Allianz Football League Division Two: Down 1-18 Meath 0-24
From Cahair O’Kane at Pairc Esler
MEATH became the first visiting team to win a 70-minute game in Newry since Conor Laverty took over as Down manager. That could have been the whole story. But it wasn’t.
Whatever you like about the new game and whatever you don’t, what nobody can deny is that it is breathing an entirely different level of excitement and engagement into Gaelic football.
Having won from ten back against Cork, Down were seven down midway through the second half here and still made Meath sweat and crawl across the line.
This on the same night that Derry came from nine down to draw with Galway and Dublin recovered from 11 back to win in Tralee.
“It just seems like the game is never dead. Two or three two-pointers and you’re right back in it. It’s good in one way, I suppose it’s not great for the old ticker when you’re on the sideline,” smiled Royals boss Robbie Brennan.
Jordan Morris and Eoghan Frayne danced around Pairc Esler like two pups that had spent the last five years living in a cage.
Morris was exceptional, leaving with nine points, seven of them from play.
Frayne wasn’t far behind, finishing on eight.
They each got two-pointers within that.
It would be an easy thing to focus on Ronan Jones’ first-half effort that caused a consternation that most of the crowd knew very little about.
Jones kicked a score from a couple of yards inside the arc. The orange flag went up.
Having sought clarification, Down were informed at half-time that the referee had given it as a one-point score – but that the scoreboard was right, and it was still 1-9 to 0-11, which didn’t add up.
Sean Lonergan certainly struggled with the rules in the first half. He stopped Meath on an attack because they only had two men up, only to be reminded that they were on a black card and so that was ok.
But such is the sympathy towards officials with all this change that Conor Laverty actually had a word with the linesman on that one and told him Meath hadn’t done anything wrong.
“The time of their indirect free I actually said to the fourth official, he had radioed it through, but I said that’s not right, they’re allowed to do that.
“I wouldn’t be too hard on any of the officials. I refereed an in-house game one night and Jesus, to be fair, it’s a hard gig. You’re trying to watch ball, scrambling around, looking over your shoulder, trying to count numbers and there’s boys skipping over lines, jumping back and forward.”
The rules have become the entire focus of Gaelic football at the expense of the games they’re helping create.
Pairc Esler was buzzing. When Down got into their rally and cut the gap from seven back to two with five minutes remaining, the Newry night came alive.
Even allowing for their physical deficit at midfield, they found a way to wrestle enough possession and generate some bit of control.
Miceal Rooney nailed one off the outside of the right and then Daniel Guinness pinged another from 50 metres. The orange flag was signalling the revival.
But Meath held on. They deserved, over the 70 minutes, to hold on.
Bryan Menton and Jack Flynn are a monstrous pair of ball-winners. Ronan Jones chipped in there too, as did Jack Kinlough a time or two. And when they had the ball, they did damage with it.
A penny for Colm O’Rourke’s frustrations right now because it feels as though Robbie Brennan has hit the jackpot.
He’s inherited a team that has big men and scoring forwards just as the game opens up. It looks like it really suits them.
And the former Kilmacud boss is getting a tune out of them.
“It does [suit the players], yeah, to be fair. A lot of people might say that,” said Brennan.
“There’s a good bit of size in the squad and depth as well. It probably does. We’ve done a lot of work on it and it’s paying off at the minute anyway.”
The chaos of this game is becoming a bit of a norm. The only period in which it felt like either side was able to control the game at all was during Ronan Jones’ first black card (he earned a second late on, becoming possibly the first player sent off for two black cards).
Meath dealt with that spell so well that it didn’t feel anything close to ten minutes by the time he crept on unnoticed and almost created a score when his sentence was served.
The referee unquestionably lost the run of it completely for a few first half minutes, which culminated in a panicked early whistle that stunted Odhran Murdock’s goal chance just as he’d turned his man and was bound for the black spot having been fouled.
But to focus on rules and referee is to miss the point.
Take Down’s goal. A brilliant move. Turnover, head up, get it to Shay Millar.
Ryan McEvoy is on the far post, lurking so much like Odhran Murdock that nobody was quite convinced it wasn’t actually Murdock who’d scored it. The only tell-tale was that McEvoy took it so emphatically on his right foot.
Millar’s ball was perfect, McEvoy’s use of the arse Darby-esque. It was a brilliant goal out of an opportunity that was presented solely because the 3v3 rule existed and Down were able to move the ball so fast to a man inside.
It gave Laverty’s side a 1-9 to 0-10 half-time lead that it was difficult to understand. Yet it should even have been 1-9 to 0-9 but for the confusion over Jones’ score.
Meath had dominated the skies and much of the possession but when Down had it, they were pretty efficient and Pat Havern is missing nothing on the frees.
At 1-11 to 0-12, Morris and Frayne dropped down a gear and took off. Morris kicked two points and then a two-pointer, adding a two-point free. Frayne kicked four, three of them from play. They went from one down after 44 minutes to seven up ten minutes later.
That was the game. Down didn’t so much take the handbrake off as they ripped it clean out of the wagon altogether. Suddenly they were kicking it, moving it back to front. Their aggression on the Meath kickout multiplied. Breaks made, breaks won. Seven is cut to two.
But too late. For the first time since Derry won a McKenna Cup semi-final penalty shoot in mid-January 2023, Down lost at home.
“That’s really pissed me off now,” said Laverty of losing that proud record.
There have been visible signs of Down progress at every point in those three years.
Louth next weekend determines whether they’ll spend the rest of spring looking up or down. With three of their last four away from home, things are a lot tougher now, but don’t write off the prospect of a rally towards the top.
And Meath? They look pretty slick.
MATCH STATS
Down: Ronan Burns; HP McGeary, P Laverty, P Fegan; R Magill, C Mooney, P McCarthy; D Guinness 0-3 (1tp), R McEvoy 1-0; C Doherty 0-2, D Magill 0-1, J Guinness, S Millar; O Murdock 0-1, P Havern 0-9 (1tpf, 0-6f)
Subs: M Rooney 0-2 (tp) for C Mooney (HT), A McClements for Millar (53), C Francis for R Magill (54), E Branagan for J Guinness (59), P Brooks for R Magill (63)
Meath: B Hogan 0-1 (45); S Lavin, S Rafferty, D Keogan; B O’Halloran, S Coffey, C Caulfield; J Flynn 0-1, B Menton 0-2; C Duke, J Kinlough, R Jones 0-1; J Morris 0-9 (1tp, 2tpf), S Walsh 0-1, E Frayne 0-8 (1tpf, 0-3f)
Subs: A O’Neill for O’Halloran (45), J Conlon for Walsh (50), K Curtis for Duke (59), D McGowan for Kinlough (65)
Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary)