Sunday: Meath v Louth in Leinster JFC final

Meath supporters will head to Croke Park on Sunday for the Leinster JFC final against Louth, 2pm, a game that will be the curtainraiser to the Dublin v Westmeath Leinster SFC semi-final at 4pm.


For Meath manager Conor O’Donoghue this will be his first experience of a provincial decider only two months after he took the reins in preparation for the first round tie against Kildare at Páirc Tailteann a month ago.

Meath won that game by 2-18 to 1-19 and while scoring wasn’t a major poroblem for the Royal County, defending was an issue that the manager and his selectors identified as an area of concern.


“We have some very good players in the panel and some of them will make the step up to the senior team, but we had to address some of our weaknesses, especially in defence,” the manager told the Meath Chronicle.


“Barry Callaghan came in to assist us and we have definitely benefited from his experience on the sideline,” he added.


Two weeks ago Meath tackled the defending Leinster champions (Wexford) in the semi-final and produced a solid performance as they won by 1-17 to 0-10.


“I was pleased with our performance against Wexford and our defending was better, that’s something we will have to take into the final as the Louth forwards are very effective,” added the manager.


“They will also be motivated by the fact that they were beaten in last year’s decider and also by the fact that they will be playing Meath in Croke Park,” he added.

Louth defeated Wicklow in the semi-final by 2-11 to 0-10 with William Woods bagging the goals as they followed up on the quarter-final victory against Longford.


Ollie McDonnell stepped up to the managerial role for Louth this year, he was a selector with Colin Kelly last year.

His selectors are John Neary and Aaron Hoey and they have a good panel of players to select from.


The pace of Louth’s Dean Maguire is something that the Meath half-back line will have to cope with, but it’s likely that Dunsany’s Declan Smyth will be available to fill the centre-back berth after he picked up an injury in the win over Wexford.


“We have a few injury concerns, but we will assess everything this week and the panel will meet up on Saturday and at that stage we should be in a position to name a strong team,” added O’Donogue who has taken a break from club management and is enjoying his first role at inter-county level.

 

SAFETY PROCEDURES

Following a review of safety procedures with the relevant statutory authorities, Croke Park can confirm that as of Sunday, 25 June 2017, patrons will not be permitted to take large bags and backpacks into the stadium for all match day and concert events. Smaller bags will be permitted but may be subject to searches and patrons are urged not to bring bags at all where possible.