Humiliating defeat

The huge strides made during the run to the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals last year suffered a giant knock at Pairc na nGael on Saturday evening as Meath were humiliated by Limerick in a one-sided All-Ireland SFC qualifier. Not in living memory have Meath ever endured such a thoroughly embarrassing evening, and that is no disrespect to an excellent Limerick side that were worthy winners by more than their nine-point margin of victory suggests. Rarely, if ever, have Meath found themselves 20 points adrift of any side at any stage of a championship match, but with a quarter of Saturday"s first round qualifier remaining the visitors were in that position trailing by 0-3 to 4-11. It was all too much for many of the loyal Meath supporters and some opted to commence their long journey home earlier than expected and with their tails between their legs. There can be no glossing over how atrocious Meath were. The four late goals that arrived in an eight minute period only served to paper over the cracks that have appeared in the Meath team in recent months. Following the game manager Colm Coyle questioned whether he could take the team any further, while two of the county"s greatest players, Darren Fay and Graham Geraghty, decided to call it quits. It was Meath"s day of reckoning. On this evidence the future looks very bleak for Meath. Since the highs of reaching the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals last year, Meath have gone steadily backwards. The 10-point drubbing by Cork in that semi-final should have served as a warning, and since then all Meath have managed is to defeat the worst intercounty team in the country, Carlow, and surrender a 10-point lead against Wexford. People can look at the opening half against Wexford and say how great Meath were, but Saturday"s terrible performance will once again cast major doubts into Meath"s belief that their standing is amongst the upper echelons of the GAA hierarchy. It is often better to be lucky than good, but Meath were neither on Saturday evening. They looked totally out of sorts and bereft of ideas. They ran down blind alleys, over-elaborated at times and defended like kittens, it was almost unbearable to watch. As for luck, well if they didn"t have bad luck, they would have had no luck at all. Two of Limerick"s goals resulted from efforts that rebounded off the upright and slack passing generally meant the ball found the way into Limerick arms. It was one of those evenings where everything that could go wrong, did. True to their style, Limerick were superb. They played the possession game magnificently and ran at Meath from every department. The Royals had no answer to the swamping attack of the Shannonsiders and it was gut-wrenching to see a player of the calibre of Fay endure a torrid time on the outstanding Ian Ryan. Ryan finished with a personal tally of 3-7, but many of those scores were gifted to him as the Meath rearguard were left totally exposed. Fay was willing, but the legs weren"t able and 19-year-old Ryan tested the Trim man to his limits. The majority of Meath"s problems came further out the field. Attack is meant to be the first line of defence, but that was blunt. Meath never got going in the forward division and that allowed Stephen Lavin, Johnny McCarthy and Pa Ranahan steam forward from the back to wreck havoc. As if those players bombing forward weren"t enough, Limerick also enjoyed total dominance at midfield where Nigel Crawford worked hard to limit the threat of Jim Donovan and the outstanding John Galvin. Meath were just terrible. None of the defenders did themselves justice. Niall McKeigue and Caoimhin King had horrible games and while Eoghan Harrington did have some good moments they were blinded by the pure dominance of Limerick. After a bright start by Limerick it was Cian Ward who opened the scoring when he finished a move that started with Brendan Murphy"s booming kickout and included decent play from Crawford, Mark Ward and Alan Nestor. However, that was as good as it got for Meath. Limerick levelled through a Ryan free after six minutes and Meath never had their noses in front again. Crawford"s attempted hand pass to Mark Ward was intercepted and from the loss of possession Limerick countered and were awarded a penalty when McKeigue fouled James Crowley. Ryan finished the penalty beyond Murphy and Limerick moved into a position they held for the remainder of the contest. Ryan added his second goal before the end of the first quarter after Meath were slow to react to Donovan"s point attempt that rebounded off the upright and from the kickout Ger Collins made it 2-2 to 0-1 with a fine score. Meath were bewildered. A fine parry by Murphy denied Padraig Browne a goal and after Ryan hit the upright Limerick were award a free, which was moved into a more scorable position because of dissent, and Crowley stretched the hosts advantage. A Farrell free and a magnificent point from Cian Ward after 29 minutes gave the large Meath following hope, but that proved to be a false dawn and Meath"s last point of the contest. Another defensive error allowed Ryan make it 2-4 to 0-3 and the St Senan"s man kicked two more points (one free) to ensure a 2-6 to 0-3 half-time lead. That nine-point cushion became 10 points within seconds of the restart when Ryan converted another free. 90 seconds later the game was put beyond Meath when Ryan"s initial effort was parried onto the upright by a smart Murphy save, but he followed up to tap to the net. The start Meath had hoped for in the second-half actually materialised for Limerick. Another Ryan free made it 3-8 to 0-3. Peadar Byrne shot tamely at Sean Kiely after a strong run and Cian Ward struck the upright. Nothing was going right for Meath. Even the introduction of Geraghty couldn"t spark a revival. Ryan and Crowley tagged on more points before Galvin blasted a superb fourth goal. Seanie Buckley pointed before a mini-revival took the barren look off Meath"s tally. Geraghty and Nestor forced Kiely into saves before goals from Farrell and Joe Sheridan made it 2-3 to 4-11. Sheridan added his second goal from a penalty after he was fouled, but a brilliant run and point from Galvin settled Limerick. Farrell did manage to sneak in for a fourth goal for Meath, but it was way too little, much too late and the final whistle finally put Meath and their supporters out of their misery. SCORERS Limerick - I Ryan 3-7, penalty goal, four frees; J Galvin 1-1; J Crowley 0-2, one frees; G Collins 0-1, S Buckley 0-1. Meath - B Farrell 2-1, one free; J Sheridan 2-0, one penalty; C Ward 0-2. TEAMS Limerick - S Kiely; D Carroll, J McCarthy, S Gallagher; P Browne, S Lavin, P Ranahan; J Donovan, J Galvin; S Kelly, J Ryan, S Buckley; G Collins, M Crowley, I Ryan. Subs - J Cooke for Kelly 20 mins, L O"Dwyer for Browne 26m, J B Murphy for Cooke 45m, S Walsh for Carroll 61m, M Reidy for Ryan 68m. Meath - B Murphy; N McKeigue, D Fay, C McGill; S Kenny, E Harrington, C King; M Ward, N Crawford; A Nestor, B Meade, P Byrne; S Bray, B Farrell, C Ward. Subs - S O"Rourke for M Ward 30 mins, G Geraghty for King half-time, S McAnarney for McKeigue 39m, J Sheridan for Byrne 47m, C O"Connor for Kenny 54m. REFEREE Vincent Neary (Mayo).