Meath overcome wasteful Down to secure Tailteann Cup glory  

ROYAL REVOLUTION? Meath captain Donal Keogan and teammates celebrate with the cup after the Tailteann Cup Fina. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Down 0-14 Meath 2-13  

Colm O’Rourke’s first season in charge of Meath knew its trials and its tribulations but it has ended with a trophy.

If the Tailteann Cup wasn’t the stated ambition at the start of this 2023 campaign then its capture on Saturday afternoon does at least lay a bedrock for a Royal revolution in the years to come.

Meath will be among the teams battling it out for the Sam Maguire next year now, regardless of how they fare in Division Two, and they turn into 2024 with momentum and with a number of youngsters blooded in the course of this back-door run.

This wasn’t pretty but then finals are there for winning and Down will be left to rue a number of goal chances that they left behind them and a general profligacy in front of the sticks. Meath weren’t perfect but they found a way.

Down started much the brighter of the two, their eagerness to get the game going reflected in a four points to one lead through the bones of a first quarter where Meath were still trying to fit the key into the ignition.

The one score claimed by the Leinster side in that same period was a free from Matthew Costello that was awarded for an off-the-ball foul on the same man. It was the one time in that spell where they got anywhere near the goals.

Their second score was a complete freak, Jack Flynn sending a point attempt high off a post and the ball dropping off the knee of Ronan Jones and into the Down net. Suddenly, Meath were level having offered next to nothing.

Down didn’t handle it well. That’s how it looked anyway. Conor Laverty’s men spent the middle chunk of the half struggling to get out of their own half as the opposition turned the screw from kick-outs and Meath did enough to go a point ahead.

Just. In truth, it was a terrible first-half. Conditions probably weren’t helping, even if the deluge that had sat on Dublin all day had finally eased, but there was so little to occupy a neutral as the two sides huffed and puffed their way through.

The pair of them had racked up 17 wides or attempts that came up short by the break, a fair few of them balls that spluttered harmlessly over the line, and Down should have made far more of a positive ending to the opening period.

The scorers of eight goals in the semi-final against Laois, they spurned two golden opportunities with Ryan Johnston firing a shot low off Sean Brennan’s legs and Liam Kerr clearing the crossbar when one-on-one with the Meath keeper.

It left things level at the break, 0-6 to 1-3. Well, a scoreline that said it all.

If the game ‘opened up’ after that then it was a small enough mercy but there was a consistency in the pattern with Down again starting the stronger and Meath eventually finding their feet as the half grew legs.

Four unanswered points inside ten minutes put O’Rourke’s side in the driving seat and, while they stretched the lead to three points more than once, there was never the sense that this one was funneling down any particular route.

That uncertainty was bottled in one 60-second snapshot which saw Shealan Johnston’s shot blocked by a Meath defender at one end and then Matthew Costello’s fisted pass across the Down goal fly just out of reach of the onrushing Conor Gray.

If there was one main difference between them in this spell then it was the improved shooting on the Meath side. Jack O’Connor came off the bench to nail two screamers - and an injury-time goal - and Jack Flynn caught fire with four beauts from play.

Down did have a wonderful chance to wipe out the difference when there was a goal between them but Andrew Gilmore’s shot from just a couple of yards out was blocked by another green jersey with a handful of minutes to go.

Meath kept their noses in front from there, O’Connor providing the cherry on top with a goal from the last kick of the game.

Scorers for Down: P Havern (0-4, 0-3 frees); R Johnston and L Kerr (both 0-2); N Kane (0-2, 0-1 free); O Murdock, S Johnston, A Gilmore and C Doherty (all 0-1).

Scorers for Meath: J O’Connor (1-2); J Flynn (0-4); R Jones (1-1); M Costello (0-3, 0-2 frees); C Hickey (0-2); J Morris (0-1).

Down: N Kane; P McCarthy, P Laverty, A Doherty; M Rooney, C Doherty, D Magill; D Guinness, O Murdock; S Johnston, L Kerr, R Mason; E Branagan, P Havern, R Johnston.

Subs: S Annett for Mason (43); D McAleenan for S Johnston (55); A Gilmore for Magill (59); P Branagan for McCarthy (60); R McEvoy for Guinness (63).

Meath: S Brennan; A O’Neill, R Ryan, C Caulfield; D Keogan, P Harnan, S Coffey; R Jones, C Gray; J Flynn, J McEntee, C Hickey; J Morris, M Costello, A Lynch.

Subs: J O’Connor for Lynch (47); C O’Sullivan for McEntee (53): H O’Higgins for Caulfield (57); D Lenihan for Morris (66); D McGowan for Hickey (69).

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).