Meath owe Faithful one, warns Sullivan

LEINSTER SHC (First Round): Meath v Offaly (tomorrow, Portlaoise, 3pm)

Cormac Sullivan is long gone from the Meath scene — he answered the call of work and family commitments and retired when he was just aged 26 — but he hasn’t forgotten the summer of 2000, “The last time we played Offaly. We owe them one.”

Most Meath fans will argue that they actually owe Offaly two. You see, they’ve never forgot 1997 either, the year a side depleted after a trilogy of epic games with Kildare was cruelly exposed on Leinster final day by the wizardry of their rivals or, more to the point, two-goal hero Roy Malone.

Between 1997 and 2000, Meath and Offaly met in four consecutive Leinster championship campaigns, sharing the spoils two apiece and they haven’t come together since.

Offaly’s wins back then were most memorable as they came when Meath were reigning All-Ireland champions so Sullivan can perhaps be forgiven for carrying an old cross on his back.

“We got a great rivalry going in those years and both counties knew they were going well if they beat the other,” said Sullivan, who crammed an All-Ireland success, an All Star and International Rules caps into his goalkeeping career.

“I was the sub ‘keeper in ‘97 when they beat us to win the Leinster, which was their last one (provincial title). They had great players, the Malones and Ciarán McManus were flying.

“I was in goals myself in 2000. Looking back, we’d beaten them in 1999, won the All-Ireland, played Derry in a league final that went to a replay, so I suppose Offaly were just sitting waiting for us that day.”

The scoreline may be stuck on 2-2 between Meath and Offaly yet settling old scores won’t be upper most in the minds of managers Eamonn O’Brien and Tom Cribbin in Portlaoise tomorrow. The drive to make their counties feared again beyond the confines of the Leinster Championship is the task both face. Just two Leinster final appearances between them is a pitiful return for counties that carved up two All-Ireland titles and three Leinster titles between them from 1996 to 1999.

“Neither county is as strong as they were,” accepted Sullivan. “Meath have reached All-Ireland semi-finals in two of the last three years but they haven’t had a brilliant league and I wouldn’t imagine they’re overly confident in terms of the All-Ireland.

“As an outsider looking in, you’d say, ‘Meath, playing in a higher division, should beat Offaly’, but I think everyone in Meath has learned their lesson about Offaly in the Championship.”

Offaly manager Cribbin has claimed that Meath are a couple of years ahead of his team in Championship terms. Certainly Meath have experienced campaigners in the shape of Nigel Crawford, making his 50th county appearance, and the likes of Joe Sheridan, Anthony Moyles and Seamus Kenny. But O’Brien’s selection of players like Gary O’Brien, Graham Reilly, Paddy O’Rourke and Shane O’Rourke is proof he’s got one eye on the future.

“It’s hard to know what to make of Meath this year, they were never going to be relegated but then they go and lose to Tipp as well,” said Sullivan.

As for Offaly, who lost more Division 3 matches than they won, Sullivan reckons: “They’re coming in as underdogs and their manager will be telling them if they can beat Meath, they’re on the way up.”