Tyrone manager reckons Meath is the best team
Tyrone manager Ger Donnelly and his selectors are of the opinion that Meath go into the decider with the tag of favourite despite the Ulster side's demolition of Cork.
Meath will face Tyrone in the All-Ireland MFC final at Croke Park this Saturday at 1pm in the curtain raiser to the rescheduled semi-final between Tyrone and Kerry.
The Tyrone boys qualified for the decider with an emphatic 14-point (0-23 to 1-6) victory against Cork at O'Connor Park, Tullamore on Saturday afternoon.
Despite failing to convert a first-half penalty, Tyrone were always in control and were ahead by 0-10 to 0-3 at the interval.
Cork goalkeeper Daniel Walsh made a good save from Shea O'Hare's 20th minute spot-kick, but the Ulster boys were totally dominant and could have won by more than the 14-point margin.
They had five points apiece from Ronan Cassidy and Eoin McElholm while substitutes Conor Owens sent over four and Jack Martin accounted for three.
Tyrone manager Ger Donnelly and his selectors are of the opinion that Meath go into the decider with the tag of favourite despite the Ulster side's demolition of Cork.
In a post-match interview Donnelly suggested that this Meath team is the best in the competition.
“From the start of this year, if you’d said who is the team that you’d look at, Meath would be the one,” said Donnelly.
“We played Dublin in a challenge match and the Dublin manager was saying to me that Meath would be very tough to beat.
“Dublin beat us in that challenge and you saw what Meath did to Dublin in the Leinster final.
“It’s easy to look ahead and to think of the excitement but I would imagine once I go and watch Meath’s Leinster final or Meath’s game against Sligo, the smile will be coming off my face very quickly when you realise what’s ahead of us,” he added.
However, the statistics don't back up Donnelly's claim about the Royal County and a close tie is likely.
On the way to the All-Ireland final Tyrone scored 11-71 in three Ulster outings and the semi-final last Saturday.
They negotiated Down, Fermanagh and Donegal conceding nine scores, seven and eight respectively in Ulster and another seven scores against the Munster champions.
On that basis it would appear that Donnelly's primary objective is to take the spotlight away from his own team?
Regardless of that aspect of the build up to the decider, Meath manager Cathal O Bric is relishing the prospects of tackling the Ulster champions on Saturday.
"This will be another big test for us, but we have to concentrate on our own game and stay focused on the challenge," said O Bric.
"We will have a full panel to select from, Oisin (O Murchu) picked up a second yellow card against Sligo, but that should leave him eligible for the final.
"We have a strong bench and the substitutes made a big impact against Sligo last Saturday, that could be important for us again this weekend in what will be a big day in Croke Park for the players and the parents.
"It's a six-day turnaround, but it's the same for us and for Tyrone, we have no issues with it anyway and we are delighted to have the chnace to win an All-Ireland title on Saturday,” concluded the Meath manager.
FACTFILE
PATHS TO THE FINAL
LEINSTER MFC
Semi-final - Meath 1-15, Louth 1-11.
Final - Meath 3-8, Dublin 1-3.
ULSTER MFC
Quarter-final - Tyrone 3-16, Down 0-9.
Semi-final - Tyrone 6-21, Fermanagh 1-6.
Final - Tyrone 2-11, Donegal 1-7.
ALL-IRELAND MFC
Semi-finals - Meath 2-14, Sligo 2-9; Tyrone 0-23, Cork 1-6.
MEATH
Panel - Oisin Black, Daniel Ehichoya, Rian McConnell, Oisin McDermott, Josh Harford, Rian McConnell, Conor Ennis , Liam Kelly, Sean O’Hare, Shaun Leonard, Tomas Corbett, Killian Smyth, Paul Wilson, Jack Kinlough, John O’Regan, Sean Emmanuel, Conor McWeeney, Christian Finaly, Oisin O Murchu, Hughie Corcoran, John Mannion, Andrew Moore, Tadgh Martyn, James Foley, Brian O’Halloran, Adam Matthews, Ajay Tormey, Ben Fraser, Byron Farrell, Dylan Briody, Eoin Gillick, Eoghan Grehan, Eoghan McCloughan, Jack McConnell, Jake Balfe, John Finnerty, Louis Collins, Luke Blake, Luke Conlon, Ronan Byrne, Sean Tyrrell, Thomas Donegan.
TYRONE
Team and substitutes v Cork - Niall Robinson; Michael Rafferty, Callan Kelly, Matthew Mallon; Hugh Cunnningham, Ronan Fox, Shea O’Hare; Ronan Donnelly, Ruairi McHugh; Ronan Strain, Paddy McCann, Gavin Potter; Ronan Cassidy, Cormac Devlin, Eoin McElholm. Subs - Conor Owens, Noah Grimes, Brian Hampsey, Ben Hughes, Jack Martin.