In our latest Hospital Pass, we consider the dying kick of the Tyrominator and ask whether Meath should even bother turning up in Navan on Saturday.
It’s 15 long years since Brian Dooher wore the bloody bandages of war in an All-Ireland semi-final against Meath.
He looked to be nearly finished around 2005, but still, year after year after year, the Tyrominator came back for more. Now, however, it seems that his days as an inter-county footballer seem to be drawing to something like a close.
Mickey Harte has “an open mind” about Dooher’s role in the team these days, suggesting that at 36, he’s no longer one of the first as gaeilge names on the Tyrone team-sheet.
But this is Dooher, and he won’t be one to slink off into the night-time, light a fire in the hearth of a little farmhouse in Dunnamanagh and watch re-runs of All-Ireland Gold from morning till night.
No, if this is the GAA’s version of a dying animal, there is sure to be one last kick, and if it’s to be aimed in the direction of old foes Armagh in a little over a week’s time, so much the better.
The Orchard County must first negotiate the obstacle of Wicklow this weekend, but if they do it’ll be Tyrone-Armagh in the third round of the qualifiers.
Dooher being Dooher, you get the feeling that should Tyrone come up short there, he’ll be doing whatever it takes to haul his limbs around mucky fields next winter.
Anything, anything, but bring an end to a fine inter-county career on a defeat to Armagh.
Royal rumble
Meath go into Saturday’s second round qualifier game against Kildare in the strong position of being underdogs and being at home.
They’re lying in ambush waiting for the Lilywhites to stroll into town with their white chests puffed out and their white hats and their white flags, but the Royal artillery could well be weakened considerably if a few fitness tests don’t go well over the next day or two.
Kevin Reilly, the full back who will be tasked with the not inconsiderable task of putting the shackles on Kildare’s Tomas O’Connor, the Pretty Boy with the strength of a Lord of the Rings ogre, is a doubt with a back injury sustained while carrying four of the other Meath backs against Galway last weekend.
And Cian Ward, who followed up his five-star, four-goal performance with a no-show against Gaillimh (forgive me the Paul Collins-ism), is nursing an ankle injury.
Take those two out of the equation, and it’ll be a case of how much Kildare will win by. Ten points, we say. Sure, if it wasn’t in Navan, Meath mightn’t even bother turning up.
