SUPER 8s is a catchy moniker. The GAA might still resist it in their very upright, We Love Capital Letters kind of way, but it’s done no harm to the All-Ireland quarter-final series.
There’s just one problem. There aren’t eight super teams in Ireland. When Monaghan are clicking, as they haven’t this year, you could make a strong case that there are seven. The other six are all invited to the party.
But for Meath and Cork, it’s the equivalent of being asked to the Mayor’s Ball when the bank account is looking decidedly empty and the good suit suddenly looks tattered and worn.
They may have a seat at the table, but now the trick is to justify it. And it’s no easy trick.
Roscommon, and to a slightly lesser degree Kildare, both discovered last year the scorn that can be poured over fledgling hopes. They’d come in with measured expectations, but there were a few long afternoons before it was over.
The Rossies conceded 4-24 to Tyrone, and perhaps worse the same tally to half a Dublin team. To their eternal credit, they’ve come back stronger for it.
It is safe to assume that, having been dropped into the tougher of the two groups, Meath will not be in an All-Ireland semi-final this year.
Andy McEntee’s done a sterling job in making them competitive again. They’ve won a well-earned promotion back to Division One, reached a first Leinster final in five years and become the first team in a decade from the province to recover from the loss to Dublin and win their round four qualifier.
But the job now is about how much positive they can get out of this.
Meath are not a bad side. They’re solid, consistent, with a sprinkling of real quality.
In Navan, they could be a particularly dangerous opponent for Kerry if the spirit hasn’t been battered out of them by the time the Kingdom visit. Tyrone found that out at what was almost a great cost last summer.
If the Allstar system wasn’t rigged – ironically, far more so now than ever because of the Super 8s – then Donal Keogan would be a certainty in the half-back line.
Bryan Menton, who has scored 3-11 from play from midfield this year (3-5 of it in the championship) has been as good a midfielder as there’s been this year.
Mickey Newman didn’t feature last year and looked sluggish during the spring, but he has found his feet big time at full-forward to revive the goal threat of old.
Recent returnee Padraic Harnan is another solidifying figure at centre-back.
When you go through it, they look like the inter-county equivalent of a good intermediate club side that will just find the going tough at senior level unless every one of their big men are on point every weekend.
The highly-rated Colm Nally’s introduction as coach this year has greatly improved their transition play, but where they fell down in the Leinster final against Dublin would have been no great surprise to those that have studied them.
Between full-back Conor McGill, centre-back Harnan, midfielders Menton and Shane McEntee, centre-forward O’Sullivan and full-forward Newman, it’s a core that can hold its own.
But in general terms, particularly in attack, they’re still light. James Conlon, who has been mighty accurate in recent weeks, and Bryan McMahon are both pacey, but when it came to the Dubs, their lack of physicality saw them overwhelmed.
Meath missed a plethora of shots, and a good few of them they should have scored. But plenty of them they should never have been taking. They kicked some of them because they’d exhausted their avenues in terms of getting inside Dublin’s cover, and decided to have a go when it was least on.
They averaged 1-13 in the league, and are ticking over at around 2-12 so far this summer, even in spite of the 0-4 tally against Dublin.
The Dubs were the only Division One side they’ve faced so far this summer. Their pitiful score became the sole post-match focus, but far less was said about them fronting up and going at Jim Gavin’s side, and conceding just 0-5 in the first half themselves.
Defensively, they will make life very difficult for any side. It’s just likely to be a struggle to get enough of a score run up to really put any of Donegal, Mayo or Kerry right to the back wall.
Donegal are the most free-scoring and unfortunately for Meath, they’re also the most familiar. The Royals should have won their league meeting in Ballybofey at the start of the year, but it was a different Donegal team then.
Meath started their Division Two final in meeting in Croke Park at breakneck pace, with Mickey Newman wrecking all around him. But all that ultimately came of it was Donegal learning they couldn’t leave their full-back exposed any longer. They put a sweeper in front of Newman after 15 minutes and he’s been there since, at the heart of their run to the Ulster title. Heading into MacCumhaill Park to face a side that’s more physically imposing and with better scoring forwards could be a fairly daunting opener.
Recovering from their beating by the Dubs to see off Clare was a mark of their intestinal fortitude, and they’ll need plenty more of it.
Realistically, Meath are at the stage of being happy with a moral victory in the Super 8s. If they get out of the first two games without the shoulders sagging, then they will relish bringing Kerry into the ever-atmospheric Páirc Tailteann.
There, they could potentially have a disruptive impact on the fate of others.
Their own die is cast. Squeezing every drop out of themselves, they’ll be competitive at best.
Achieving that would be enough to drive the momentum into 2020, into Division One, and into the next step of a project that has plenty of room for expansion.
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ANDY McENTEE’S BEST TEAM
Andrew Colgan
Seamus Lavin
Conor McGill
Shane Gallagher
Niall Kane
Padraic Harnan
Donal Keogan
Bryan Menton
Shane McEntee
James McEntee
Ethan Devine
Cillian O’Sullivan
Bryan McMahon
Mickey Newman
James Conlon
2019 OVERALL TOP SCORERS
Mickey Newman 4-53 (1-42 frees)
Cillian O’Sullivan 0-19 (0-2 frees)
Bryan Menton 3-11
Barry Dardis 3-5 (1-3 frees)
James Conlon 0-13
2019 CHAMPIONSHIP TOP SCORERS
Mickey Newman 3-20 (1-0pen, 0-14 frees)
Bryan Menton 3-5
James Conlon 0-12
EVERY MINUTE MEN
Players to have played every minute of league and championship
Andrew Colgan, Seamus Lavin, Conor McGill, Donal Keogan (910 minutes)
SUPER 8s FIXTURES
Group One
Ballybofey, July 14, 4pm: Donegal v Meath
Croke Park, July 21, 2pm: Mayo v Meath
Navan, August 3/4: Meath v Kerry
