Meath hit with yet another bout of capital punishment

• Published date: 15 April 2024
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Goals from Seán Bugler, Con O’Callaghan and the excellent Paul Mannion put clear water between the perennial championship winners and O’Rourke’s up-and-comers. On a day when all but one of the provincial matches ended in a double-digit hammering, there was no space on the schedule for romance

“They are an ambitious group,” O’Rourke said of his charges after they went down to a 3-19 to 0-12 defeat. “They want to get to the level. It was a stark reality check for them to see how far they have to go, just in case anyone was losing the run of themselves.

“We haven’t closed the gap on Dublin at all. But these players are ambitious and they are willing to work hard and, as I keep saying, a lot of them are very young and lacking experience.

“There is no quick fix on Meath football. It is not as if we have been dominating – and I have made the point before – at under-20 or 21 level. We haven’t been in a final for 20-something years, or a senior club final in Leinster in over 20 years. It’s not as if we have this vast pool of highly qualified winners out there that we can just draft in to the team.

“We have set ourselves on a course of action on a team that we knew was not going to be properly competitive in the short-term, but in the belief that within two to five years that this group will form the backbone of the Meath team for a continuous period of time and they would be a lot better then.”

For Dublin, the best part of the day was probably getting Stephen Cluxton, Mick Fitzsimons and James McCarthy back into the mix. They had to claw and scratch for a while in the first half but eventually found their rhythm after the break.

“Look, it’s a win and it’s the...