Trim can shade the IFC final verdict

It’s an indisputable, undeniable, irrefutable fact that the Meath IFC is a notoriously difficult championship to win.

So many teams have come down from the senior ranks over the years hoping, no doubt fully believing, they can bounce back immediately. 

Then reality strikes. Cold, harsh reality.

Instead of regaining a place at the top table a team can become bogged down in the struggle to escape the second tier and get back into the promised land; the senior ranks.

Some never come back, lost it seems forever in the lower ranks of the local game. Outcasts, left to wander in the wilderness. 

Trim know something about that struggle. They, after all, descended through the senior trapdoor in 2011, bringing the curtain down on nearly 61 years on the big stage.

Since then they have endured their share of disappointments and setbacks; vanquished hopes and crushed ambitions. 

Now they have a golden chance to get back up there again when they face Nobber in Saturday’s IFC final at Pairc Tailteann and there are strong indications that they can seize the day - and their place back with the big hitters.
Of course Nobber will have something to say about all that.

They they will certainly relish those predictions that suggest Trim only have to turn up on the day to claim the Mattie McDonnell Cup.

They will revel in the role of underdog. Nothing, it seems, inspires a team more, especially a team from north Meath, than the suggestion that they will be vanquished. 

And, in truth, the statistics so far suggest there is not very much between the two teams, in fact their records are remarkably similar.

Over the course of the championship so far Trim scored a combined total of 116 points; conceding 96 in seven games - a difference of 20. Nobber have notched 115 points with the concession of 97 - a difference of 18. 

As the stats show over the course of a lengthy championship campaign the difference between what they have scored and conceded is miniscule, almost identicial - suggesting that Sunday’s showdown will be close. Very close indeed.

Nobber - who last won an IFC in 2010 - have already indicated that the underdog tag lights a fire. In the semi-final they were pitted against a fancied Castletown side who up to then, were having a great campaign with some justifiably predicting they could go all the way to the summit. 

Instead, Nobber, who played with 14 men for the second-half and who actually finished with 13, were inspired by Brian Farrell who ransacked the hopes of the Castletown men winning by 2-18 to 1-17 after extra-time.

Farrell, a wonderful servant to club and county, showed in that game he can still do the business; he can still terrorise opponents either from play or frees.

Granted 1-7 of that 2-10 was scored from placed balls with the goal coming from a well-struck penalty, but he’s more than just a score-getter for his team, he’s an inspiration, a leader. He can bring others into play - if he gets a steady supply of ball. 

An impressive feature of the Nobber win over Castletown was the fact that seven players got on the scoresheet, a commendable spread of scores.

As well as Farrell, Sean Meade, Jordan Morris, Fiachra McEntee and Stephen O’Brien are others who can punish opponents. 

Nobber at times have shown a certain vulnerability in defence (conceding scores like 2-10 against Drumbaragh, 2-9 against Kilmainham and that 1-17 in the last four) yet they clearly have the scoring powering to compensate. 

Yet Trim can claim the coveted piece of silverware.

Why?

Well, anyone who watched them play Oldcastle couldn’t but be struck by the quality of their performance; their defensive fortitude but more impressively by their fluency and attacking verve.

If Nobber have a marquee marksman in seasoned campaigner Farrell, Trim have one too in skilful youngster Aaron Lynch.

He hit 1-7 in his team’s semi-final win and did much more besides, his pacy runs just one of his talents. 

Unlike many players these days he often prefers to take frees from the ground - and invariably he scores.

Given a sight on goal from play and he will finish also. He also earns a sizeable quota of frees. Lynch along with Alan Douglas and Brian Dowling are parts of a formidable forward division.

James Toher is also a central figure, cutting out opposition attacks while powering forward to take scores at the other end.

As a team Trim can be hard to stop once they get moving. 

The records show the last time Trim won the IFC was 1949.

Time they won it again.