Gaelic Games

Eoghan Frayne rescues Meath with late equaliser in draw with Fermanagh

Five points from the boot of wing-forward secures a point after he helped Maynooth into the Sigerson Cup quarter-finals this week

Meath’s Eoghan Frayne kicked 0-5 as Meath drew with Fermanagh in their NFL opener. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho

Paul Keane at Páirc Tailteann
Sat Jan 27 2024 - 18:10
NFL Division Two: Meath 0-12 Fermanagh 1-9

A good week ended on a relative high for Eoghan Frayne who kicked five points, including the equaliser, to help secure a draw for Meath in Navan.

Manager Colm O’Rourke described it as “a point gained” as his young team didn’t play particularly well and trailed Fermanagh by three approaching the hour mark.

Substitute Shane Walsh, full-back Adam O’Neill and rookie Frayne responded with three points that wiped out the deficit.

Frayne, a county title winner with Summerhill, helped Maynooth University to defeat holders UCC in the Sigerson Cup last Tuesday, propelling them through to the quarter-finals.

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He might have celebrated another important win here as the Tailteann Cup holders had strong momentum but didn’t score after the 66th minute equaliser in a game that ran for almost another 10 minutes.

Mathew Costello had a free from around 40 metres out in a central position with the wind behind him but dropped it short at the death. Fermanagh were down to 14 players at that stage following Conor McShea’s 68th minute black card.

Kieran Donnelly’s Ernesiders, just out of Division Three, probably would have taken a point on the road when they were eyeing up the game. But they too will feel they should have won given their lead and the excellence of playmaker Ultan Kelm, who Meath couldn’t handle.

Sean Cassidy top scored for the Ulster outfit with 1-2 and they were never behind in the second-half. They’ll host Kildare next weekend in Enniskillen while the pressure is now on Meath to grab a result in Armagh if they’re to stay in the promotion race.

Meath manager Colm O’Rourke. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho

On Frayne, Meath boss O’Rourke praised the former underage star but said he’s worried about all the games he’s playing. “Five points was an excellent return from him,” he said. “He’s another player who was involved in the Sigerson Cup during the week with Maynooth. He came off in that game against UCC on Tuesday night.

“He got very tired and was beginning to cramp up. It was asking a lot of him to go again today, next Wednesday in the quarter-finals, and next Saturday again for us so that’s why we took him off there. The long-term welfare of the players at this stage is more important than anything else.”

Both sides were missing established stars with Sean Quigley, Conall Jones and Ryan Jones making themselves unavailable for Fermanagh this year.

As for Meath, five of their Tailteann Cup final winning team - Jordan Morris, Ronan Ryan, James McEntee, Conor Gray and Padraic Harnan - are injured.

O’Rourke started five league debutants in all and brought on several more as subs including ex-AFL player Cian McBride. Maybe that explained the slow start with just six points shared evenly between the teams after 26 minutes.

Fermanagh had the wind and eventually put daylight between the teams in stoppage time when Cassidy netted from a counter-attack.

They were three up at half-time and still led by three approaching the hour mark with Meath painfully unable to prevent Kelm pulling the strings.

Meath: S Brennan; D Keogan, A O’Neill (0-1), M Murphy; C Caulfield, D Campion, S Coffey; J Flynn, D McGowan (0-3); E Frayne (0-5, one free), R Jones (0-1), J O’Connor; C Hickey, M Costello (0-1, one free), A Lynch. Subs: S Walsh (0-1) for Costello (45-48 mins, blood), Walsh for Lynch (50), R Kinsella for O’Connor (54), D Moriarty for Hickey (63), J Conlon for Frayne (67).

Fermanagh: S McNally; L Cullen (0-1), C Cullen, O Smyth (0-1); D McCusker, S McGullion (0-1), J Largo Ellis; B Horan, J McDade; C McGee, R McCaffrey, C McShea; U Kelm (0-1), G Jones (0-2), S Cassidy (1-2). Subs: C McManus for McShea (2-5 mins, blood), A Breen (0-1) for McCusker (half-time), T Bogue for McGee (63), McManus for Gullion (67), D King for Cassidy (67), J Reihill for Jones (75).

Referee: J Henry (Mayo).

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