Meath's scoring ace takes rough with the smooth

TREVOR GILES learned about public exposure the hard way. Having been lionised as a teenage member of Meath's National League winning team of two years ago, he suffered disproportionately when the county put in two poor championships in 1994 and 95.

The player feels that he was unfairly treated after the Leinster final of 94 - pointing out that his place kicking record then was the same as for this year's Leinster final, after which he was made RTE's man of the match.

As a consequence, he pays little attention to the positive publicity that has been washing down his back in respect of this year's performances. There's been a fair bit for him to ignore and if Meath win on Sunday, Giles should be a hot favourite for Footballer of the Year in a couple of month's time.

His debut senior season was at left wing forward, whereas he currently lines out on the other flank, but there is a world of difference between the roles. Originally he was a slight, young player who contributed diligently and established himself as a free taker fit to succeed Brian Stafford.

He has since developed into the team's most influential player. Reading the game as well as he does and liberally interpreting his area of operations, Giles has cropped up all over the pitch this summer, using his inexhaustible stamina to help out the defence and orchestrate the attack.

As one of those behind the initiation of the under age structures that Meath are currently exploiting so successfully, Matt Kerrigan has followed Giles's career closely.

He can ride tackles better than anyone in the game," he says, "and hits tackles as well as anybody without losing concentration. The best piece of football in held and released a ball for Graham Geraghty to score a point. Trevor was physically able to take the ball, hold it up and get hit and had the vision as well to pick out Geraghty.

"Again, the (first) goal against Tyrone showed how quick his bands are. Geraghty didn't have to break stride and Trevor took the ball in front of his face but still managed to lay it off perfectly.

"There's an argument and I would agree with it - that says the best centre half back in the county by a mile is Trevor Giles. The role he's playing is that of a fella who knows his responsibility. Against Dublin, he played all over the field and against Lao is, when Tony Maher (the Lao is midfielder) was cleaning up, he left his post and dropped back into defence.

The centre back argument is supported by the evidence of last March's Sigerson Cup. Giles played in the position for this year's champions, UCD. His physical development was also noticeable that weekend in Limerick.

In July's Leinster final against Dublin, at one stage of the second half Giles was jogging back into position when his marker, Eamonn Heery, hit him a clatter with his shoulder. Giles checked momentarily but kept going. Heery came at him again and Giles sidestepped. All of this was done without shifting his gaze from the right wing forward destination.

"You tend to forget that he's only 21," says Kerrigan. "He has a great temperament, almost fearless. He reminds me of Brian Mullins, he can take hits and still have the composure and vision to do the right things at the right time.

"Giles is a natural and works very hard in a quiet way that not everyone would see. The amount of tackling he does rarely gets noticed. He just has that little edge over all footballers, the ability to get into situations of danger and calm things down. Most of his time has been taken up so far with shoring up the defence - like in that match against Laois when Meath were in big trouble."

At times, what needs to be done is at the other end of the field Kerrigan recalls an example of the player's capacity to chase scores in a match between Kerrigan's club, Summerhill, and Giles's Skryne.

"Skryne were playing Summerhill. It wasn't an important game, Trevor was in the middle and Summerhill were edging away. Then he did something and a gap opened. He was gone through it and sent in a screamer, not a foot off the ground. He has the ability to change games."

Similarly in the outstanding Sigerson Cup semi final against UCC last March, Giles got up the pitch to snatch a goal as UCD came from nowhere to force extra time.

Only 21, he has developed well in a couple of years as Kerrigan points out.

"This is his third year in the Meath seniors, he's been through Leinster and games with Dublin and is now a more rounded player. Maybe there's a flaw in his game but I don't know it."