Bray not getting carried away as Meath embrace Tailteann Cup final step

Regardless of how things pan out for Meath in the Tailteann Cup final, Stephen Bray will shortly lose his status as Meath’s last All-Star recipient. Well, kind of.

The tier two championship has its own All-Stars scheme and Meath representation on it is virtually certain after reaching the final with five wins from five, including one over tomorrow’s final opponents Down.

Jordan Morris, playing in pretty much the same position as Bray did when he won Meath’s last All-Star award in 2007, looks a decent bet for starters.

Bray’s ‘full’ All-Star will still mean more, of course, earned as it was for his stunning performances throughout Meath’s run to that season’s All-Ireland semi-final against Cork. Remember his 2-2 haul against Galway in Portlaoise when Marty Morrissey, on commentary, described it as “the Stephen Bray show”?

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Either way, the more important point for Meath is probably why it’s getting up on almost 20 years since they last won an All Star.

It’s the county’s longest gap without an All Star since Colm O’Rourke, the current manager, picked up his first in 1983, eight years after Ken Rennicks and Mattie Kerrigan had been honoured.

So what happened to precipitate the fall off?

“I suppose we have to be realistic,” said Bray, a selector with the current Meath management.

“Ultimately you have to be competing at underage level and you have to be competing at schools level. That then brings you into U-20 and senior. I think we have to be realistic as a county and say that until we’re doing those things on a consistent basis then we still have work to do.

“The next challenge at the moment is that we have done reasonably well at U-17 level, we’ve won a minor All-Ireland a couple of years ago, so the next step is trying to progress those lads on at U-20 and as seniors. That’s still our challenge as a county. Then it’s just building that consistency.

“It’s about what happens within our own club environment as well, making sure that we’re as competitive as possible.”

Bray is cautiously optimistic about the path the current Meath seniors are on. A midseason slump left the Royals without a win for seven games running, bottoming out with their Leinster SFC opening round defeat to Offaly.

Since then, they have won five games in a row. It’s a while since any Meath team has been able to boast a record like that.

“Yeah, but look, in the group we were in, we were playing Division 3 and 4 teams as well,” said Bray of the Tailteann Cup group that Meath topped which included Tipperary, Wexford and Down.

“We were seeded first in our group so they were all winnable games. I wouldn’t be saying it’s anything to write home about just yet. But yeah, we did what we had to do I suppose and that was the most important thing.

“We had a good attitude towards the competition and treated everybody the same and analysed them properly and prepared well for each match and got the results that we deserved.”

Meath have used 25 different players across the campaign to date, a figure that rises to 29 if you include the defeat to Offaly. A dozen different players have been handed their championship debuts, many of whom are former Leinster minor medal winners from between 2018 and 2021.

[ Colm O’Rourke fully focused on final step as Meath bid for silverware ]

[ Tailteann Cup: Kerr hat-trick leads Down’s goal glut against Laois as they book final slot ]

As much as some Meath supporters cursed the county’s bad luck for slipping into the Tailteann Cup, it could just prove a blessing in disguise, allowing for such an overhaul to take place in a less pressurised environment.

“Possibly, yeah,” nodded Navan O’Mahonys man Bray. “There’s always the opportunity to bring players in when you’re on top in games and we’ve had a few games where we’ve been on top so yeah, it’s given opportunities to lads. It’s great to see it, to get the lads experienced at that level of football and winning experience of course is great for them as well.”

The last time Meath and Down played, early last month at Parnell Park, Meath won a cagey affair by two points.

“It was the first real test for Meath since the Leinster championship,” said Bray. “They [Down] hit a lot of wides but look, Parnell Park is a much smaller venue than Croke Park is going to be. You’d kind of treat that game on its merits and say that this one will be a totally different game at Croke Park.”