‘I hope that when supporters come to watch us they will recognise the hard work the lads are doing on the pitch’

NFL DIV 2 PREVIEW Brennan emphasises one day at a time approach

From as soon as Robbie Brennan guided Kilmacud Crokes to All-Ireland Club SFC success he was touted as the new Meath senior football manager.

When Colm O'Rourke took over from Andy McEntee at the end of 2022 he was very pragmatic that his tenure might only be a short one, but that his aim was to pass on the baton with Meath football in a better place.

As results and performances failed to continue on an upward curve following the Tailteann Cup success of 2023 the pressure was heaped on O'Rourke and while he obviously more time to mould his young side in his image he wasn't afford that opportunity by the Co Board.

Once it was clear that a new manager was being sought, then Brennan's name was the obvious choice. With Kilmacud Crokes going for their fourth Dublin title in succession the former St Peter's Dunboyne player was busy.

However when the call came to throw his hat in the Royal ring Brennan was ready and enthusiastic.

Just four months into the job Brennan is enjoying his role and while he has found it very busy he is delighted with the work being put in by the players - and there has been plenty of players.

"It's been great, it's very enjoyable. The first few weeks were tricky with (Kilmacud) Crokes still tipping away and we were trying to get everything balanced and ready and get phone calls made to lads," Brennan told the Meath Chronicle.

"Once we got out on the pitch for training it has been really good. The lads have put their heads down and have worked really hard as you would expect.

"We haven't had that long together, but it has been good so far.

"The Regional Championship was a big part of our process to look at players. We had a good handle on a lot of the players anyway, but until you get them in and as part of the set up it is hard to make a call.

"We are still in the process of looking at players. We are getting closer and Cork are looming on the horizon.

"Standards are probably as expected. Obviously I would have watched a lot of Meath's games and I would also have watched the club championship closely.

"There is one or two lads putting their hands up who weren't originally in our thought process and that is great to see.

"There has been no major surprises since we went in. We have never thought 'my God we are miles off it or miles ahead'. We are pretty happy with what we have been looking at.

"The numbers are telling us we are pretty decent, but there is obviously loads to do, but we are happy where we are at at the minute.

"Some of the tests at the start showed we might have been off in some of the numbers, but that could be down to the gap the lads have had since they were knocked out of last year's championship and now they are starting again.

"In a normal year you might have focused more on that info, but the fact there are new rules means that everything that happened before is now null and void, tactically, S & C wise and numbers wise.

"It's a new game with new data, so we are really only looking at the new numbers we are getting in from training and challenge matches."

The rules enhancements, as they are known, that were put forward by the Jim Gavin-led Football Review Committee are intended to open up the game of Gaelic football and make it more free-scoring and free-flowing.

There are also changes to the rules that will impact the discipline of players and sideline officials and while Brennan believes that the changes were necessary he doesn't envisage too many issues with the application of the new rules.

"Understandably at the start everybody was thinking 'it's a new game with new rules', but the more you get to see it and watch other games I don't think it is a whole pile different," suggested Brennan.

"What we are seeing now is teams are just going out and playing and letting the rules fall into place around them.

"It hasn't been dramatically different. There are obviously areas with the three up and the kickouts, but generally I think people will find that after they watch a couple of games it's not a whole pile different, at least that's the way I'm thinking at the minute.

"Something certainly had to happen. Even during the good times there was some awful boring stuff and you would often be going 'oh my God this is shocking'. It was just the way the game had gone.

"The three up will make a big difference and the kickout has totally changed the game. There will be very few short kickouts now and you will predominantly be going long and you'll have to be good out there.

"That is fine for us, we will embrace it and welcome it. I don't know if it has been scaremongering, it was probably just the fear of the unknown, but when you see two or three games you'll see that it's not that much different.

"Obviously there are a few things to figure out. The goalkeeper one I'm not too sure about, it's one that might be tweaked because if teams really went after it it could cause major concerns, but we'll see how it goes after three, four or five games.

"If a good team wants to keep the ball in a 12 v 11 situation, you'll do well to get it back off them.

"We have looked at both scenarios in training in terms of bringing the goalkeeper up and also leaving him back, we also tried it in one of the challenge games.

"Whether we use it or not will probably come down to who we are playing, what way they set up and what their threats are, but you won't know that until you play, it's a bit of an experiment for the first two or three games.

"I love it (solo and go), it hasn't been utilised a whole lot in the games I've seen, but I think it is one that when teams have a good look at it they will realise they are missing out by not using it.

"I think we'll see loads of it across the National League. There are massive benefits, you can catch teams out with it. It is something we are working on, we haven't used it a whole pile because it's just not in players heads yet."

One of the areas Meath have struggled over the last few years is finding a level of consistency that makes them competitive, not just across a whole campaign, but even within games.

Brennan obviously believes that the solution to those type of issues is to bring back quality, experienced players to supplement the outstanding young talent at his disposal.

"It is massive have experienced players around and they are all good lads. They've captained Meath at times, they've gone through some of the good stuff and some of the bad stuff, so they've had the full experience," said the new manager.

"First and foremost in my opinion they are brilliant players so it is great to have them back in. Obviously they automatically lead and they tend to be a bit more vocal around the place, so they are a big plus for us."

For the last two years Meath avoided relegation by a single point, so it would be fair tom assume that Brennan doesn't want to have it so close and nervous in his first year.

However, the new manager doesn't believe in setting targets. He wasn't to see continuous improvement and if that happens from training session to training session and from game to game then he will be happy.

"I'm not one for targets. It's more about the next training session, the next game, the next meeting and seeing can we improve, what can we learn, where are the areas that we can get better," he said.

"That is really what we are going at with this group. It is session to session and we will continue to do it like that.

"Of course if we can, we want to stay up in Division 2 because it is a really competitive division, then we want to see how well we can do in that division.

“Is it possible to stay high up the table rather than down the other end?

"To be honest I don't think anybody really knows just where they are. We are heading to Pairc Ui Chaomh with no idea what Cork are doing or their personnel. This league will be very much an experimental competition.

"We want to keep a narrow focus, eyes on the next training session and see where we can improve.

"Roscommon and Monaghan coming down from Div 1, I know we have them in Navan, but they are top, top teams. We literally haven't targeted anything, it is very much about focusing on the first thing on the horizon.

"It is probably a division where we will see teams take points off each other, that is usually what happens.

"You would suspect Roscommon and Monaghan are the top teams along with Cork, but you only have to look at Down and Louth, Westmeath and Cavan and see how well they have done. It is going to be one of those divisions that we will just have to play it by ear and see how we go game from game.

"We haven't targetted any individuals game thinking we might get a point there or two points there. Just because we have Roscommon and Monaghan at home isn't a massive boost because they have just come down from Div 1 and they'll be excellent.

"We have to take it training session by training session and game by game.

“It is the only way you can improve, if you look too far ahead with great ideas or great plans you will get yourself tripped up somewhere along the way.

"I don't think there is any doubt that the talent is there within the county. We have seen it at underage with the work that Paul (Garrigan) is doing with the academy and what Cathal (O Bric) and John McCarthy have done over the last few years it should give everybody huge confidence for the future.

"As I have already said I'm not into long term planning. I believe we should be as competitive as we can in the very next training session or the very next game.

"There is a great bunch there. My hope is that when the supporters come to watch us they will recognise the hard work that the lads are doing on the pitch. If they can see that in how we tackle, how we track back and how we try to make contact that will show what we are doing on the training pitch because they are working so hard.

"We can always scream for the goals and the points, that's natural, but I'd love our supporters to be able to recognise how hard our lads are working on the pitch when they watch Meath play," concluded the manager.