Meath made a flying start to life under Andy McEntee this weekend, sauntering to a 2-22 to 0-09 win against Wicklow in the O'Byrne Cup. Ahead of the game, defender Mikey Burke revealed how focussed the Royals are ahead of 2017:
Ye boys think I'm delusional, but I'm not training since November to just go up and get the runaround from Dublin.
We put so much effort, sacrifice and time into football. I'm eating nothing but blueberries, avocados and spinach all day, every day.
You might think I'm nuts. I am nuts! But I want to mark Bernard Brogan, I want to mark Dean Rock and I want to win Leinster medals.
Such intensity of preparation under McEntee is unsurprising, but not all elements of preparation under the former Ballyboden manager have been predictable. In fact, McEntee has made an intriguing selection at goalkeeper: calling in Meath legend Joe Sheridan to compete with Paddy O'Rourke for the 'keeper's position.
Sheridan hasn't been involved at senior intercounty level since being culled from the panel by Mick O' Dowd in 2013. Sheridan is back, however, as goalkeeper under McEntee, and he spoke to Balls.ie of how his return in an unfamiliar position came about:
Andy rang me to say he's looking for a few different options, and he wanted to take a look at me in goals. So that's where things are at the moment. Look, there's no guarantees of anything, but we'll give it a rock, train away and train hard, and see what happens.
As left-field a selection as this is, Sheridan is no novice 'keeper:
I did [play in goals before] when I first started off at club senior football, play in goals for a couple of seasons. So maybe he [Mcentee] was aware of that. Paddy [O'Rourke] obviously is there from last year - although he's carrying a bit of an injury - and two other lads were called in, so there's plenty of lads there, so obviously he wants to look and make sure he gets to see all the options available to him. Why he thought of me, I'm not so sure. Maybe he had spoken to people, and found out I played out in goals years ago.
Choosing a predominately outfield player in goals seems like the next step in the evolution in Gaelic football, given the impact that Stephen Cluxton's quick and accurate restarts have had on Dublin. Sheridan, however, says that there hasn't been much work regarding including his restarts into a wider game plan, with work at the moment simply focussing on getting "back into the swing of the goalkeeping vibe".
Would he prefer to be outfield?
Obviously my natural position would be outfield, but I'm happy enough to offer what I can to the squad and push as hard as I can. I love playing for Meath, so it's great to be involved and to help Meath be successful.
If I can get back and be some sort of benefit, whatever that is, I'd like to think I'd enjoy it. It's a massive passion of mine and obviously not being involved the last couple of years has left me out of the loop, but being back in the last couple of week has been really enjoyable.
Sheridan praised the new setup highly, saying that the word filtering back from the panel accelerated his return a month ago. He admitted that he has noticed an increase in fitness and intensity levels since he was last involved in 2013, but refused to be drawn on one of the more colorful rumours emanating from the camp: namely that McEntee has banned the wearing of white boots and long hair.
I have no worry about the long hair! I didn't hear anything about that, I'm only been in over the last three or four weeks. A lot of that would be hearsay from people wanting it to be true, so I wouldn't listen to anything you'd hear.
Meath face DIT on Wednesday night, followed by an away game to Laois on Sunday, with the selection in at least one of those games expected to feature Joe Sheridan as goalkeeper.
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