Hospital Pass: A royal conspiracy and a less than faithful apology

In the final hospital pass of the week, we ask if there’s a conspiracy against Meath and if there has ever been a more hollow apology than Michael Duignan’s to the Offaly footballers.

By Conor Heneghan

To put a twist on a famous Monty Python line about the contribution of the Romans to the world, it is necessary to ask this afternoon: ‘What have the Royals ever done to us?’

Those of you familiar with The Life of Brian will know that the respondents quickly listed off a whole host of improvements brought about by the Romans in society, and similarly, one can easily illustrate numerous past Meath atrocities at the drop of a hat.

There were the constant instances of ‘robust’ challenges in clashes against Cork and Dublin in the late 80s and early 90s, the dodgy refereeing of Pat McEnaney that robbed Mayo of their best player and allowed a dubious Tommy Dowd goal to stand in the 1996 All-Ireland final replay and of course, who could forget Joe Sheridan’s ‘ghost’ goal last summer that robbed the Wee County of a deserved first Leinster title in over half a century?

In recent weeks, however, it seems as if the current Meath set-up are paying the price for the deeds of their predecessors in the green and gold.

Why else, we ask, was Graham Geraghty’s perfectly legal goal against Kildare disallowed a couple of weeks back? More recently, why did Brian Farrell’s suspension stand on a night when a love-in at Croke Park saw both Michael Murphy and Dick Clerkin (rightly) absolved of any blame for their recent brushes with the law.

Farrell’s offence was if anything, only slightly worse than those of both Murphy and Clerkin, yet he’s bound to the sidelines for a month, while the northern boys are free to strut their stuff in the Championship next weekend.

So why the harsh treatment? It’s a conspiracy, that’s why, and we’re not the only ones to think so. Farrell himself wasn’t at all happy and vented his anger via Twitter, as is the style these days:

'Attended appeal on red card. Its not been overturned, "'as it is probable the offence occured"'..absolutely ragin! Witchhunt?', he tweeted and we’d wholeheartedly agree.

If history has taught us anything, however, it’s that hell hath no fury like a Meathman wronged. Expect a backlash from Farrell and his cohorts, and a furious one at that.

Apology?

Another man playing hell of late has been Michael Duignan, whose attack on the attitudes of the Offaly footballers this week raised a few eyebrows inside and outside the county.

Offaly manager Tom Cribbin wasn’t too happy about what the hurling legend had to say and as a result, Duignan issued a less than substantial retraction of his initial opinions.

"I basically tarred all the players on the Offaly panel with the one brush and I want to apologise to all the players on the Offaly panel who are giving the required level of commitment,” Duignan said.

"I think of Niall McNamee, the captain this year, the Darbys from Rhode, Karol Slattery, Scott Brady, lads like that and, of course, Ciaran McManus who has played with Offaly for the last 16 years and has travelled from all over Europe for training sessions.

"These lads and their families are rightly annoyed with me today."

That's five or six fellas out of a panel of about 30 and what's more, Duignan has been receiving plenty of support for what he said. Things must be bleak indeed in the Faithful County.