Leinster SFC quarter-final: Meath 1-25 Offaly 0-21
Down by 10 points at half-time, up by seven at full-time. Meath’s latest win in the Leinster SFC was one of those quintessential games of two halves, accentuated by the impact of two-point scores.
Under the new rules, when the wind blows then big swings in games are to be expected and so it played out in Navan where Meath picked themselves up off the canvas before scoring a knockout blow on Offaly.
In truth, it wasn’t just the wind that went against Meath in a first-half that finished 0-15 to 0-5 in Offaly’s favour. They lacked urgency, in all sectors, and were in particular trouble at midfield as freshly crowned Division 3 champions Offaly ran amok.
But a vastly improved second-half performance yielded seven two-pointers for Meath, a 1-2 return from substitute James Conlon and, ultimately, a win that guaranteed a Leinster SFC semi-final against Dublin, probably in Portlaoise, on April 26th or 27th.
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Who knows if what Meath have to offer will be enough to trouble the holders but they have kicked 1-30 and 1-25 tallies across two Sundays against Carlow and Offaly.
On the debit side of the ledger, they’ve coughed up 0-19 and 0-21 now to teams from Division 4 and 3, and were beaten in two out of the four halves in those games.
“We probably felt we weren’t putting any pressure on them at all,” said Meath manager Robbie Brennan of their first-half shortcomings against Offaly. “It was just easy ball being popped inside to their full-forward line and they have good forwards who are going to cause us trouble, which they did.”
One Offaly score late in the first-half illustrated Brennan’s point. Goalkeeper Paddy Dunican arrowed a long kick-out to Dylan Hyland who, in acres of space, caught it at his ease and kicked a long ball to the excellent Keith O’Neill who was fouled for a free. Hyland strode forward and chipped a handy point from the free. And that’s how it was for much of the first-half.
The second-half, clearly, was an entirely different story. Suddenly, Meath had a midfield again and they lorded it in that area. The industrious Conor Duke got them going with back-to-back two-pointers and Mathew Costello boomed over another.
Costello was terrific and finished with 0-9, adding another two-pointer later on. In all, Meath reeled off seven second-half two-pointers.
Offaly were existing on scraps now and while they added two more two-pointers, they were both from frees and they didn’t score from open play in the second-half.
Jack Flynn put Meath ahead for the first time in the 65th minute with a monster score from downtown that may have even deserved three points.
Conlon’s impact was significant and his 72nd-minute goal killed off Offaly. It was a poacher’s finish as fellow sub Aaron Lynch beat wandering goalkeeper Paddy Dunican to a ball on the wing, lofted it in to the danger area and found Conlon waiting to fist it home ahead of an Offaly defender.
Next up for Offaly is the Tailteann Cup in four weeks.
Meath: B Hogan (0-1-0; tpf); S Rafferty, B O’Halloran, S Lavin; S Coffey (0-0-1), D Keogan, C Caulfield; J Flynn (0-1-0), B Menton (0-0-1); C Duke (0-2-0), R Kinsella, K Curtis; D Moriarty, M Costello (0-3-3; 2 tpf, 2f), E Frayne (0-1-1; 1 tpf, 1f). Subs: A Lynch (0-0-1) for Moriarty (47); S Walsh for Curtis (55); J Conlon (1-0-2) for Kinsella (61); R Ryan for Rafferty (64); A O’Neill for Lavin (70); C Hickey for Frayne (73-f/t, blood).
Offaly: P Dunican (0-2-1; 2 tpf, 1 45); L Pearson, A Bracken, R Egan; C Egan (0-0-1), J Furlong, D McDaid; J McEvoy, J Hayes; K Higgins (0-1-0), C Flynn, K O’Neill (0-2-2; 1f); D Hyland (0-0-4; 3f), J Bryant (0-0-1), S Tierney (0-0-2). Subs: A Leavy for Bracken (63); E Sawyer for Tierney (64); D Dempsey for McDaid (65).
Referee: S Lonergan (Tipperary).
