Moyles makes case for mean Meath defence

ANTHONY MOYLES was happy to let Meath’s attack bask in most of the acclaim after Sunday’s devastating destruction of Dublin, but the versatile veteran feels a strong case was made for the defence as well.

Eamon O’Brien’s side have scored an average of three goals per game in their four championship outings this summer and their finishing for all five against Dublin was sublime.

While some counties depend on as few as one or two scoring threats, Meath possess five dangermen in Joe Sheridan, Graham Reilly, Cian Ward, Shane O’Rourke and Stephen Bray.

Their sixth front man is Simonstown’s Seamus Kenny who was asinfluential as any of the other quintet last Sunday thanks to a limitless appetite for graft and clever use of the ball when in possession.

Less bouquets have been tossed towards the defence, however, after their opening two games against Offaly and Laois when both counties seemed to expose some clear frailties in that department.

The improvement since has been vast.

Laois’s starting forwards managed just two points from play in the replay in Tullamore while Dublin’s sextet contributed just three from the same source in the Leinster semi-final.

“They are the type of players that have a good understanding between each other and they are dangerous,” said Moyles of Meath’s forwards.

“I know that as a back and I’m sure the Dublin full-back line must have been thinking ‘this is going high or low’. They would have been worried about these lads. The defence has been getting a lot of stick the last few weeks and I think we came up trumps. We were always confident in ourselves as a group of six. We knew what we had to do.”

The return from long-term injury of full-back Kevin Reilly has clearly had a galvanising effect, as has the availability of both Moyles and Nigel Crawford who were both fighting knocks last week. Crawford’s contribution was limited to 23 second-half minutes and he will be needed to combat Louth’s superb midfield partnership of Paddy Keenan and Brian White in the provincial decider.

Both men have swept the boards in the middle third in Leinster and Meath came off second best in that department against Dublin, losing eight kick-outs in a row after the half-time break.

“Nigel will be a bonus to come back in the next day and we will be better for it,” said Moyles of a man who joined the panel at the same time in 2001. “It is good to have options but it shows you the strength of the panel.

“You are always going to get major injuries. You think about Mickey (Burke) breaking his shin bone but you need 30-plus lads and especially on a day like that because it was very, very hot out there.”

Wing-back Caoimhin King echoed those words last week when he claimed that this was the strongest Meath panel in the last five years but, even with that, the improvement has been astounding. Prior to this month, they hadn’t won two Leinster championship games in a row in any given season since 2001.

Now, they have gone four unbeaten and they go into the final as clear favourites.

Why? “We are playing better football and we are controlling the ball a bit more. The Meath way has always been get it and kick it. Iprobably do a lot of that myself but we are popping the ball into our forwards a lot more. They are a serious forward line and once you feed them the right ball they will do the rest.”

Louth will bring an air of romance to the final in Croke Park on July 18 as they seek to claim a first title in 53 years but, for Meath, a nine-year wait is every bit as big a drought.

Beating Dublin felt good but it was simply a means to an ends. Even Moyles, who was a non-playing panel member the last time the Royals claimed the bragging rights in 2001, described it as an anti-climax.

“The important thing is to get into a Leinster final and win it,” said Moyles who plays his club football in Dublin. “There is no point in winning that game and flopping (against Louth). People will just see this result as a freak.

“It was important to beat Dublin in that they were the standard bearers in Leinster and the champions for the last five years but they were really just another opposition. We weren’t focusing on the fact that it was Dublin, just the fact that we were in a semi-final and they were in our path.”