Poor start forgotten as Meehan and Galway hit form

Interview : Gavin Cummiskey talks to Galway's in-form sharpshooter who was yesterday chosen as the footballer of the month for March

Micheál Meehan only scored one goal on Sunday as a revived Galway obliterated Down. By his normal standards this was a poor return for the youngest and now most famous of the Caltra football clan.

Meehan was in Dublin yesterday to pick up the footballer of the month award for March. He got to have lunch with Clare's Tony Carmody, the hurling recipient. It also marked outgoing GAA president Seán Kelly's last duty with the Vodafone All Stars.

The doyens of GAA scribes - Paddy Downey and Owen McCann - were also in attendance, men responsible for thousands of adjectives describing the great players of generations past.

Kelly noted that Meehan is the future of the game. With final exams in financial mathematics and economics coming in two weeks and a league semi-final against neighbours Mayo next Sunday, there is already enough on this young man's plate. Still, headlines like "Galway show their Meehan streak" - arising out of the virtuoso, four-goal display that decimated Meath on March 27th - are in vogue.

Everything on the up then?

"It is now, but a few bad wides as well to throw in with it so we have a bit of improving to do before next week.

"As a team now we are starting to go fairly well, what with the Salthill-Knocknacarra lads back. It was a boost to the panel, especially considering their win in the club (All-Ireland) final. Hopefully, it augurs well for the championship."

The league started miserably, relegation being a genuine fear after three outings.

This can be explained away by the absence of key players like Michael Donnellan and Pádraic Joyce. Joe Bergin and Barry Cullinane were also late to return.

"Yeah, a bad start to the campaign, but we were only getting a few players back. We were lucky enough that Meath did us a favour yesterday (Sunday) to make the league semi-final, because you want games at this time of year."

Down also did them a favour by failing to show up. It dampens the hype about the Ulster duopoly being broken this year. And yet, the 1-12 to 0-4 scoreline fitted snugly into the bizarre weekend results at nearly every Division One ground.

"We were expecting a tough challenge. I suppose conditions didn't help, but we got to grips with it and, thankfully, held them off. It was a terrible day for football, but they were missing Benny Coulter (and Dan Gordan) who is a key player for them."

Galway could probably do without meeting Mayo right now, and vice versa, as they are already tentatively pencilled in for the Connacht final. Recent history saw Galway avenge the 2004 drubbing in last year's provincial decider.

"The Connacht final? It was awful hot that day. They went into that game as favourites but it was only a two-point game. Tight all the way through. It wasn't a great game of football by any means. We just ground out a result that we needed after they had given us a hiding the year before.

"We were on the bounce-back, and thankfully we got the victory that day. The shoe's on the other foot this year so we will have to be wary in the league and championship."