The Meath senior club championship is among the worst performing nationally and in Leinster, chairman of the Football Development Committee Conor O’Donoghue told delegates at the County Board meeting.

O’Donoghue delivered a presentation on the ongoing projects of the Football Development Committee and highlighted the county’s lack of success at senior club provincial level with just one final appearance over the past 21 years. He said Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Laois, Longford and Westmeath were all ahead of Meath based on results over the last number of years. Only Wicklow, Wexford and Kilkenny were below Meath. Too many teams are not realistically of senior standard, according to O’Donoghue.

In comparison the junior and intermediate club football championship was of a very high standard with very creditable performance by clubs in provincial competitions over the past 20 years. Meath clubs had nine Leinster championship wins at junior level while there were four successes for Meath clubs from 10 finals at intermediate level. 

The performances of second level schools were also a cause for concern and were still a distance from where they need to be with the strongest school in the county, St Patrick’s CS not performing nearly as well in recent years.

O’Donoghue said some schools were doing great work but greater support needed to be given to schools 

He gave a broad assessment of what was working, what could be done better and what wasn’t working at present on the football development landscape.

He highlighted Academy Structures led by Paul Garrigan and Daithi McCabe as making great strides. The Adult Games Programme was also in good shape according to O’Donoghue as was the Club Pathway Programme which was available to every club in the county.

The Meath Game Model, a specific game model that Meath teams train to and play to across the board was also working well while an Athletic Curriculum overseen by Daithi McCabe was also in place and available to clubs.

Improvements were needed in the Club Pathway structures and O’Donoghue said the Regional Championship had worked well over the past three years and the feedback from players was excellent but it now needed to be reviewed going forward.

The senior development squad was also working quite well with the likes of Sean Coffey, Sean Rafferty and Sean Ryan stepping up to the senior team but more could be done according to O’Donoghue.

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