Meath's problems run deeper than Colm O'Rourke - or any manager
This year's Leinster under-20 victory was a huge boost, but new structures and radical thinking is required in the Royal County.
Meath football's problems run far deeper than Colm O’Rourke - or any manager.
The Royals are now on the lookout for their eighth manager in 21 years following O'Rourke's resignation after two years in charge.
Sean Boylan, who was part of O'Rourke's backroom team this year, served for 23 seasons in a row, but the answer isn't in 'the Messiah factor.'
Read More: Bernard Brogan's quest for a ninth All-Ireland medal is over - for now at least
The issues facing Meath football include demographics, which isn’t their fault. They’re also structural, which is their fault - and they’re psychological. It's a complicated mixture.
The demographics are a waiting game. The structures are fixable and what they should be diving into. Get the structures and coaching right and winning trophies will follow. Then the psychological side looks after itself.
Appointing O’Rourke was almost symbolic of the mentality in a county where they’re strongly attached to a proud history.
Saying that, double All-Ireland winning forward O’Rourke wasn’t just a symbolic figurehead. He did manage his club, Simonstown, to senior Championships in 2016/17.
That old Meath tradition is not much use now though to the younger players in the county. Many of O’Rourke’s squad this year weren’t even born when Meath won their last All-Ireland (1999), or contested their last final (2001)
Any time a Meath team wins with a late point, the narrative is about the old Meath spirit under Sean Boylan. Harking back to days long gone does Meath no favours and speaks of the mentality in the county, while papering over the cracks.
The facts are, take Boylan’s four All-Ireland winning sides out of it and Meath haven’t won a Sam Maguire since 1967. None of this is fixable overnight, but let’s start with demographics.
It’s hardly a coincidence that the counties who are painted as the biggest disappointments - and where apathy at senior inter-county level seems at its greatest - are Kildare and Meath.
Senior inter-county football isn't separate from everything else that goes on in your county. It is where any weaknesses in structures and developing players is ruthlessly exposed - be it skillset, mentality, fitness or athleticism.
It is no coincidence that Kildare and Meath are the sides that were once Dublin’s greatest rivals, but have cowed down as the capital side got their house in order and doled out a decade of psychologically damaging beatings.
The only way to reverse this is by starting to beat Dublin regularly, and not just at underage level. Far easier said than done.
Kildare and Meath’s hinterlands have absorbed a huge influx of Dublin people over the past two decades, who are still Dublin fans - and understandably so. Many of them send their children to play for their own clubs in the capital.
If they changed their colours and loyalty overnight, what would people think of them then?
Old money in Meath - and there’s plenty of that in the Royal County - doesn’t really accept them. There is a divide there that is proving difficult to bridge.
They don’t become Meath and Kildare people all of a sudden, so is that passion for their adopted county going to be there among those who cross the border to live among their keenest rivals?
It’s only when their kids’ kids go into Meath or Kildare underage development squads that they will truly become natives. That grá for a county can’t be created overnight. It takes a generation.
Meath and Kildare have also been hit hard by Leinster rugby and the private rugby schools hoovering up talent. Leinster rugby is a well-oiled machine. When you’re in the private schools, you are rugby property, training multiple times a week in school.
And if you show any talent at club level - and aren’t in a private school - you’re into a Leinster development squad.
Competition is fierce for young sporting talent in Dublin and its borderlands with soccer hugely popular and well ingrained in the fabric of Irish society at this stage - even before the all-pervasive age of the Premier League.
Rugby though, is newer, and another option in areas that wasn’t there before. Dublin have the population and numbers to lose a cohort of their best players to rugby and soccer.
Meath and Kildare not so much, when it comes to the absolute elite handful of athletes with a skill set who could thrive at the top of most sports.
Think Conor Nash, a Navan man from O'Rourke's Simonstown club, who Leinster rugby had their eyes on, but is currently flying high for Hawthron in Australian Rules. These types of players are precious commodities.
Structurally and coaching wise Kildare are getting their act together with Naas CBS a key link between county under-17 and county under-20 - and the lily whites competing in back to back All-Ireland under-20 finals and winning one of them.
This is very promising for them. On top of this, Naas have won five of the last seven Leinster senior post primary schools A football titles, convering one of them to an All-Ireland title.
Meath are struggling at schools level with St. Patrick’s Navan fading as a force in recent years. Their last Leinster title came back in 2013.
The 2021 All-Ireland minor success was a real green shoot for Meath football - and this season’s Leinster under-20 triumph was even more important. Maybe the wheels are starting to turn, but it will take time.
The Royals have been awful at under-20/21 level in recent years, with their last Leinster title before this year, coming all the way back in 2001.
At one stage they won six Leinster under-21s in nine years between 1989 and 1997. It’s not hard to see why they won All-Ireland senior titles in 1996 and 1999. They need to strive to get this level of consistently back again.
Sustaining all that requires a massive passion - that word again - not just for your county but to ensure quality coaching and proper structures are put in place across the board in schools, clubs and all county sides.
Derry is a small county compared to Meath or Kildare, but they have two top level schools at MacRory Cup level - St. Patrick’s Maghera and St. Mary’s Magherafelt - feeding their county teams, which are making headway in recent years at senior level and with three All-Ireland minor wins in five years.
Kerry have numerous schools, including Dingle, ‘the Sem’ and more, competing hard at the top.
Serious post-primary football (under 19 and a half) perfectly bridges that gap between minor (under 17) county level and under-20s.
It also means players are training for more of the year and should be improving if the coaching is good.
If you don’t have that, you will be playing catch-up, unless you are a huge county - like Dublin, who don’t rely on a top drawer schools structure.
In Dublin the sheer volume of numbers across club football drives playing and coaching standards and ensures the game is played at a very high level.
You don’t suddenly end up with a flagship inter-county team that’s struggling and players who haven’t got the skill set, be it at adult club or inter-county level.
When you have a big population and do the work at underage level you have a real chance, but that’s only a starting point.
Meath and Kildare have recently forged links with NUI Maynooth, but they’re already a decade and a half behind Dublin. This is another missing link in the chain that will take time to fix.
Dublin initially linked up with DCU around 2009, basing themselves at the Ballymun College for the Championship. And in UCD, current Louth boss Ger Brennan is a ‘GAA Executive.’
On the club front, O’Rourke helped to bring in a regional football competition, which could fill a big void in Meath. Meath has a huge amount of smaller clubs who amalgamate at underage level, but don’t at senior grade.
A model like Kerry have, with regional teams competing in the senior championship and a separate club championship would be of huge benefit to the Meath county side.
It would mean more championship football at a higher standard but it would also represent a major break in tradition, something Meath cling onto dearly.
If they’re serious though about competing at the highest level again - ie with Dublin - they have to pull out all the stops and try something radical.
It might be time to let go of some of that traditioin - or at least loosen the grip a bit.
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