James Conlon a key man for Meath if Croker calm descends
The new Gaelic football rules introduced this year are clearly complimenting Meath's young squad, with the standout element in their attack en route to the final being their ability to convert and confidence to let loose from outside the traditional scoring zone.
To go with that, Meath have won exactly half of their opposition's total kickouts so far in this Leinster campaign, generally by forcing a long option and committing numbers to fiercely contest the breaks. Against Dublin, Meath won 15 of Cluxton's 27 restarts.
However in the likely scenario where the wind will not have a similar bearing on their chance to win a first provincial title since 2010 - they will also be looking to the inside brilliance of James Conlon to deliver the crucial scores via regular one pointers.
Particularly if Louth look to push out on their two-point shooters or commit more numbers to the breaks on kickouts, leaving additional space inside for Conlon to potentially exploit.
Despite starting just one of Meath's three championship matches along with one substitute appearance which came in the 61st minute - Conlon comes into the Leinster final as Meath's top scorer from play with 1-07. He's also scored more from play than any Louth player on their way to a third consecutive final.
Since making his debut in 2019 as a 21-year-old - the St Colmcilles attacker delivered on the promise of his five points from play as the Meath minors beat Dublin in 2016 when scoring 0-05 from play against Laois in his first senior championship start - Conlon has only started 13 more games league and championship in seven seasons.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
36 minutes ago
- The 42
Conan: 'People definitely revel in Leinster underachieving at times'
ONE OF THE more interesting insights to come out of Saturday's URC semi-final in Dublin was provided by Leinster lock Joe McCarthy. Speaking to RTÉ on the sideline post-game, McCarthy told the panel: 'We know everyone loves to hate Leinster. That definitely drives us on.' Down the tunnel in the press conference room, Jack Conan would later play that talk down, but it's certainly a snapshot of how some of the Leinster dressing room have been framing their URC title charge. After overcoming Glasgow 37-19 to book their place in Saturday's Croke Park final [KO 5pm], the province are now 80 minutes away from ending a four-year trophy drought. 'I don't think everyone hates Leinster but I think people definitely revel in us underachieving at times,' Conan said. 'We get enough flak and stuff. I wouldn't be one much for social media either so you try to block out that noise because it's irrelevant but what we appreciate is the people who come out to see us week in week out, when the days are good and the days are bad. 'Those are the people we are doing it for, the staff, the lads in the changing room, the people that give everything to this club and you try to block out the noise. It's always nice to prove some people wrong and hopefully we can go again next week and silence a few more critics.' Advertisement There wasn't a whole lot to criticise from the win over Glasgow, with Leinster turning in their most cohesive and complete performance in weeks. A Croke Park final against the Bulls awaits. Jake White's side toppled Leinster in last year's semi-final and will hold no fear travelling to Dublin this week, as they look to become the second South African side to win the competition (following the Stormers in 2022). All three previous URC finals have had at least one South African representative, and Conan feels the league has ramped up since they joined. 'It's definitely harder than it's ever been. Add in those away trips to South Africa, they always come at a tricky time for us, the lads went down this year and lost against the Bulls but they put in a hell of an effort and beat the Sharks and that sets us up really well for the tail end of the season. 'It's incredibly tough, everyone's out to be at their best and beat everyone and that's no different for us. 'This week, we'll take it moment by moment and enjoy it. It's a special time, with a great group of lads, great staff, everyone. We want to make it a special week, we don't want to be worried about results, it's all about performance and that's what we're building for. 'We won't be overawed by the occasion, we'll enjoy it and whatever happens, happens.' Head coach Leo Cullen hopes to have some tough selection calls to make, with Garry Ringrose, Josh van der Flier, Robbie Henshaw, Hugo Keenan and Tadhg Furlong all nursing injuries. Cullen said 'one or two' of those should come back into the mix this week, with Ringrose and Van der Flier the most likely. 'What can we control now, we'll control having a really good week and enjoying it,' Cullen said. 'I love… I've been lucky to be involved in Leinster and other teams for a long time and there are so many great days, but you it's not like you cling to those days where you won a trophy, it's the day to day that I love. I love the process of getting ready for a game that's what excites me, I love getting out of bed in the morning and coming into work… because it's not work. 'This week, I'm excited because I get to do it and there's guys who are working seven days a week who will be in tomorrow doing medical checks, the coaches will be reviewing the game and pulling it together. 'Listen, once it's over it's over. The big thing is enjoying what you do. When it's over, you can't affect it then. We can effect it now, but we can't affect it post the match. 'So, when we come in for our post-match press conference in Croke Park next week, as long as we did everything we could to try and get ready for the game and give our best, there's all these other variables that we don't control and that's what makes sport amazing. 'So, we'll give our best and when next week is over and we're dealing with the fallout good, bad or indifferent, it's over. What can we control now? We can get excited about next week and that's what I love. 'I love the process, I love the people we work with. There was a good few family in the dressing-room, it's magic. Win, lose or draw, we deal with the consequences.'
RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
The fascinating story of Gaelic football's historic roots
Analysis: Right at its core, Gaelic football is a mirror to Irish society and to the nature of that society at any given time By UCD Before January 17th, 1885, there was no such thing as Gaelic football. What there was, though, was centuries of folk football played across Ireland in every corner, recorded in legal texts, in poetry, in newspaper accounts, in travellers' records. You'd games played between parishes, villages, groups of friends, two people kicking a ball to each other and presumably one person kicking a ball to him or herself. The tradition of kicking a ball is universal. It's the same type of game that was played across England or in the mining villages of Wales or across Scotland. You can go to China on the one side and there are records of people kicking a ball in sport. Spin right the way round to the far side of the globe to Mesoamerica, and you get exactly the same thing. From RTÉ, trailer for new series Hell for Leather – The Story of Gaelic Football This shared human experience is remade in Ireland by Irish geography, by Irish people, by the peculiarities of life on a small island off the edge of Europe, where it developed its own traditions, its own forms, its own lore. You can see it in the statute of Galway written down from 1527. You see it in the school constructed by Hugh Montgomery in Newcastle in Co Down when he laid out a playing ground for football for his students in 1620. You see it in the matches played in the Curragh of Kildare or in the fields around Drumcondra in Dublin. It's a game which created heroes who were recorded in poetry. It is a game which created violence, which made its way to the courts, which saw army and police brought to suppress riots at football matches in Drumcondra in the 1770s. From the 18th century, there is also talk about a football match played out of Parsons Castle in Parsons Town, now Birr in the south of Offaly where bachelors played married men in a game near the castle and cheered the king after the game and came back and drank barrels of beer in celebration. It's formal and it's informal. It's not reckless and it can be reckless. It's not violent and it's very violent and it's wrapped through communities and traditions. It's not recorded with the same fervor as hurling, not presented in the same thrilling, exciting manner as hurling not seen to be something that reaches that incredible crescendo that hurling reached through those centuries. But it's there all the time, and it's there everywhere. From RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Miscellany, Paul Rouse reads A Christmas Ball about the first Gaelic football match ever played in Wexford The context for the arrival of Gaelic football is the existence of soccer and rugby on the island by the early 1880s and these games beginning to spread around the island. One of the people who helped spread those games was Michael Cusack, a devoted rugby player who described himself as a sterling lover of the game. A man then who turned away from the sports of empire, in founding the GAA with Maurice Davin and set upon putting together their own version of football. Partly because Davin despised rugby and thought it was a brutalising game, unfit to be played because people just got injured. Those two men knew the rules about soccer and rugby. When they founded the GAA, they set out to invent a Gaelic football, a football game that would stand against the games of the empire. They drew on the rules of soccer and rugby in constructing those broad rules that Davin wrote up. He was well placed to draw up rules because he was methodical and these rules were clearly influenced by the other games that were in existence. The first match was held on the green in Callan between a team from Kilkenny and the team from Callan. It was a remarkable game in that there was no score by the time they finished. The game was intense and physical, but you could only score a goal. There were no points, there were no points posts. They quickly understood that there were going to be very few scores if they left it like this, particularly when the initial rules permitted 21 aside. From RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport, GAA president Jarlath Burns on his hope that the "basic principles" of Gaelic football can again flourish following rule changes to the game The context for the arrival of Gaelic football is the existence of soccer and rugby on the island by the early 1880s and these games beginning to spread around the island. One of the people who helped spread those games was Michael Cusack, a devoted rugby player who described himself as a sterling lover of the game. A man then who turned away from the sports of empire, in founding the GAA with Maurice Davin and set upon putting together their own version of football. Partly because Davin despised rugby and thought it was a brutalising game, unfit to be played because people just got injured. Those two men knew the rules about soccer and rugby. When they founded the GAA, they set out to invent a Gaelic football, a football game that would stand against the games of the empire. They drew on the rules of soccer and rugby in constructing those broad rules that Davin wrote up. He was well placed to draw up rules because he was methodical and these rules were clearly influenced by the other games that were in existence. The first match was held on the green in Callan between a team from Kilkenny and the team from Callan. It was a remarkable game in that there was no score by the time they finished. The game was intense and physical, but you could only score a goal. There were no points, there were no points posts. They quickly understood that there were going to be very few scores if they left it like this, particularly when the initial rules permitted 21 aside. The late great Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh in one of his final television interviews explaining the origins of Gaelic Football ☘️❤️ #HellForLeather | Monday at 9.35pm — RTÉ One (@RTEOne) June 5, 2025 By 1886, there was a GAA club playing Gaelic football in every province and multiple teams in many counties playing against each other. Cusack wrote repeatedly in the newspapers, praising the discipline and good temper of these players who now began to spread the game. But all across the country, there was mayhem around these matches. All around the place, there was this idea of a deep physicality in the games. Of course, there were loads of matches conducted in good spirit and, and in flying discipline. But a match in Kilkenny in early 1887 between Ballyhale and Slieverue went out of control and the two teams forgot about the ball and ripped into each other. The county board officials who were there couldn't get them to stop and the only way they could do so was to pull up the goalposts. Down in Tralee, there was a match between Castleisland and Tralee. Rev John P Davan wrote a reminiscence of that match about 50 years later. He'd no idea who won the match and all he could remember was a fella from Castleisland called Foxy Tom, who threw three fellows out over the rope on the sideline as this expression of manhood. It reached the point where it could only be a contest which inspired something like that if it had meaning - and the meaning was that you represented where you were from. It was a stroke of genius - a lucky stroke in many respects - to make the organisation parish-based. You played for where you were from on a parish basis. Contests then began to take off, particularly after the establishment of the All Ireland and local county championships from the beginning of 1887. We often talk about the GAA in a local context and this idea of local people competing against each other. It's the engine which drives it, and you cannot beat a bit of local bitterness to draw a crowd and give something more meaning. From The Irish Examiner in 2023, how to make an All Ireland winning team? But it also mattered because it had a national framework and you could be the All Ireland champions if you were properly put together and you progressed. If you won your county championship, you earned the right at this point to represent your county in an All Ireland championship and become the All Ireland champions no matter what county you were in. Sport always reflects the society in which it is played and the times in which it is played. Because it is so popular and so intrinsic to so many people in so many different areas, Gaelic football is a mirror to Irish society and to the nature of society at any given time. Just as the informal games of the years before the founding of the GAA reflected that world and just as the pre-television era reflected that world, our game now reflects the modern world. It's hugely organised, driven by data, obsessed with trying to find an edge in fitness and trying always to be on the cusp of the next great thing in that search to be better. But right at the core, it's still the love of play, the love of the ball, the love of kicking the ball, the love of the challenge of taking on another person and the desire to win.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Silverware for Louth girls team after extra-time triumph at prestigious Gaynor Cup
After a goal-less 60 minutes of normal time, Hilary Adeniran's strike in the first period of extra time proved the difference. The Albion Rovers striker won the Player of the Match award for her huge impact off the bench, and she might have put the seal on the win with a couple of subsequent gilt-edged chances. But the game remained in the balance right up until the final whistle, its sound sparking huge celebrations for the Louth girls, who saw out a well-deserved victory. Captain Maisie Ball lifted the Gaynor Trophy to cap off a memorable week for the under-14 squad, which began with a fiercely contested group stage. Louth kicked off Group 5 on Monday with a 1-1 draw against Kilkenny - Ellie Malone grabbing a late equaliser - before a narrow 1-0 defeat to eventual group winners Mayo kicked off Tuesday's action. Anna-May Lynch's equaliser earned another 1-1 draw, this time against Tipperary South, but results in other games meant that the side finished bottom of a tight group and so progressed into the Trophy competition. Wednesday's quarter-final against Inishowen was another tense affair, with Rosie Fox's 14th-minute strike cancelled out by a second-half equaliser from the north Donegal outfit, which sent the game to penalties. Goalkeeper Abi Osawaru saved the first Inishowen spot kick to put Louth in the driving seat, with successful penalties from Sophia Mackin, Rosie Fox, Mia Van Der Westhuizen and Éabha Byrne sealing the win. A semi-final win over Derry followed on Thursday, with Ball's strike giving Louth a half-time lead. A Van Der Westhuizen own goal drew Derry level at the start of the second half, but Louth gathered themselves and strikes from Fox and Adeniran saw them through to the final and a shot at the Gaynor Trophy. It was a chance they didn't pass up, and so now the LSGL Academy can add the 2025 Gaynor Trophy to the 2022 Gaynor Bowl and the 2021 Gaynor Trophy previously secured. That's three pieces of silverware in five appearances at Ireland's premier youth football tournament for the LSGL - a remarkable achievement for a league that was only founded in 2019. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more Academy head coach Robbie Corr and LSGL chairperson Robbie Corr said: 'This week proved what's possible when a group of players believe in themselves, trust each other, and never stop working for the badge. 'Winning the Gaynor Trophy is a reward for every extra session, every tough moment, and every ounce of resilience shown along the way. This is just the start for these players. Their potential is massive, and I'm proud to have been part of their journey.' LOUTH: Goalkeepers: Féile May Buckley (Walshestown), Abi Osawaru (Rock Celtic). Defenders: Anna Cromwell (Dromin Utd), Lily-Mae Curtis (Square United), Erin Kavanagh (Albion Rovers), Grace McEvoy (Rock Celtic), Mia Van Der Westhuizen (Rock Celtic). Defenders / Midfielders: Masie Ball (Rock Celtic), Anna-May Lynch (Blayney Academy), Anna-Lilly McDonnell (Rock Celtic), Anna-Kelly O'Reilly (East Meath Utd), Ellen Wright (Castletown Belles). Midfielders: Ava Fanning (Albion Rovers), Ellie Malone (Albion Rovers), Sophie McCabe (Castletown Belles), Hollie Rogers (Muirhevna Mor). Forwards: Hillary Adeniran (Albion Rovers), Éabha Byrne (Castletown Belles), Rosie Fox (Quay Celtic), Sophia Mackin (Quay Celtic)
