In Pairc Tailteann today Meath beat Wicklow by 6 points in the Minor Hurling Championship and three Dunderry lads played,Conor Dempsey at corner back,Luke Martyn at midfield and Alex Walsh at corner forward.
I cannot remember ever having three Dunderry lads playing for the County on the one team,so history was made.
I was a tad late for the throw in and cannot thank enough two Maors who were kindness itself to yours truly on the way in to the game. This female and male Maors are a credit to the GAA.
Meath were leading by 1-1 to 0-0 when I got seated against a very stiff wind.
I thought there was little between the teams skill wise and commitment wise but Meath had the edge on the accuracy of their passing and finding their man,some Meath scores coming from Wicklow mistakes.
It must have been the dirtiest game in GAA history were you to judge it by the number of times the referee blew his whistle.It was incessant from start to finish ans destroyed the game for me.And the game was as clean a game as I have seen.HE destroyed it as a spectacle and were I a Wicklow man I would demand a replay.And one of his his officials responded in similar fashion as he on a number of occassions overly fussily made the Wicklow free taker move the sliotar back by minute distances thereby distracting him unfairly I thought.
Young hurlers giving of their best ought not be put through this sort of thing.Certainly the attendance was utterly confused at the refereeing so the players must have been bewildered also.
Aside from that Wicklow clawed their way back into the game and led by 2-5 to 1-5 by half time.I was not unduly concerned as we had a strong wind in our backs in the second half.And bit by bit our lads clawed their way back to parity against a game Wicklow side.
You often read in reports about Wicklow men being sent off at vital moments in matches and might assume that they are dirty savages that deserve what they get.Well you should disabuse yourself of that notion.A competitive Wicklow player saw red for a tackle on our own Lukie Martyn.Lukie fair play to him didn't even go down and went on to play a vital roll in our eventual victory displaying his full range of athletic abilities and hurling skills ,so whatever happened didn't effect him at all.
But it tilted the contest entirely in Meath's way as Wicklow eventually wilted and Meath ran out deserving winners .Most unfair on Wicklow I thought but having said that I didn#t see why the Ref blew the player up and sent him off.
Certainly he and his umpires took no action when A Wicklow player subsequently and in full view of the attendance had his body nearly bent in two by a high tackle on the middle of his back while off the ground.But there you go.
Anyhow Meath took full advantage of the situation and hurled well enough to deserve their victory.That their free taking was impressive was most important in this free riddled match as they availed of the many opportunities presented with aplomb.
Our three boys did well.Dempsey was solid if unspectacular and did all that was demanded of him.Lukie outplayed his man and made some vital contributions that swung the match the Royals way,particularly in the second half and Alex too had a good second half securing a goal in the process.
There will be stiffer challenges along the road,
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