How Eamonn Murray transformed Meath football: ‘I had to beg players to play’

Meath won the Division 3 league title in 2019, finally got out of the intermediate ranks last winter by beating Westmeath, and then claimed the Division 2 league title earlier this year

Tue, 31 Aug, 2021 - 06:00

Paul Keane

When Eamonn Murray was first approached to take over Meath in the spring of 2017, he ran a mile.

The memories of being slaughtered 7-22 to 0-3 two seasons earlier were still strong and, from what Murray could see, it looked like a chaotic setup.

”I never really wanted this job,” he says, just days from leading the team out on TG4 All-Ireland senior final day.

“I always loved working in the underage setup in Meath, I loved producing good players for the seniors.

“When I was asked to do it, I said, ‘No, I don’t want it’.The chairman, Fearghal Harney, rang me about five times.

”Eventually I said, ‘Look, if I’m allowed to pick my own selectors...’ Meath football was in a bad place and I wanted people with a smile on their face, to lift them.”

The problem was, the best players in Meath had similar reservations and didn’t want to get involved either.

And they took a lot of convincing.

”It wasn’t easy getting those players back in,” said Murray, who’d previously worked with the Meath minors.

“A lot of players didn’t want to ever play again for Meath. It took a lot of phone calls and coaxing.

“You’ve no idea what I had to do. I had to beg players to play for Meath. I’d have promised them everything under the sun. I asked them, a lot of them, ‘Give me two weeks starting off and we’ll see what happens’.

“But as I say, a lot of them had no intentions of ever playing senior football again. It wasn’t easy, it was a tough job.

“We were one kick of a ball away from Division 4 at one stage, it was that bad.”

Meath won the Division 3 league title in 2019, finally got out of the intermediate ranks last winter by beating Westmeath, and then claimed the Division 2 league title earlier this year.

Despite all of that progression, retaining their senior status this summer was still seen as the main target.

A win over Tipperary got Meath out of their group and they then took down Armagh and, memorably, Cork to set up this Sunday’s Dubs date.

A world away from the 2015 experience of being slaughtered by 40 points by Cork on live TV.

“That was a sad, sad day for me at the time as well because I am involved with Meath ladies teams for 17 years,” said Murray, a Cavan man who relocated to Meath and the Boardsmill club outside Trim.

Meath are a different team now with some thrilling young talents.

Emma Duggan has been their standout performer with 2-17 from four games, having sat her Leaving Cert exams only weeks ago.

“Orla Lally and Emma Duggan and Mary Kate Lynch and Sarah Wall, those players don’t come around too often,” said Murray.

Asked to identify the turning point for Meath, when he realised they might actually be onto something special this year, he pointed to a match back in June.

“It was actually in the league when I found this out, we played Cavan in Breffni Park. They had given us a good hiding maybe the year before. That was a hard place to go to win and we won actually by five or six points. I felt that day, ‘There’s something special here’.

“That’s the day it all started really coming together well, as a team.”

The bookies still give them no hope of pulling off one last giant-killing act. Dublin haven’t lost a championship game since the 2016 All-Ireland final and, if anything, look stronger this year for the acquisition of Ireland rugby star Hannah Tyrrell.

“I presume they’ll be the hottest favourites of all time,” said Murray. “We’ll not get nervous, we don’t really do nerves, we just go out there and enjoy it. And we’ll not get too upset if we lose.

“We’ll give everything we have. We ask the players, if they give it all they have, we’ll be there or thereabouts

“We’re really looking forward to it, nothing to lose at all. I mean, really, nothing to lose. It’s all a bonus for us.”

But can Dublin actually be beaten? Do they have any weaknesses?

“Of course. I just can’t say what they are, but of course they have.”