Lessons learned as O'Rourke calls for change to GAA season

Meath manager Colm O'Rourke says he and members of his management team have learned a lot of valuable lessons from their O'Byrne Cup campaign despite failing to reach the final.

He also feels the GAA season needs to be tweaked and changed partly to avoid footballers being asked to play in the kind of stormy conditions that prevailed in Ashbourne.

The Royals needed to defeat Longford at Ashbourne on Wednesday evening to book their place in the showdown but they were unable to do so - and instead had to be happy with a draw only secured by a late, late Aaron Lynch point.

Meath won one (Carlow) and drew two (Laois, Longford) of the three games they played in the pre-season competition with just over 30 players selected.

"We've learned there are a lot of players who are very committed, happy to put on a Meath jersey and work hard in training so from that point of view our whole experience so far with the Meath project has been completely positive," said O'Rourke who recently stepped down as principal of St Patrick's Classical School, Navan.

The value of competitions like the O'Byrne Cup has been questioned by some including the GPA, certainly in the present GAA schedule, and O'Rourke also feels changes need to be made.

"I think the league should be starting a month later and the Sigerson Cup needs to be scheduled before Christmas and competition of any kind doesn't start until February because nights like this is not conducive to football.

"I would like to see the league starting later and the season finishing later, I know that impacts on clubs but the reality is if you have an All-Ireland in August, 28 or 30 teams are gone by July it still gives plenty of time for club competition but it's not a good idea to play football in January."

On the specifics of the game against Longford O'Rourke agreed that the Meath forwards struggled and that is something that will need to be looked at as the countdown to the start of the NFL (and an opening game against Cork) picks up pace.

"The forwards struggled, nobody was able to turn their man and it turned into a little bit of a lottery.

"Now, we maybe didn't deserve to win the game, Longford had a lot of good chances and probably played the better football in the second-half. From that point of view we probably did well to salvage a draw."