Geraghty gunning for Royal approval

MEATH player-selector Graham Geraghty insists he will be gunning for a starting position for the league — but manager Seamus McEnaney has warned he will have to do a lot to be even considered a usable substitute.

The 38-year-old’s second-half substitution appearance in yesterday’s facile Bord na Mona O’Byrne Cup quarter-final win over Louth was greeted with rapturous applause in the Páirc Tailteann stand.

Geraghty had a couple of scoring chances and set up Stephen Bray for a point as the Royals looked by far the better side, with Graham Reilly indicating his injury woes may be behind him by scoring five points from play.

Afterwards, Geraghty joked he, as a selector, will have one more vote than any other forward, but is determined to stake a claim for a starting berth.

“I’m going to be training with the lads and doing the work they’re doingso I can’t see why I can’t get up to the level they’re at.

“If any lads aren’t inter-county match-fit then they’re not going to be playing. I have to get myself up to that level and get myself in contention.

“I don’t see any reason why I can’t start if I’m putting in the work. There are 30 lads there all doing the same thing, doing the same work, trying to get in as well and that’s a good thing.”

However, as first-teamers Seamus Kenny, Joe Sheridan, Cian Ward and Kevin Reilly return to training tomorrow evening , McEnaney believes his selector is up against it.

“He’s working hard and he’s going to have to work hard if he wants to stay in the 20,” he said. “We revolve always around 20 — it’s a 20-man game and he’s going to have to bully out someone or the four fellas coming back this week.”

McEnaney was disappointed with Meath’s tally for all their dominance. Indeed, the home side shot one less wide than that 11-point total but he cited the lack of ball work as one of the reasons.

But he wasn’t too disheartened as he reported the camp is in a far better place than they were this time last year.

“Well I’d be optimistic we could improve on last year because if you weren’t optimistic we could improve on last year you wouldn’t be very optimistic. I’m optimistic because I think I have now had a decent amount of time to have a look at all the players in Meath.

“We went through a 100 players last year and we have a very tight panel at the moment. They are working very hard five or six nights a week and you can’t ask for anymore.”

McEnaney’s opposite number Peter Fitzpatrick rued having no game to prepare themselves for yesterday. With a tough Division 2 campaign ahead, he intends arranging a couple of challenge games in the coming weeks.

“I saw Meath play Wexford last week and in fairness I think Meath improved an awful lot in a week,” said Fitzpatrick.

“I was disappointed not getting a game last week but I’m not using that as an excuse. It’s in our own hands. We have three weeks to get back in a bit of shape.”

It wasn’t until the 48th minute that Louth grabbed their second point, a Paddy Keenan free to make it 0-2 to 0-7.

Meath led by the same difference at the break — 0-6 to 0-1 — but both sides were guilty of some woeful shooting in the first half. Even if Meath were better going forward, some pot shots were ill thought-out and won’t be let off as lightly in next weekend’s semi-final against DCU.

By the end, Reilly was guilty of three wides himself but he was more than forgiven in slotting over five from play, his penultimate score in the 46th minute coming soccer-style as he realised he was going to be tackled.

After a hernia operation last year, McEnaney is hoping he’ll see the best of Reilly this year.

“Graham stuck rigidly to his plan when we weren’t together and he has trained exceptionally well for the last couple of weeks so we’d be hoping you will see a different Graham Reilly in 2012 than you did in 2011 because we need him.”

Apart from Reilly, the spine of Meath’s defence was solid with Brendan Menton and Shane McAnarney while Bray, only coming back from injury, was dynamic after coming on as an early substitute.

Scorers for Meath: G Reilly 0-5, S Bray 0-3, P Gilsenan 0-2, M Burke 0-1.

Scorers for Louth: R Holdcroft, P Keenan (f), A McDonnell, R Carroll, D Clare (f) 0-1 each.

MEATH: D Gallagher; G O’Brien, B Menton, M Burke; C McGuinness, S McAnarney, C O’Connor; M Ward, C Gillespie; B Meade, G Reilly, D Tobin; P Gilsenan, T Walsh, A Forde.

Subs: S Bray for Forde (inj 10), G Geraghty for Ward (55), C Lenihan for Tobin (58), D Smyth for Reilly (63), JC Lynch for Meade (67).

LOUTH: D Crosby; D Finnegan, D Collier, J Carr; R Finnegan, D Byrne, L Shevlin; P Keenan, B Donnelly; C Bellew, D Crilly, E O’Connor; D Maguire, A McDonnell, R Holdcroft.

Subs: G Hoey for Shevlin, M Brennan for Holdcroft, D Clarke for Bellew (all ht), R Carroll for Donnelly (53), A Reid for O’Connor (64).

Referee: Seamus Carroll (Westmeath).