Meath clinch O'Byrne Cup

Meath ended a 10-year wait for a seventh O'Byrne Cup title as they comfortably saw off the challenge of Longford by 1-17 to 1-11 at Pairc Tailteann today.

Sunday’s final could have been a much stiffer test if Donal Keogan and Harry Rooney had combined superbly to deny James McGivney a goal chance after just three minutes and after playing second fiddle for the opening five minutes it was Meath who opened the scoring with Mickey Newman converting a free.

Barry McKeon replied with a huge point to level it up, but that was the only time Longford were on terms as two magnificent points from man-of-the-match Graham Reilly and an even better score from Cillian O’Sullivan shoved Meath into a 0-4 to 0-1 advantage after 12 minutes.

Francis McGee pointed a 13-metre free which could have been a penalty after Mickey Burke appeared to foul McGee inside the large square, but from that let off Meath kicked on again with Darragh Smyth, Newman (free) and Reilly on target to make it 0-7 to 0-2.

With such a comfortable lead Meath seemed to sit back and invite pressure for the second quarter.

McGivney was denied again by a brilliant Alan Douglas block and after McGee pointed a free, Longford got right back in the game as the Meath defence fell asleep and allowed McGee, Donal McElligott and Colm Smyth knit together a few tight passes before laying a goal on a plate for Robbie Smyth to slap to the net from on the goal line.

Meath’s five-point cushion was whittled down to one, but Newman ended a 19-minute barren spell with a converted free before further points from Reilly and Newman (free) handed the hosts a 0-10 to 1-3 interval advantage.

The opening two minutes of the second-half saw Longford narrow the gap with McGee and Robbie Smyth pointing either side of another Reilly score to make it 1-5 to 0-11 and when Donal Lenihan and Liam Connerton exchanged scores the issue was still up for grabs with a half-hour remaining.

However four minutes later the game was put to bed. A magnificent run from Newman saw him sell defenders a couple of dummies before he released O’Sullivan one-on-one with Paddy Collum and the Moynalvey made no mistake with a cool finish to make it 1-12 to 1-6.

Sean Tobin and Reilly stretched the advantage to eight points at the three-quarters mark and even after Robbie Smyth and Michael Brady replied with points for Longford it was still Meath in the ascendancy as Lenihan and Tobin found the target again to make it 1-16 to 1-8.

Darragh Smyth had a goal chance well smothered by Collum and Meath had a let off down the other end when Robbie Smyth’s punched effort looped over Paddy O’Rourke, but was cleared by a combination of the post and Darragh Smyth before McGee converted the resultant '45’.

Substitute Ruairi O Coileain closed Meath’s account with seven minutes remaining and even though Longford got the last two scores of the contest through McGee (one free) it was the Royals who celebrated.