A MURKY JANUARY day in 2019, and Brewster Park is shrouded in the kind of fog that usually only features in documentaries about Jack The Ripper.

Cork had made the journey to face Fermanagh and played out a 1-5 to 0-8 draw that was every bit as grim as that bare detail suggests.

Afterwards, RTÉ fetched Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher on the phone for a debrief with the Sunday Sport programme. They had Colm O’Rourke in studio and he pursued a line of questioning with Gallagher that was part-chiding, part-inquisitive about why he insisted on playing such defensive football when he himself had been an attacker full of flair.

Gallagher was ready for him. He machine-gunned stats about All-Ireland final games O’Rourke and Meath had been involved in that had less than flattering scorelines and made the point they were playing in January conditions, not the third Sunday of September.

O’Rourke is a big boy and well able to look after himself. But there seems to be a widespread delight expressed since he took over the Meath team and has discovered that this gig is far from simple.

Their demotion to the Tailteann Cup now is being talked about as the nadir. As if this is as low as it can go. But things can always get worse. Much, much worse.

Donal Keogan will play Tailteann Cup football this summer. Evan Treacy / INPHO Evan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

There are elements and failings with Meath football that O’Rourke cannot address if he is the senior football manager.

When O’Rourke took the role on last summer, in his first interview he stated to the Meath Chronicle, “Ultimately we have to beat Dublin. That was the measurement of Meath when I was playing and that hasn’t changed.”

That day arrived on March 18th, and Dublin won by 11 points in the league. It will not happen again this season as their two paths have diverged after the weekend.

Anyone seeking comfort in the overall health of Meath football would have been looking at the progress of their recent minor teams.

In 2020, the Meath team won the Leinster minor championship. The year after, they backed it up with another minor title, before going on to beat Tyrone in the All-Ireland final.

Those two panels fed the U20 panel that faced Dublin last Tuesday in the provincial competition. As minors, they had beaten Dublin by 11 points in those two years. That was reversed to a four-point defeat last week.

And that’s where we are heading with this. There is an issue with getting players from minors to the U20, and before that the U21 grade.

Back in 2001, they won the title, beating Dublin 0-10 to 0-5 in the final.

That was the last win but more alarming, they have been in only one final since, in 2014. In the meantime, Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Wexford and Offaly have claimed it. Longford have been in four finals, and Laois and Offaly have had a smattering of finals.

The other strand is the club game, where the talent development is most critical. No Meath team have reached the senior Leinster club final since Skryne in 2004.

There’s been a better record at Intermediate level with Trim, St Colmcille’s and Ratoath winning in recent times, but – Hark! for the distant sound of straws being clutched.

The reputation of Meath is based on tradition. The hard-nosed realists are not expecting anything huge right now because there is no a coaching culture within the county, the type of which abounds in various Ulster counties and Dublin.

When it comes to recruitment, potential managers are not impressed. It is believed that Malachy O’Rourke was contacted over the vacant job but decided that it wasn’t for him, despite the healthy backing that the county board enjoy with their sponsors.

Steps have been taken. In September 2021, Barry Horgan was appointed to the role of General Manager of Meath football, overseeing development from U13 to U20.

He has experience dating back to Dublin hurlers in 2011 with the eye-catching period of coaching Super Rugby club ACT Brumbies in Canberra, Australia.

What he cannot do is lift the mood of the Meath football nation. In large swathes of the county south of Drogheda, there are dormitory towns dotted along the commuter corridor.

The population of these towns and this area is one of huge untapped potential.
But the problem is, so many of them are Dubs that fancied a bit more legroom out in the sticks. When they talk of going into ‘town’, they mean the nation’s capital, not the local settlement.

Happy enough to help out in their local club, they are not invested in the county set-up. Indeed, some may be carrying psychological scar tissue from what the likes of O’Rourke, Lyons and Flynn inflicted upon them in earlier years.

The county team is not high on their agenda, and large numbers still continue to travel into Croke Park and roar on Dublin. Their offspring are sold on the songs and stories, but above all, success. Nothing succeeds like it.

Until these generations dilute the bloodlines, indeed until the Jack Grealish and Declan Rice generations emerge and they consider themselves naturalised Meath people, the patterns will repeat.

There’s precious little Colm O’Rourke can do about that, but he needs to have his team ready to participate with a wholehearted effort in the Tailteann Cup.

Turning their nose up at such a prize is not above their station right now. And if they don’t approach it with gusto, they could find out there is much, much farther to fall.

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