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Irish Examiner
08-08-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Royals can kick on after bringing 'buzz back' to Meath, says Rafferty
Sean Rafferty reckons he and Meath are at the start of a journey which can take them to silverware success in the coming seasons. The Na Fianna clubman was arguably the breakthrough player of the year, powering Meath to the All-Ireland semi-final in his debut campaign. Rafferty was overlooked for Meath minor and U-20 teams and had only previously made two senior appearances in the 2023 O'Byrne Cup. But new Meath manager Robbie Brennan started him in all but one of Meath's 16 League and Championship games this year, pitting him against some of the game's very best. Meath picked off Championship wins over Dublin, Cork, Kerry and Galway before the party ended with a heavy All-Ireland semi-final loss to Donegal. Speaking at the launch of the 2025 Beko Club Champion, an initiative open to all clubs in Leinster, Rafferty said he wouldn't trade Meath's All-Ireland semi-final appearance for the Leinster title that Louth won by beating the Royals. "Would I trade our season? No, probably not," said Rafferty. "No disrespect to Louth, they're a great team. On the day, they beat us fair and square. They'd probably been building to that, that was their third Leinster final in a row. "That Louth team has been on a journey whereas I feel that's the first year of our journey with Meath. There's probably, or hopefully anyway, a lot more to come from us. "Louth are midway through their journey and getting there. They definitely taught us lessons on the day that we had to learn, just like Donegal did. "But no, I wouldn't trade seasons with them. I think the season we had brought a buzz back to Meath football and that's the main thing for us." Meath played nine Championship games in the end, winning six and drawing with Roscommon. The next step for a young crew with an ambitious management is to cap the progress with silverware, and promotion from Division 2. "I think all of the Kerry lads said that the Meath game, when they lost to us, turned the page for them, that it was a turning point," said Rafferty. "We're probably hoping now for next year that the Donegal game turned the page for us, that maybe there was a few lessons we had to learn there. "We were probably, not coasting, but we were on such a high and Donegal, like Louth, had been through their journey with Jim McGuinness for two or three years, further down the path, and they taught us a lot of lessons." Rafferty acknowledged it was a remarkable season for him personally, marking David Clifford in the Kerry game. "Then you're facing up to Shane Walsh of Galway," he said. "It was a mad year for me, going from not playing to marking Con O'Callaghan, Clifford and Shane Walsh in the one year." For more information on the Beko Club Champion, visit
Irish Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Vibes and victories: how Robbie Brennan put smiles on Meath faces
Everyone you talk to about Robbie Brennan starts in the same place. Great guy. Great fun. A football nut, yes. But a people person, first and final. Shane Walsh didn't know him at all in the summer of 2023. Galway were still in the championship all the way to the All-Ireland final but shortly after losing to Kerry, Walsh was heading to meet the Kilmacud Crokes manager. He knew his name was Robbie Brennan and that the Crokes boys called him Baggio. But that was about all he had to go on. 'I didn't know what to expect,' Walsh says. 'I'd seen a picture of him but all I really knew was I was going for coffee with this lad Baggio. And straight away, I sat down and he cracked a joke about the All-Ireland. 'He always calls me Gorgeous. That's his line for me. The Galway lads caught on to it one day. I answered the phone to him and said, 'Well Baggio' and he was there, 'Ah, Gorgeous, it's yourself!' That would be Robbie, it would be all about giving you a laugh and having the crack. 'He'd be taking the piss out of you saying, 'When are you coming down to training? I have 5,000 fans there every night thinking you're going to be there.' He has that kind of loveable rogue thing. He could say anything to you but at the same time, you'd do anything for him.' The Baggio thing, we may as well get out of the way quickly. On July 17th, 1994, Kilmacud Crokes were playing a match on the same day as the World Cup final. Robbie Brennan was the Crokes penalty taker and on that particular day, he was the Crokes penalty misser. Everyone repaired to the clubhouse afterwards to watch Italy take on Brazil and ... you can fill in the rest yourself. There's much more to Robbie 'Baggio' Brennan than a missed penalty. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho He's been Baggio ever since. He likes to say that he responds to it quicker than if somebody calls him Robbie. He hasn't tweeted for well over five years but when he did, his handle was @baggio132. 'I'd say it will be on the headstone,' he reckons. The nickname is a very Robbie Brennan thing. No point taking yourself too seriously, nothing lost in having a laugh at yourself. It has been a handy attitude to have on his side throughout a football career that frequently found him flitting between clubs and communities. In Meath , where he spent his early years and in Dublin, where he grew up. Brennan has always had a kind of dual nationality. His father Paddy was the captain of the 1974 Meath intermediate champions St Johns, later to become Wolfe Tones. When the family moved to Dublin soon after, he was the only kid in Kilmacud wearing a Meath jersey. On the night of his unveiling as Meath manager, he told the story of having to go to Colm O'Rourke's sports shop in Navan Shopping Centre to get said Meath jersey, whereupon his dad questioned O'Rourke on why he never used his right foot any more. So there has always been Meath football in Brennan's life, a kind of Miwadi in his Dublin water. When he won a Dublin club title in 1998 with Kilmacud, one of their games in Leinster was against St Peter's of Dunboyne. Brennan scored two points that day at full-forward. In goals for Dunboyne was his future brother-in-law, David Gallagher. By 2005, Brennan had switched sides and was playing full-forward for Dunboyne, having married Liz, David's sister. When they won the Meath championship that year, there was nothing surer than they would meet Dublin champions Kilmacud in Leinster. They did and duly got hammered. St Peter's have won three county titles in their history. They've run into Kilmacud each time. Robbie Brennan and Shane Walsh at a match between Cuala and Kilmacud Crokes in 2024. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho Incredibly, Brennan has been involved in all three encounters, first as a player for Crokes, then a player for Dunboyne and finally as the Crokes manager in 2018. Not so much a foot in both camps as a life in both worlds. When he was managing Crokes to Dublin titles, he was taking underage teams in Dunboyne. Nobody fell out with him, nobody thought it weird. 'To us, it was a natural fit,' says Shane McEntee, clubmate with Dunboyne and still a Meath footballer until earlier this year. 'We would have seen Robbie as Meath and as Dunboyne, even though he grew up with Kilmacud. He was very obviously intent on managing from very early on. 'I would have helped him out with a minor team at one stage and he had done a few years with Kilmacud by then. You could just tell he was very modern, very tactically-minded. He's very analytical about football. His trajectory was always headed towards a high level.' Through it all, his good humour and easy manner was his calling card. He managed St Sylvester's in Malahide, then teamed up with Gabriel Bannigan at Kilmacud before taking the reins himself in 2018. Crokes had gone eight years without a Dublin title at that stage and hadn't so much as been to a county final since 2012. 'He wouldn't have been hands-on at all under Gabriel,' says Paul Mannion. 'When he took it on himself, we had gone through years of massive underperformance. Disappointing results, knocked out early, didn't get close to a final really. For us, for where we were at that time, Robbie's approach really worked for us. Robbie Brennan enjoyed plenty of success with Kilmacud Crokes. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho 'It's almost like he put an arm around the team. I don't think the team needed someone to be coming in cracking the whip in the way other managers might have done. He sensed that probably and felt he just needed to come in and be himself. He just has that jovial kind of spirit to him.' Mannion's first response when asked what he thinks of when he thinks of Brennan is much the same as Walsh and McEntee. 'A good friend, first off,' he says. 'Not the most typical in that sense when it comes to a manager. He's a friend to all of us. Some managers like to keep their distance and that works for them. But that's not him. What works for Robbie is probably the opposite.' But if that's all he was, it wouldn't be enough. Brennan led Kilmacud to four Dublin titles in six years, including the first three-in-a-row in the club's history. In 55 years of the Leinster club championship, he's the only manager to oversee a three-in-a-row. Back-to-back All-Ireland finals, the second ending with Crokes on the Hogan Stand. You need more than good vibes and a bit of slagging to build that kind of CV. Having the players helps, clearly. Crokes had the likes of Mannion, Rory O'Carroll and Craig Dias about the place before Walsh ever set foot in Stillorgan. Cian O'Sullivan was around for a while but no sooner had he retired than Theo Clancy came through. But for all that they had the ingredients, they needed Brennan to convince them they were worthy of the plate. 'I remember meeting him in early 2021,' Mannion says. 'We had the bad loss to Mullinalaghta in 2018 and then early exits from the Dublin championship over the next couple of years. We were having a chat about the plan for the year and he was like, 'I fully believe there's an All-Ireland in this group.' 'We went on to lose the final to Kilcoo at the end of that season and won it the following year. But when he said it to me that time, with the losses we'd had and how inconsistent we'd been, I remember thinking that I just personally didn't see it at all. He was just convinced there was an All-Ireland there when, truthfully, I don't think the players ourselves saw that at all.' Meath's Shane McEntee against Galway in 2022. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho The parallels with what Meath have achieved under Brennan this summer are obvious. This weekend two years ago, they were in the Tailteann Cup final. Anyone suggesting they'd go from there to beating Kerry, Dublin and Galway in the 2025 championship would have been laughed out of Croke Park that day. Yet here they are. McEntee would have dearly loved to be part of it. He's still only 31 and was the Meath captain as recently as 2022 so age is no barrier. But he's had two back surgeries in recent years and however willing the spirit, the body won't play ball. Brennan had him in late last year as part of the extended panel but when time came to pare it back ahead of the league, McEntee didn't make the cut. Couldn't, basically. It means he has a unique perspective on the Meath season under the new manager. McEntee was there for those initial couple of months when Brennan was bedding in, setting a tone and unifying the group. He sat in the team meetings and listened as the new man set about them. It was the middle of the winter slog and the sports-and-conditioning guys were working on their bodies. But Brennan knew that unless they had belief in what was possible, all the gym work in the world was pointless. 'Robbie makes fellas feel very good in themselves,' McEntee says. 'He's really positive, really upbeat. He made a comment about Jordan [Morris] early in the year while I was sitting there. He was talking about the level he thinks Jordan is at, that he's up there with the top forwards in the country. 'That's not really an Irish thing. It's not really a GAA thing to make these big brash statements. And having seen Jordan play a lot, I could see what he was getting at. But he has reached new heights this year. He has proved Robbie right. Meath manager Robbie Brennan hopes his team can overcome Donegal in an All-Ireland semi-final this weekend. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho 'I think Robbie was saying that based on his potential more so than his consistent intercounty form to that point. But there could well be a correlation there between the amount Robbie was praising him and the level of confidence he's playing with. Because Jordy has obviously been phenomenal this year.' Walsh was standing at the other end of Croke Park a fortnight ago as Meath ate the final minute before the hooter. He reckons he was resigned to Galway's fate before the rest of them – he didn't hold out much hope of a Brennan team mismanaging the dying seconds. They didn't get to see each other on the pitch but his phone pinged afterwards with 'a lovely message' from his old boss. 'For a big fella, he's well able to shed a tear,' Walsh says. 'But he has a winning mentality. I don't know if that comes from him rubbing off on players or players rubbing off on him. But whatever it is, he's about winning. He's not in it for a lovely story about Meath getting to a quarter-final or a semi-final. He's in it for the main thing. 'And you can see he has it with the Meath lads. They have that energy with him. When they beat us the last day, you could see loads of them running over to him and celebrating with him. And a lot of that I'm sure is down to the belief he's instilled in them. He'd make you feel 10ft tall.'
Dublin Live
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Dublin Live
Galway v Meath LIVE score updates from the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-final clash
The All-Ireland quarter-finals resume on Sunday afternoon as Meath meet Galway in an intriguing last eight match-up. The Tribesmen will be heavily favoured for this one but those inside the Royal County are quietly confident that an upset is on the cards. Meath impressed in their last outing in the All-Ireland series, beating Kerry by nine points. Throw in the fact that they beat Dublin in the Leinster Championship and Galway's patchy form, there is plenty to be excited about. Galway supporters, however, are hoping that they are just timing their run. A Connacht title win was met with a below-par group stage performance and there were stages in the second half of last week's preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final against Down that they appeared on the ropes. Battle hardened and with plenty of Croke Park experience in recent years, Padraic Joyce's side will be looking to kick into gear as they look to end their 24-year hunt for the Sam Maguire. Today's game takes place at Croke Park with throw-in set for 1.45 pm. RTE Two and the RTE Player will have live coverage of the game and the broadcaster will also show Armagh v Kerry at 4 pm. Meath: Billy Hogan, Seamus Lavin, Seán Rafferty, Ronan Ryan, Donal Keogan, Seán Coffey, Ciarán Caulfield, Bryan Menton, Adam O'Neill, Conor Duke, Ruairí Kinsella, Matthew Costello, Jordan Morris, Keith Curtis, Eoghan Frayne (captain) Replacements: Seán Brennan, Brian O'Halloran, Eoin Harkin, James McEntee, Cian McBride, Conor Gray, Aaron Lynch, Daithí McGowan, Shane Walsh, Diarmuid Moriarty, Cathal Hickey Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Liam Silke; Dylan McHugh, Sean Kelly, Cian Hernon; Jack Glynn, John Maher; Cein Darcy, Matthew Tierney, Peter Cooke; Robert Finnerty, Shane Walsh, Matthew Thompson. Subs: Conor Flaherty, Paul Conroy, Kieran Molloy, Sean O Maoilchiarain, Daniel O'Flaherty, John Daly, Cillian McDaid, Sam O'Neill, Tomo Culhane, Johnny Heaney, Damien Comer.
Irish Daily Mirror
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Galway v Meath live score updates from the All-Ireland quarter-final
The All-Ireland quarter-finals resume on Sunday afternoon as Meath meet Galway in an intriguing last eight match-up. The Tribesmen will be heavily favoured for this one but those inside the Royal County are quietly confident that an upset is on the cards. Meath impressed in their last outing in the All-Ireland series, beating Kerry by nine points. Throw in the fact that they beat Dublin in the Leinster Championship and Galway's patchy form, there is plenty to be excited about. Galway supporters, however, are hoping that they are just timing their run. A Connacht title win was met with a below-par group stage performance and there were stages in the second half of last week's preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final against Down that they appeared on the ropes. Battle hardened and with plenty of Croke Park experience in recent years, Padraic Joyce's side will be looking to kick into gear as they look to end their 24-year hunt for the Sam Maguire. Today's game takes place at Croke Park with throw-in set for 1.45 pm. RTE Two and the RTE Player will have live coverage of the game and the broadcaster will also show Armagh v Kerry at 4 pm. Meath: Billy Hogan, Seamus Lavin, Seán Rafferty, Ronan Ryan, Donal Keogan, Seán Coffey, Ciarán Caulfield, Bryan Menton, Adam O'Neill, Conor Duke, Ruairí Kinsella, Cathal Hickey, Jordan Morris, Keith Curtis, Eoghan Frayne (captain) Replacements: Seán Brennan, Brian O'Halloran, Eoin Harkin, James McEntee, Cian McBride, Conor Gray, Aaron Lynch, Daithí McGowan, Shane Walsh, Diarmuid Moriarty, Mathew Costello Galway: Conor Flaherty; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Liam Silke; Dylan McHugh, Sean Kelly, Cian Hernon; Paul Conroy, John Maher; Cein Darcy, Matthew Tierney, Cillian McDaid; Robert Finnerty, Shane Walsh, Matthew Thompson. Subs: Connor Gleeson, Jack Glynn, Kieran Molloy, Sean O Maoilchiarain, Daniel O'Flaherty, John Daly, Peter Cooke, Sam O'Neill, Tomo Culhane, Johnny Heaney, Damien Comer. Meath - 3/1 Draw - 8/1 Galway 1/3 Hello and welcome to live coverage of Meath v Galway as the two sides meet in today's All-Ireland quarter-final. Croke Park plays host to an intriguing double header with the first of the two games taking place at 1.45 pm followed by Kerry v Armagh at 4 pm. Both games are available to watch live on RTE Two and the RTE Player. We will have all the score updates for the match right here on the Irish Mirror in what will hopefully be a thriller. We already know who two of the All-Ireland semi-finalists are with Donegal flexing their muscles to battle past Monaghan on Saturday followed by Tyrone beating Dublin.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Is Meath v Galway on TV today? All you need to know ahead of today's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
The All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals finish off today as Meath meet Galway in HQ. Meath have been slaying giants all the way through the championship, and will be looking for another scalp to make their way to the semis. Advertisement The Tribesmen have been returning to form gradually over the All-Ireland series but face an injury scare with Shane Walsh coming off in their last clash. READ MORE: Dublin vs Tyrone RECAP as Red Hands claim All-Ireland SFC semi-final berth as Dessie Farrell departs READ MORE: Monaghan v Donegal LIVE score as Monaghan lead All-Ireland quarter-final The Royals fell to Louth in the Leinster final the last time they played in Croker, but recovered well to top Group 2 after a massive win against Kerry last time out. Galway beat Armagh in round three of the round robins to book their place in the prelims, going through to the quarters after accounting for Down. Advertisement Here's all you need to know about the match: When and where is it on? The match is taking place at Croke Park in Dublin on Sunday June 29. It is scheduled for a throw-in time of 1:45pm. How can I watch it? The clash is being shown live on RTÉ 2. Betting Odds Meath: 11/4 Draw: 8/1 Galway: 2/5
