Dual player has key roles for Meath
Meath Chronicle Sports Editor Conall Collier spoke to Meath dual star James Toher ahead of this weekend's crucial trip to play Cork in the NFL Div 2. Toher has been included in the starting 15 for Sunday's encounter and he will line out at midfield with Bryan Menton only seven days after helping the Meath hurlers to victory in the NHL Div 2B against Mayo at Ballina last Sunday.
Toher did not feature for Meath in last night's re-fixed NHL Div 2B game against Roscommon at Ashbourne - a game Meath won by 2-16 to 1-16.
CHRONICLE INTERVIEW (LAST SUNDAY)
Meath will make the trip south this weekend for a crucial NFL Div 2 game against a Cork team that lost to Clare, a county more noted for its hurling exploits, last time out.
Vying for a place on Andy McEntee’s starting 15 next Sunday is a player who would also have been more noted for his hurling exploits, until recently anyway.
Meath’s Christy Ring Cup-winning captain James Toher has answered the call of the footballers, although last Sunday he featured for the hurlers in a crucial NHL Div 2B victory against Mayo at Ballina.
The previous week, at Páirc Táilteann, he made his fourth appearance of the year for the footballers in what was a crucial NFL Div 2 victory against Galway.
That victory revived the prospects of promotion in a division that will not be decided until the final round of games - when Meath make the trip to Ennis to tackle Clare on Sunday 2nd April.
The dual player is a tag that can be accurately applied to the Trim clubman, but before he contemplates the possibility of inclusion in the panel for the trip to Cork, there is a re-fixed NHL Div 2B game on the agenda this Thursday night at Ashbourne.
A trip to Ashbourne would be quite convenient for Toher, he could actually take in the game on his way home from work.
It's a hectic schedule playing both football and hurling, but Toher is not complaining and is proud to wear the Meath jersey.
“The schedule can be fairly hectic, but I’m not complaining. I suppose I get a bit of a break at work in Ashbourne Community School, well, I have to walk around the classroom a bit, but that’s not too demanding,” he told the Meath Chronicle after arriving home from Ballina with the hurlers on Sunday night.
“This is my first year in Ashbourne, before that I was teaching in Boyne CS in Trim, all the students there knew who I was.
“It was a bit differenet with the new job last September, but a lot of the students in Ashbourne had an idea about my identity and there would be a bit of Dublin or Fingal influence as well,” he added.
Rest isn’t an issue for the Trim footballer and hurler and he is just happy to have the opportunity to play both codes for his county.
“Overall, there wouldn’t be much time for rest, there would be some form of training almost every night, but then there are rewards also,” he said.

“There aren’t too many dual players around at the moment, it’s a privileged position from my point of view although it can be very demanding at times.

“But you have to remember that all this effort is for Meath, that’s very rewarding, although there are no guarantees that I will be on either team.

“It’s a week by week type of thing, am I going to be included in the plans?
“This year, in fairness to Andy McEntee, he was open to the possibility of mixing the hurling the the football, as was Martin Ennis.

“There hasn’t been any ultimatums, to make a choice between football and hurling, I’ve been playing hurling for Meath for four or five years at this stage so I suppose from my perspective, I’m trying to make the breakthrough on the football team, to get established in the panel.
“I had a chat with Martin (Ennis) on the way home from the game against Mayo and he’s looking for me to do some hurling this week before the football training and then there is the game against Roscommon on Thursday night.

“There are a number of permutations in the hurling at the moment that might make the games against Roscommon and Wicklow, the final two games in the group, less important, but that has to be clarified.

“It’s competitive for places on both teams and that’s probably the best way to have it, there is definitely no complacency.
“In relation to the football I’ve been lucky enough to feature in the last few games.

“I would have a specific role in each game and it’s going to come down to that now for the trip to Cork at the weekend.
“It will all depend on what tactics the manager and selectors decide on and if I’m included then that will be a bonus for me.

“I’m also struggling a little bit with a few knocks and that could be the deciding factor, it’s a bit of an unknown at the moment.
“I probably needed the game against Mayo to improve my touch, so it was good to get the chance, but when you are playing Mayo it’s always going to be a challenge.

“They gave us a hiding in Trim last year, out of nowhere, so we were expecting a tight game this time around and it was great to get the win, that was the main thing.

“In the football I have the advantage of using the left foot so that’s a positive, I’ve been taking frees for Trim in the football for years, so to do the same for Meath last week wasn’t anything new.

“I wasn’t complaining about it when I was asked to do it, to take some frees, it’s an added responsibility that I’m quite comfortable with,” he added with enthusiasm.
And with the big game in Cork only a matter of days away, what are the prospects for another start at midfield for the in-demand Trim player, and a Meath victory?
“At the moment, this week, I’m hoping to make the squad for Cork, but a lot of lads have been in the stand lately and I hope I’m not one of them this weekend, it’s a lonely place when the team is out on the pitch,” he suggested.

“The mood amongst the players is good, we all know we didn’t get the result we were hoping for against Down, but the win against Galway was what we wanted and needed.
“We have to keep on winning, in the football and the hurling, that’s the ultimate goal,” he concluded.
NFL DIV 2 FIXTURES
Saturday - Down v Kildare.
Sunday - Fermanagh v Clare; Cork v Meath; Galway v Derry.