Cork and Meath all set for All-Ireland junior dogfight

CORK and Meath renew their intense football rivalry when their junior teams meet in the All-Ireland final in Portlaoise today (1pm).

While this particular grade may well be down the pecking order for most counties, both Cork and Meath use it as a launch pad for senior talent.

Meath coach Dessie Hamilton said that of the team which won the title three years ago, five are on Sean Boylan’s squad.

His Cork counterpart Mossie Barrett argues that any All-Ireland medal is a prized possession.

Barrett said: “We last won the title back in 2001. Only two of that team are involved with us now, Ger Spillane and Pat Dunlea. The junior grade is an opportunity to give as many players the chance to wear the red jersey, but you also need a couple of experienced players if you are serious about winning.

“We’ve had a couple of scary moments on the way to the final. Clare made it very hard for us before we won by a point. Kerry were expected to put up strong resistance in the final but our lads played extremely well on the night and had the game won long before the final whistle.

“In the All-Ireland semi-final against Sligo, we were expected to have matters all our own way, but they pushed us very hard and we were fortunate enough to come away with the win. Had they scored from the penalty it might have been different.”

He admits this afternoon’s test will be the toughest of the campaign. Meath will be an entirely different kettle of fish. If you look back on the games at senior level in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, they were very intense affairs, and I’m expecting Saturday’s final to be something of a dogfight.

“One of the great strengths of our team is their workrate. They work extremely hard all over the field for each other and that was very evident against Sligo last week. To win on Saturday our finishing will have to improve. We kicked something like 14 wides against Sligo and we certainly could not afford a repeat of that against Meath.”

Hamilton is a little concerned by his side’s easy passage to the decider.

“We played Kilkenny, Wicklow and London along the way and the toughest game we got was against Louth in the Leinster final. The fact that it is Cork in the final means there will be little motivation needed, but having watched them in their semi-final last week, we’ll have to play very well to get the result.”

Hamilton has kept the same 15 which started against London in the semi-final but there are two positional switches. Barry Lynch and Jim Gallagher have swapped laces while John L McGee and Bory Maguire have crossed corners in the full-forward line.

MEATH: J. Curry; T. Bannon, C. McLoughlin, P. nugent; B. Kieran, J. Donoghue, G. Hynes; B. Lynch, S. Dillon(c); O. Curran, I. McManus, G. McCullagh; J. McGee, J. Gallagher, R. Maguire.

CORK: A. Quirke; C. Murphy, D. Wiseman, M. Prout; M. Fehilly, G. Spillane, E. Wiseman; A. O’Connor, S. O’Sullivan; J. Buckley, S. Hayes, J. Russell; D. Goulding, V. Hurley, P. Dunlea.

Referee, P. Camey (Roscommon).