Impressive start for first Meath Schools side

LEINSTER COLLEGES SFC Excellent win for Kevin Reilly's charges

The experiment of placing a Meath Schools combined team into the Leinster Colleges SFC got off to a dream start in Greashill on Saturday evening, as Kevin Reilly’s charges recovered from a slow start to deliver an impressive victory in their first outing of the year, securing another knockout clash against Maynooth Educational Campus next weekend, writes Kevin Egan.

While every year is a blank slate for any of the combined teams in this competition, Offaly have a longer history of competing at this level, and while the Faithful County side wouldn’t have anything like the same number of schools to pick from as their Royal County counterparts, with just seven eligible schools and five that choose to take part, their familiarity with the concept showed in the early exchanges when they kicked the first four points, looking sharper in most sectors of the field.

The tension and nervousness on the Meath side was palpable, but that was until Shea McManus ghosted in behind the Offaly full-back line to pick up a pass from Gearóid O’Malley, and after drawing Donncha Keoghan out of the Offaly goal to close him down, he floated a perfect handpass across the square to set up a simple palmed finish for Joey Curtis.

Offaly’s reply was immediate, palming in a goal of their own through corner forward Billy Quinn, but now the Meath side were in the game, and their attacking potential began to shine through. McManus touched in a second goal after he and Evan Kelly reacted first to Gearóid O’Malley’s blocked shot, and that was followed by excellent points from Kelly and Aidan Roche.

“With the nature of the team, where you have 10 schools coming together, it does take a bit of time to get to grips with a style of play. We’ve been together, meeting once a week for six or seven weeks, so we’re still finding our feet. But after the first 10 minutes you could see glimpses of the quality we have in this team when they found their flow” said manager Kevin Reilly after the game.

“The big thing for us was retaining possession in that first half, and making the ball stick. We probably were authors of our own downfall for long periods because of the erratic nature of our passing. But once we got to grips with that, you saw some incredible moves from a highly talented bunch, we opened them up for three or four goal chances in the first half alone”.

In what turned out to be a highly entertaining contest in front of a surprisingly large crowd, there were plenty of chances at both ends. O’Malley and Kyle O’Brien capitalised on turnovers at midfield to kick good scores, Offaly replied to draw the game level at half-time (1-7 to 2-4) and if anything, it was the home side who would have felt that they should have converted their dominance in terms of possession and territory into a decent lead. The second half was the opposite, with Meath schools playing clearly the better football, but still struggling to shake off a resilient challenge from their opponents. Cathal Barron and Shea McManus took control of the battle for kickouts at midfield, to the point that the late injury that saw Barron carried off will be a real concern for the team management, while full back Ciarán O’Hare was superb throughout, doing a great marking job on a highly rated attacker in Mark Bryant.

However the individual star of the show was neither from Offaly nor Meath, but he did wear an Offaly jersey. Evan Boyle of Carbury, a student at Oaklands College in Edenderry, was a constant threat and after he slotted in the only goal of the second half and followed up with a pointed free, Offaly briefly led by 2-9 to 2-7, with 38 minutes gone.

For the next 20 minutes, Meath were in complete control, kicking five points in a row. There were plenty of misses too, both from open play and from dead balls, but once David Regan levelled the game with 10 to play, there only looked like one winner.

A little bit of white line fever saw Offaly hit two frees in stoppage time, the latter an attempt on goal from Boyle that fizzed inches over the bar with the last kick, but that wasn’t nearly enough to take the gloss off this hugely promising first outing for this fledgling initiative.

“I think that type of game will stand to them” said Reilly. “A lot of them had to play u-19 fixtures last night and today which unfortunately didn’t help matters, but it’s a credit to them that they were mad for action and delighted to be involved.

“We have 31 players in there who are mad for football and keep to represent the Meath schools team, there’s a want for it there, and you can see that in the crowd there tonight as well, so with a little bit of co-operation from the fixtures committee and the schools, this can work.

“There’s a place for this, there’s a place for lads who don’t get the chance to play ‘A’ football with their own school to show what they can do and to pull on a Meath jersey with this team”.

Meath Schools - Jamie O’Reilly (Navan O’Mahony’s/Coláiste na Mí); Eoghan Leahy (Dunshaughlin/Dunshaughlin CC), Ciarán O’Hare (Rathkenny/O’Carolan College), Edward Dunne (Ballivor/Boyne CS); Eoin McCrudden (St Peter’s/St Peter’s CC), David Regan (Moynalvey/Boyne CS 0-1), Kyle O’Brien (St Colmcille’s/Coláiste na hInse 0-1); Cathal Barron (Dunderry/Boyne CS), Shea McManus (Drumbaragh/St Ciarán’s 1-1); Michael Hoey (Kilmainhamwood/S. Ciarán’s 0-1), Joey Curtis (Rathkenny/O’Carolan College 1-0), Ciarán Sheridan (Dunderry/Boyne CS); Gearóid O’Malley (St Michael’s/O’Carolan College 0-4 three frees), Evan Kelly (Donaghmore Ashbourne/Coláiste de Lacy 0-3), Aidan Roche (Kilmainhamwood/O’Carolan College 0-1). Subs - Aaron McGee (Ballivor/Boyne CS) for Leahy 19m, Ciarán Sheridan (Dunshaughlin/Dunshaughlin CC) for Curtis 37m, Lewis Cassidy (Na Fianna/Enfield CC)for Sheridan (Dunderry 57m), Charlie Murphy (Carnaross/St Ciaráns) for Barron (61m).

Offaly Schools - Donncha Keoghan; Kyle Kilmurray, Paul Conway, Darragh Mannion; Shane Marsden, Luke Fitzgerald, Conor Egan; Evan Boyle (1-6 five frees), Ciarán McKeon; Jake Maher, Brian Carroll (0-1), Lee Moore; Mark Bryant (0-2), Cameron Egan, Billy Quinn (1-1). Subs - Éanna Mulhare (0-1) for Moore 26m, Eoghan Meacle for Bryant 45m, Gavin Egan for Mannion 52m, David Coughlan for McKeon 58m.

Referee – Jamie McDonald (Laois).