NFL Division Two: Meath 1-20 Louth 0-22
Jack Flynn is making a habit out of this heart-in-the mouth carry on, booming over Hollywood two-pointers to snatch victory in the dying seconds of games. Jack of the Royals doing Roy of the Rovers stuff.
For the second week in a row, Flynn shouldered the responsibility of taking on an audacious effort from outside the large arc in the smouldering embers of a league game Meath trailed by a point. And for the second week in a row, he split the posts.
“Whatever Jack wants to do, we let him do,” smiled Meath manager Robbie Brennan afterwards.
“A phenomenal kick again from him. As I said before, he has that in him. And thank God he had another one in him today.”
RM Block
It was a dramatic finish that denied Louth what would have been a quite incredible comeback. Or salvaged a victory from what would have been a staggering Meath collapse, depending on your perspective.
The Royals led by 11 points at half-time but managed to add only a further five over the course of the entire second half – including Flynn’s two-pointer with the clock showing 69 minutes and 21 seconds.
Louth’s two recent All Stars – Sam Mulroy and Craig Lennon – spearheaded the comeback with Trojan second-half displays. Mulroy scored four two-pointers after the break while Lennon drilled forward to get Louth level in the 68th minute and then just seconds later the wing back popped over a point to edge the Wee County 0-22 to 1-18 ahead.
To Meath’s credit, having spent most of the second half on the back foot, they worked the ball up the field where Flynn was on hand to kick the winner.
“That’s what we’re here for, yeah, we’re here to amuse,” added Brennan with a grin.
“Yeah, mad, absolutely mad [second half]. And I really have to give massive credit to Louth, because they got a real squeeze on us. It looked like they went man-to-man but we dropped off pace-wise. We probably played with more intent in the first half.
“I thought Craig [Lennon] had done us at the end with his last one there. Thankfully, there was enough time in the clock for Jack to get a two-pointer.”
Meath fans are getting plenty of entertainment from their team this season but the reality is that winning games with last-gasp scores is probably not sustainable in the long term. And they will wonder how they allowed a 12-point swing to occur in the first place, going from 11 ahead to one behind.
This Division Two game was an entertaining affair though with plenty of fiery exchanges on the pitch to at least distract those in the stand from the bitter cold hanging over Croke Park.
There were 13 cards shown in total by referee Brendan Griffin – including four black cards in the opening minute after a ruckus developed in front of Hill 16 during which Seamus Lavin was stripped of his jersey.
Mulroy, Ciarán Downey, Brian O’Halloran and Seán Rafferty were the quartet handed 10 minutes in the sin bin. Over the course of the game, Louth picked up five yellow cards while Meath were shown four.
Much of the game’s pendulum swing can be traced to the kickout battle.
Meath destroyed Louth’s restarts in the first half, claiming eight of Niall McDonnell’s kickouts and knocking a further two out for sidelines. With Flynn and Cian McBride dominating the aerial exchanges, the Louth defence were run ragged by wave after wave of green and gold attack.
The surprise was it took Meath 24 minutes to score a goal – Mathew Costello cutting open the Louth rearguard with a blistering run before offloading to the impressive Ruairí Kinsella, who made no mistake with his finish, 1-8 to 0-6.
It was during this period Meath hit 1-7 without reply to take command of the contest. There were two-pointers kicked by Costello and Jordan Morris as well and Louth looked in real trouble approaching half-time.
They were awarded a penalty in the last play of the half when Costello was deemed to have made a foot-block on Ciarán Downey but Mulroy’s spot-kick was saved by Seán Brennan. Costello injured himself in the tackle though and did not return for the second half.
Holding a 1-15 to 0-7 lead at the turnaround, the game looked done.
But Gavin Devlin’s Louth scored the first six points on the resumption and suddenly swashbuckling Meath looked unsure of themselves. Louth grabbed eight of Brennan’s restarts in the second half, Conor Early showing well on several occasions.
And when Lennon edged Louth ahead in the final two minutes, it appeared the Wee County had pulled off a massive comeback.
But Flynn had other ideas. Like the Meath of old, never beaten.
“One million per cent, there’s no restriction on any of them,” added Brennan on his players taking on such low percentage shots.
“They can just be as creative as they possibly want to be or can be. Some people will be saying you shouldn’t take that on, we encourage it.
“And look, that’s the fine balance, when they don’t work it looks like it’s really bad. And then when it does work, it looks really good. So like everything in life, trying to find a balance is the key.”
Having won their opening three games, Meath are balanced nicely at the top of the Division Two table.
MEATH: Seán Brennan; Seamus Lavin, Seán Rafferty, Brian O’Halloran; Donal Keogan, Seán Coffey, Ciarán Caulfield; Cian McBride, Jack Flynn (0-1-1); Mathew Costello (0-1-1), Ruairí Kinsella (1-1-1), Bryan Menton (0-0-1); Jordan Morris (0-1-4, 1f), Eoghan Frayne (0-0-1, 1f), Aaron Lynch (0-0-2). Subs: Conor Duke for Costello (ht); Jack O’Connor (0-0-1) for Lynch (49 mins); Adam O’Neill for Menton (56 mins); Killian Smyth for Keogan (65 mins)
LOUTH: Niall McDonnell; Padraic Tinnelly, Dermot Campbell, Donal McKenny; Craig Lennon (0-0-4), Peter Lynch, Emmet Carolan; Dara McDonnell (0-0-1), Conor Early; Paul Matthews (0-1-1), Sam Mulroy (0-4-1, 1f, 4 2pf), Conor Grimes (0-0-1); Tadhg McDonnell (0-0-1), Ciarán Downey (0-0-2), Ryan Burns. Subs: Conal McKeever for Lynch (32 mins); Kieran McArdle for D McDonnell (ht); Ciarán Keenan (0-0-1) for Burns (48 mins); Eoghan Callaghan for Grimes (48 mins); Daire Nally for T McDonnell (63 mins)
REFEREE: Brendan Griffin (Kerry)
