Oldcastle's Paddy Gilsenan claims possession for Meath ahead of Louth's Derek Crilly during Saturday night's Fitzsimons Cup FT game at Pairc Tailteann.

McEnaney's team takes shape for NFL

Published: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 5:00 PM

The provisional fixture list for the 2012 NFL campaign was released last week and threw up an appetising Div 2 clash for Meath with Monaghan scheduled to visit Navan in the opening round on Saturday 4th February. Meath manager Seamus McEnaney will begin his second NFL Div 2 campaign in charge of the Royal County with a home game against his native Monaghan and that is sure to add extra spice to a fixture that is generally highly regarded anyway. "I'm a keen competitor and will want to start our campaign with a victory. That's a couple of months away yet, but I'm happy enough, it will be the first game of the NFL and the fact that it's Monaghan will add a little bit of spice to the mix and to the dressing rooms," suggested McEnaney. Meath have received a relatively kind draw for the NFL with home games against Monaghan, Kildare, Derry and Louth and away trips to Westmeath, Galway and Tyrone. McEnaney will hope to get off to a winning start against Monaghan and the following weekend they will have a great chance to put back-to-back wins together when they travel to face Westmeath in Mullingar on Saturday 11th February. Kildare will visit Pairc Tailteann on Saturday 3rd March and eight days later Meath are scheduled to travel to Galway before another home game against Derry on Sunday 18th March. A trip to Omagh to face Tyrone (24th March) will be followed by the final game at home to arch rivals Louth on Sunday 8th April. The proposed schedule for the NHL was also revealed with Meath due to get their Div 2B campaign underway with a home game against Kildare on Sunday 26th February. On Sunday 11th March the hurlers will travel to Mayo and can also look forward to spending St Patrick's weekend in London. The final two games will be at home to Roscommon (25th March) and away to Armagh (Sunday 1st April). Some of the games that are proposed for Saturday evenings could be fixed for Sunday afternoons due to the safety issues at Pairc Tailteann. Those issues could be addressed at the annual convention at Aras Tailteann on Saturday 10th December, 4.30. This year's convention will be the first to be held in the newly deveoped admisistartion hub and, in another break with tradition, it will also be staged on a Saturday for the first time "The reason for the change of the day for the convention is because there could be a clash with the Leinster Cub SFC final," explained chairman Barney Allen. "If Summerhill were to get to the final it could affect the numbers at the convention, but even if Summerhill don't make it to the final there is a possibility the decider could be held in Pairc Tailteann and that could cause problems for the convention," he added. Allen will seek re-election for the last year of his five-term and several other officers are also likely to run for their final terms including secretary Cyril Creavin, Leinster Council delegate Paddy Kelly, treasurer Pat Clerkin, assistant-secretary Francis Flynn and youth officer Peter O'Halloran.