critics were out not so long ago.

“Everybody has their opinion and I’m listening to that sort of stuff a long time,” said O’Rourke. “I don’t think I get too upset over it. We knew we were on the right road. We thought it might take even more time to get a team together but we probably came together quickly.

“If we got into the Sam Maguire two months ago we probably weren’t ready for it but I’d love to see if we could get into the quarter-final, or the group stage now, because we have improved so much.

“It has been the most fantastic experience to get involved with a committed group of players. I’ve been involved in management at club and schools level for 40 years but definitely the commitment by these fellas has surpassed anything I have been involved with.

“It’s as satisfying as anything I was ever involved with. I suppose your memory dims with age of the great things, nothing replaces the All-Irelands that I won with Meath in the ‘80s and the championships with Skryne but this is a huge day for us.

“I couldn’t be happier on a personal level and I couldn’t be happier for the hard work that our players have put in. I’m delighted that they have got a reward. They have just been fantastic since the start of the year and I couldn’t commend them highly enough and I’ve said that all along.”

O’Rourke used 25 different players in total in the Tailteann Cup, a figure that rises to 28 if you include the three more that featured against Offaly.

Experimentation and development has been the name of the game though experienced duo Donal Keogan and Padraic Harnan, making their 49th and 34th Championship appearances, had a big input on Saturday.

Over a decade on from his debut, and having soldiered through some difficult times, Keogan deserved his day in the sun as captain.

“Keogan, Harnan, a lot of them had brilliant games,” said O’Rourke. “Adam O’Neill at the back, Sean Brennan was excellent in goals, I could go through the whole team. I couldn’t find much fault with any of them.”

Down mightn’t think it now but it was a breakthrough season for them too under Conor Laverty, particularly after failing to win a game in 2022.

“For us as a management, we’ve seen lads play at a decent level now to assess where they are and we have a better understanding of the core bunch of players that we see moving forward,” said Laverty.

Meath: S Brennan; A O’Neill, R Ryan, C Caulfield; D Keogan, P Harnan, S Coffey; R Jones (1-1), C Gray; J Flynn (0-4), J McEntee, C Hickey (0-2); J Morris (0-1), M Costello (0-3, 2f), A Lynch. Subs: J O’Connor (1-2) for Lynch 46, C O’Sullivan for McEntee 53, H O’Higgins for Caulfield 57, D Lenihan for Morris 66, D McGowan for Hickey 69.

Down: N Kane (0-2, 1f, 1 45); P McCarthy, P Laverty, A Doherty; M Rooney, C Doherty (0-1), D Magill; D Guinness, P Havern (0-4, 3f); E Branagan, L Kerr (0-2), R Mason; S Johnston (0-1), O Murdock (0-1), R Johnston (0-2). Subs: S Annett for Mason 43, D McAleenan for S Johnston 56, A Gilmore (0-1) for Magill 59, P Branagan for McCarthy 60, R McEvoy for Guinness 63.

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).