Growing injury list a major concern for McEntee

There is a sense that Andy McEntee's post-match interviews after tough NFL Div 1 games will follow a similar line.

'Proud of the effort.' 'Frustrating at times.' 'We need to be at our best.'
Those comments applied after each of Meath's Super 8s defeats by Donegal, Mayo and Kerry last summer.
They were apt following last Sunday's NFL Div 1 defeat by Tyrone, and one suspects they will also be true on several more occasions before this league campaign is out.
As Meath manager McEntee stood with his back against the clubhouse wall in Healy Park he might have expected some probing questions to come his way, but the press pack was kind – well aware of Meath's limitations at this lofty level and the timeline of their progression.
No-one hounded McEntee. No-one demanded to know where it all went wrong. In fact it was quite the opposite as those firing the questions wanted to know how it all went so right for most of the first-half, before eventually all going so wrong.
“It certainly was frustrating in that we did a lot of good things in the opening half and we didn’t avail of the opportunities that we created,” said the Meath manager.
“Playing the better class of teams if you don’t take your chances it is always likely to come back and haunt you and it probably did that there today.
“Not scoring those two early goal opportunities had a big bearing, we did well to create them and we looked like creating a few more.
"Tyrone probably learned a bit and tightened up, there was a bit of a breeze there and they found it a little easier to get scores than we did in the second-half.
“We went a lengthy period without a score in the second-half, Tyrone were dominating possession in that period as well.
“A team like ourselves, on a learning curve, need to take every opportunity that comes our way to be able to deal with teams like Tyrone.
"We didn’t do it; physically I don’t think there was a whole pile in it, I thought our lads looked as well conditioned as Tyrone.”
Meath's afternoon got off to a nightmare start with regular goalkeeper Andy Colgan suffering a knee injury in the warm up and he was forced out of the game.
That left McEntee having to call on young Meath Hill custodian Dominic Yorke and the manager admitted it was a high pressure situation for the reserve goalkeeper to have to come in and face.
“It was very unfortunate for Andy Colgan, he damaged his knee in the warm up, we don’t know the extent of it yet, we will just have to wait and see,” McEntee revealed.
“It was a difficult situation bringing him (Dominic Yorke) in at such short notice, but that is what he is there for. Some of these things are out of our control.”
While more than holding their own in an impressive first-half showing McEntee felt that Meath needed to do more from their own kick-outs and he opted to take Yorke out of the firing line, bringing in Barry Dardis.
“That is a pressure situation for a young lad who hasn’t played at this level before, so we thought it (the substitution) was the right thing to do.
“There is definitely an issue there with our kick-outs, we didn’t retain as much possession as we would have liked.”
Colgan is the latest addition to an already extensive injury list and McEntee gave an update on his casualties.
“Mickey Newman is gone for the league, Shane McEntee is a couple of weeks away, Seamus Lavin is a couple of weeks further away, Padraic Harnan is further away again, Donal Lenihan is probably a couple of weeks away,” he explained.
“That is the nature of the game, we would like to have a favourable wind all the way through. I suppose last year we had a very good run without getting any injuries.
“Most of these lads needed operations at the start of the year and it is something that is out of our control,” he insisted.
With so much to focus on, McEntee also feels that the new rules have been a major distraction.
There were no major issues with the rules on Sunday, but between trying to manage injured players, analyse the opposition, implement a game plan and everything else that goes along with preparing an inter-county side McEntee was at pains trying to get his head around the rules situation.
“The whole new rules thing, here we are talking about rules, this day last week we didn’t even know what the rules were, they weren’t even finalised at that stage,” he said.
“We were supposed to have somebody talk to us last Saturday about the rules and we were told, sorry we can’t come down because we haven’t got them finalised yet.
“I was at a club game yesterday and whatever about trying to deal with it out there with four officials, how are you going to deal with it at club level?” questioned the Meath manager.
McEntee will have to quickly put Sunday's disappointment behind him and his players.

Next Sunday Donegal will return to Navan and after meeting them three times last year McEntee is well aware of the strengths Declan Bonner's side will bring.
“We know if we don’t compete physically with Donegal then we are in trouble,” said McEntee.
“We know who their danger men are that need to be marked, I think we have a bit to do on that.
"However, conceding just 1-5 today in the first half, I think that’s a good defensive performance, but we need to be able to continue that for the whole game,” he concluded.