When the Meath and Louth squads sat down to make plans for this season – they’d have been well served picking through the hammerings that ended both of their championship campaigns.
All-Ireland runners-up Donegal made light work of the Leinster finalists – and also left a few clues to how they can improve.
McGuinness’ men ripped Louth apart in the second-half of their preliminary quarter-final, scoring 2-22 and winning by sixteen points. A limp end to the year for the Leinster champions, who had the cushion of recently ending a 68-year provincial drought.
It was a similar story three weeks later, Donegal faced a Meath team full of belief and vigour – just five between the sides at half-time – the second-half was a sorry affair, Donegal racking up a total of 3-26, to win by twenty points.
Meath, like Louth, ran out of bodies, legs and ideas when they faced a team as good as Donegal. For two ambitious groups of footballers, they’ll want to do better. But how can they bridge that gap to the top tier in Gaelic Football?
There are a few key steps – having the right management team in place is crucial, getting players with the required athleticism and size to compete is another, and finding the type of footballers to take advantage of the new rules is perhaps most important.
After getting through a maiden season that brought about more highs than lows, Meath manager Robbie Brennan made a few shrewd tweaks in the off-season, adding former Armagh and Crossmaglen star Aaron Kernan to the backroom team chief amongst them.
Kernan cut his teeth in intercounty coaching last year, working under his clubmate Tony McEntee in Sligo, and his early impact around the defence becomes clear if you listen to Brian O’Halloran’s interview with LMFM’s David Sheehan after the Cavan win.
Meath were brave and they were innovative last season, and they adapted as well as anyone to the new rules. They took down three heavyweights in Dublin, Kerry and Galway and were awarded with four All-Star nominations (and a first award since 2007) – yet still, you got the sense there was much more in the squad.
Against Donegal last July, a lot of their shortcomings were exposed in the opening half. Meath were too trigger happy from the wrong places – missing six two point attempts in a first-half that saw them score just two.
There are signs that Meath’s attack is going to go up a gear this year – against Derry, on the opening night of the league, they converted five two-pointers, with Jack Flynn and Sean Brennan’s efforts particularly impressive. And while they’ll have been disappointed with the conversion rate in Cavan, there were some wonderful interchanges of attacking football. They only raised one orange flag that afternoon, but it was the all-important last-minute winner from Flynn – epitomising the skill and bottle within this group.
Losing Bryan Menton to injury after twenty minutes of that All-Ireland semi-final defeat didn’t help, but neither did the fact that they were so heavily reliant around midfield on the returning 34-year-old, three years after he last played for the county.
Robbie Brennan spoke about trying to make the squad as strong as possible in the off-season and it certainly feels like he’s done that. He’s handed out just one league debut so far, Oisin MartIn appearing late on the last day, but one man in particular feels like a totally new addition to the squad.
Oisín Martin is the sole League debutant to date in the 2026 season. Photo is courtesy of Paula Greif/www.sportsaction.ie
Since returning from his stint in the AFL with the Essendon Bombers at the tail end of 2023, Cian McBride’s intercounty career with Meath had never quite taken off.
Last year however, he made a switch from his club St. Ultan’s, to his fathers home club in Donegal, Na Dunaibh (Downings) in the Donegal SFC. He made an instant impact in a side coached by Maxi Curran, with local reports suggesting that Jim McGuinness may even be tempted to try and call him up.
Whatever about that, he has unlocked something in his game – impressing throughout the Sigerson Cup with TU Dublin – he arrived onto the field against Derry at a crucial juncture, with Meath a point up, and twenty minutes remaining. McBride would win four kickouts, catching three clean, over Brendan Rogers and Conor Glass, and was also fouled for a converted two-point free after a brilliant catch and run.
Against Cavan, McBride was in from the start – his impact saw Meath win possession off both throw-ins, he’d win a penalty and also saw a punched effort for goal cleared off the line, but it was around the middle third where his quality stood out.
Cian McBride is fouled for the second half penalty against Cavan. Photo is courtesy of Brian Mulligan.
Competing successfully for twelve kickouts, catching three clean, and helping Meath secure possession from six others. He was subbed off with ten minutes left, having destroyed the Cavan kickout, and his efforts absolutely allowed Flynn and Brian Menton to finish strongly.
McBride’s ability was clear from his minor days, and being a physical specimen at six foot five inches, his athletic attributes in the 2km time trial and 20 metre sprint caught the immediate attention of AFL recruiters. In this new game of Gaelic Football, where the ability to win primary possession is so important, McBride could be a diamond.
Louth had to find a new management team after Ger Brennan’s departure in July, and pivot to his home county Dublin in August.
Crucially, and huge credit to their executive for this, Louth announced his replacement within three weeks. Gavin Devlin, a man who had played a key role alongside Mickey Harte in their rise at the turn of the decade, was a coach with their brilliant Minor group last year, as well as underage Director of Football in the county. Devlin knows the Louth Footballers inside out and retained the services of Peter Dooley too, who has been coaching the team since 2023.
After an opening round win against Offaly, Louth were disappointing in their home defeat to Cork, they’ll fully understand the importance of staying in the mix in Division 2.
Unearthing new talent, and maximising the potential of the players at their disposal is crucial for them. Louth had just one All-Star ever (Paddy Keenan, 2010) before the 2024 season, now they have two more in Craig Lennon and their captain Sam Mulroy. Donal McKenny, Tommy Durnin and Ryan Burns have also received nominations recently too.
They already began to embed a number of young stars into the group, wing-back Tadhg McDonnell caught the eye off the bench last summer, and two more members of the side that lost the u20 All-Ireland final to Tyrone last year, Sean Callaghan and Pauric Tinnelly made their league debuts against Cork.
Louth will relish this test against Meath – a team who have provided a happy hunting ground for them in recent seasons – not least, denying them a shot at promotion on the final day of the league last year, before beating them in that brilliant provincial final. There is already plenty of fuel on the fire.
Tommy Rooney,
Host of the Football Pod on OTB
By Meath GAA Sat 14th Feb
