Moyles joins a unique club

Anthony Moyles joined a unique club when he transferred from Blackhall Gaels earlier this year to St Oliver Plunkett"s in Dublin. He has joined the relatively small number of Meath men who play their club football in Dublin. Originally, his intention was to move down the road from the Kilcloon area and Blackhall Gaels to Dunboyne, but his best efforts were thwarted. Instead, he opted to cross the county boundary at Clonee and join up with our fiercest rivals in Dublin. Fortunately, Meath"s loss at club level will not be mirrored on the county team and Moyles is still ready, willing, able and proud to wear the green and gold jersey. The player who began his club football in the Royal County with St Paul"s when they were a junior club is looking forward with huge anticipation to next Sunday"s Leinster SFC quarter-final against some of his current club colleagues. The household names just flow of the tongue - Alan and Bernard Brogan, Jason Sherlock, Ross McConnell - they will be the arch enemies for 70 minutes next Sunday as Moyles swaps sides and goes back to his roots. 'I know them all, obviously, as we all play for the same club, but when I pull on the green jersey, and they put on the blue, any club allegiances will be gone out the window,' he told the Meath Chronicle. Talking about his transfer and the predicament he found himself in, Moyles was shooting from the hip. 'I made it clear to Blackhall Gaels at the time that I wanted to move to Dunboyne, my parish team. I felt that I wanted to play out my last few years with my home team, but they didn"t want that. 'They felt that I was going to another senior club in Meath and that there was a lot of rivalry between them as they are neighbouring clubs. 'My only other option was to move to where I was living, Dublin, and I also work in Dublin, that was the logical solution to the impasse, as I saw it. 'Mick Galvin, the manager of the senior team, was on to me when it emerged that I was considering a move, and I already knew some of the players anyway, but the club was very open and honest with me,' added the former Keegan Cup winner with Blackhall Gaels in 2003. 'It"s a new challenge for me and that"s was very appealing from my perspective, I constantly want to challenge myself anyway, and this is a major challenge and I like it,' he suggested. 'The standard of football in Dublin is top class, it"s fast, very fast, I"ve played a few games in the league and championship, but I suppose I have plenty to learn yet.' 'And that"s probably what influenced my decision to move to Dublin in the first instance, I felt I needed a new challenge and I think it has helped me because I had to raise my standard and my performance. 'To get an opportunity to play the standard of football that"s available, it can only have a positive impact, it brings out the best in my game and that"s good. 'The knock-on effect has helped my performance at county level and I"m very pleased about that,' he added. Watching the Meath players train last week at Pairc Tailteann ahead of the 'media night" was exhausting. The effort, commitment, dedication, call it what you like, was impressive. Moyles admitted that playing at the highest level is demanding, in lots of ways, none more so that negotiating evening traffic out of Dublin to Navan for training on a weekly basis. 'This evening I spent nearly two hours on the road, stuck in traffic, just travelling from Dublin to Navan for training, but it"s not any different for anyone travelling from Dublin to Navan, it"s not exclusive to me, but it"s very frustrating. 'There"s a huge commitment required at inter-county level, but if I didn"t enjoy it I wouldn"t keep playing, it"s as simple as that, the day I stop enjoying it is the day I"ll stop playing. 'However, I still look forward to training, meeting the other players, chatting about various things, there is a great spirit in the panel, it might not be obvious to the supporters, but I can assure you and the supporters that we are up for this game next Sunday. 'A game like next Sunday"s against Dublin makes it all worthwhile and we are all eager for the throw-in. 'The new management team have brought a certain freshness, across the board. There"s an open door policy regarding new players who may have impressed in a club game, they will be brought in and assessed, that maintains a competitive edge for places, a very important factor. Moyles is under no illusions about the size of the task facing Meath. 'Dublin will be fancied to beat us, and rightly so, they have been there or thereabouts at the end of the championship for the last few years. 'There are suggestions that this could the year for them to win an All-Irealnd title whereas we are viewed as trying to recover from a disastrous year in 2008. 'We are just looking to next Sunday"s game, no further than that, if we win, then we will roll on to the next game. 'There is a bit of extra spice because it is Dublin, but really it"s about us getting ourselves right, we just need to focus on our game. 'There could be up to 80,000 in Croke Park, I"m just hoping that there is a good Meath contingent there. 'I don"t know what it is, but there are no flags to be seen anywhere, we need plenty of support to counteract the massive Dublin support on Sunday, we need the supporters to be as vocal as possible and to get behind the team 'Going to training last week, driving through Dunshaughlin and through Navan, the absence of flags was noticeable, maybe there is an expectancy amongst the supporters that we will be beaten? 'Maybe they feel that there"s not much to this team, but I wouldn"t buy into that, I"m proud of our players, I have the utmost respect for them, the commitment level is savage and deserves to be respected 'I hope that county gets behind us on the day and that they are there for us at the final whistle, win, lose or draw. 'We want to win on Sunday and go on to the next game, that"s our intention and hopefully we can achieve that,' he concluded.