Eoghan Frayne believes Meath will need their best performance of the season if they are to break Louth‘s recent stranglehold on the rivalry.
Louth have beaten Meath in three of the last four meetings, including the last two fixtures – in the 2024 championship and this year’s National League.
Frayne hopes to be the first Meath man since 2010 to captain the Royals to Delaney Cup glory in Sunday’s Leinster final, while sculptors would be chiselling a statue of Sam Mulroy if he can lead the Wee County to a first Leinster SFC title since 1957.
Meath enter the game with the wind in their sails after beating Dublin, but Frayne believes Louth will provide a much sterner challenge in Croke Park this Sunday.
“They obviously had our number the last two times,” said Frayne. “Louth 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 they have any weaknesses.
“They’re strong all around the field and they have obviously lads like Sam and a few others that will take minding.
“They’ve had our number and they’ve just been up for it, they’ve deserved to win the last two times. We can’t have any complaints about the last two times they’ve beaten us. Hopefully now we can right the wrongs of the last two times.”
It was nine times and counting for Meath trying to right the wrongs against Dublin before they ended that winless streak just over a week ago.
And though that result came as a shock to many, those inside the Meath dressingroom were hopeful of upsetting the odds.
“Before the game we had belief that we could win,” added Frayne. “Then when it actually happens it’s probably a different feeling. It’s pure joy, it was unreal, probably celebrated a bit too much at the end.
“It’s hard to put into words, I’m only in the panel there three years but for the likes of Donal Keogan, Cillian O’Sullivan, Bryan Menton and a few older lads, they’ve been getting hammered nearly every year.
“I haven’t felt that but I’d say that’s tough going so I was more happy for them than for me.”
It has been a rollercoaster few weeks for Meath. Their year appeared to be unravelling before the start of the championship when coaches Joe McMahon and Martin Corey quit. And Frayne admits the season was at a crossroads after that jolt.
“It could have went either way, it could have been detrimental,” he said. “Luckily it went the other way, we all knuckled down a bit and said, ‘look, there’s no point dwelling on this, at the end of the day it’s us that’s going to get the slack or the praise’.
“We just had to move on from it and get back to the things you can control and back training.”
At 22, Frayne is one of the youngest senior intercounty captains in the country.
“I was a bit shocked when Robbie [Brennan] said it, maybe I had aspirations of being captain down the line so to come so soon was a bit of a shock,” stated the forward.
“But I didn’t have to think about it, I said yes straight away. It’s a great honour, a great honour for my family and the club as well. It’s what you dream of, especially now we’re in such a fortunate position to be in a Leinster final.”
At Croke Park on Sunday, it could get even better.
