All-Ireland Football Semi-Final - Meath 2-15 Mayo 1-15:THOSE ROYALS. This is not the most feared or feted Meath team that ever ran out in Croke Park, but they are as honest as the best of their predecessors.
Also-rans in Leinster, deemed ordinary by most and outsiders coming into this All-Ireland quarter-final, the statistics do not lie. Meath are back in the last four of the Sam Maguire race for the second time in three years.
Faint shades of 1996 here as they served up a loss to a Mayo team who looked eminently capable of winning the match, but could not close the deal.
So Meath, that hardiest of summer flowers, join the formidable trinity of Tyrone, Kerry and Cork in the last four. Meath boss Eamonn O’Brien described their status best. “The cuckoo in the nest,” he mused afterwards.
It may be true Meath progress with a more modest array of weaponry at their disposal than the big three. But few teams could transform such an unpromising situation – 1-12 to 1-8 deficit with 51 minutes gone – into a rampant affirmation of the core belief system that has sustained the Royal football programme for the last three decades.
After Cian Ward drilled home the penalty that brought Meath back into contention, the match was still up for grabs going into the last seven minutes, 1-13 to 2-10. But for whatever reason, Meath’s boldness and commitment and self-belief visibly magnified over that closing period while Mayo’s qualities steadily drained away.
It was as though the Meath men could smell Mayo’s doubt and they fed on it. The finish was ruthless, direct, simple and irrepressible.
The excellent Joe Sheridan got a fist to a long ball from Anthony Moyles and deflected the point that began the Royal march. Jamie Queeney sauntered on to Croke Park and landed the kind of point that reminded us that this place is a second home to Meath men. Then Nigel Crawford ran through unchallenged and clipped a point.
An argument that had hung uneasily in the balance for an hour had suddenly capitulated to the Meath men’s persuasions. Once again, there was much to admire about the endeavour and application of Meath and once again a Mayo football team left Croke Park nursing the knowledge that when they strip away the layers of this day, they beat themselves.
In both halves of the game, Mayo led by four points but twice they blinked instead of pulling away from Meath. It was a failure they acknowledged soon after the match. As ever with Mayo, their luck turned black on a couple of odd and curious moments.
In the first half, Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke cradled an Alan Dillon shot in his arms, but seemed to drift behind his own goal line. And Meath’s second goal came from a penalty when David Bray claimed a long sideline ball that should have gone to Mayo. However, Mayo were not inclined to dwell on the significance of what Andy Moran dismissed as “a petty thing like a line ball”.
But they did look slightly stunned after the Meath goal. Just seconds earlier, Mayo had been celebrating at the other end when Aidan O’Shea got a fist to Trevor Mortimer’s driven delivery.
They had been playing with purpose in the minutes before that, with the outstanding Keith Higgins breaking up field to score one of the points of the day.
Their goal had their faithful support shouting loud and the path to the semi-final beckoned. But they managed just a single free from Conor Mortimer for the remainder of normal time – the Shrule man added two more consolation scores late on, but by then the game was up.
It was a mixed bag for Mayo. They had several outstanding performers in Andy Moran, Higgins and Alan Dillon while Aidan Kilcoyne played with the devil’s fury until a shoulder injury forced him off. But the team never fully fired and looked haunted by old doubts over those last five minutes.
Meath’s greatest virtue is they do not entertain self-doubt. They could have used the excuse of losing Stephen Bray here, but they refused. They could have quietly accepted that they had hit the wall in the first 15 minutes, but did not.
They scored 1-10 in the second half and, despite the senior Bray’s absence, the full-forward line unhinged a previously solid Mayo defence. David Bray had an excellent game, Brian Farrell found his range at the critical time and Sheridan directed all traffic as well as landing four points from play.
Nigel Crawford had a towering match and senior duo Anthony Moyles and Caoimhin King know their way around this theatre.
Now Meath have three weeks of respite to prepare for the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry. Onwards and upwards for the fearless Royals. No better men to be throw into the Coliseum.
