Crawford still up for a battle Royal

TEN years ago Sean Boylan pitched a 19-year-old Nigel Crawford straight into the midfield battle for a Leinster Senior Football Championship opener against Wicklow.

With the legendary John McDermott by his side, Crawford thrived on his top flight debut and maintained those high standards all summer.

By September’s end, he had an All-Ireland medal clinking in his pocket and could be forgiven for envisaging that such a bountiful season was the template for what lay ahead.

But things haven’t gone according to plan. In 2001, Meath hammered Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final, yet the Royals misplaced that form come the decider against Galway. Seasons have passed away since in a dispiriting and low-key fashion, and Crawford believes several factors have caused them to fall down the pecking order.

“Some key older players retired at the start of the decade, with the likes of John McDermott and Cormac Murphy. Then the younger lads like myself coming in were just not stepping up to the plate. Also other counties really stepped up, you saw the northern teams winning All-Ireland titles, and other teams becoming really fit and well organised.

“We lost to Fermanagh two years in a row in the qualifiers and that would not have happened 10 years ago. But Fermanagh just came along and overtook us (in preparation). It was a combination of us not performing and other teams raising their standards.”

But Crawford was never tempted to raise the white flag. Last year’s harrowing defeat against Limerick did knock him back, but the infusion of enthusiasm that a new manager brought altered his thinking again.

“I had a lot of doubts last year because you are thinking ‘I am on the scene 10 years now and am I actually getting worse.’ You start to doubt yourself with some of the older lads going away. Anyone could find reasons to go. But time is a good healer and I’m still quite young and I’d like to think that I have more football in me.

“When the new management was appointed, you get a buzz again. When they say they want you again, it gives you a lift and progressively you get more interested. I enjoyed the league immensely which is funny because usually league football is tough and physically you don’t enjoy it. But I enjoyed the games; that’s a good sign.”

In Meath’s renaissance this summer, Crawford has emerged as their midfield heartbeat. He fancied their chances of toppling Dublin in Leinster and that subsequent defeat still annoys. But when it came to the qualifier minefields, he stepped up to provide leadership.

“We thought we had a really good chance in Leinster and then to lose like that left us so deflated. It was very hard to take any positives from it but the important thing was that we got a couple of home draws which takes pressure off. You get your home crowd there and it is hard for teams likes Waterford and Roscommon who had to come up to us.

“This year has gone well for me. I have enjoyed it and maybe there is a lesson in that for me as well. Maybe I am not as uptight or putting as much pressure on. To serve your apprenticeship under John McDermott is the ultimate way to do it because he took any pressure off me. But since then, being honest, I haven’t as the senior midfield partner, been good enough or led well. This year’s been better.”

Crawford hung in during Meath’s football recession of the past few years and despite being employed in the financial sector, he’s bringing that same grim defiance currently to his day job.

“I’m working in corporate finance and we have moved into more restructuring work lately. Whereas before your work was more opportunistic, now it is all more distress-based work. The work has definitely changed in the last year and we have done a lot of redundancies with firms. But it’s going okay for us.”

He looks towards Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final with an optimistic air, despite the overwhelming tag of favouritism with Kerry. He is one of the few players still knocking around from the counties surreal showdown in 2001 but discounts the past as holding any relevance for Sunday.

“The fact that Kerry have gone on and won All-Irelands and competed every year at the top, means I don’t think they will be that worried about us. I would be surprised if 2001 was an issue for them. People can get caught up in the revenge thing, but you just move on. Externally, there is no pressure on us and having seen what Kerry did the last day. But we must go out and perform. After two years ago against Cork and last year against Limerick, we don’t want our last game in the championship to be a total flop.”