Colm O'Rourke: Tailteann Cup great for the bulding a team

It's a competition he did not want to be involved in at the outset of the championship, but Meath manager Colm O'Rourke feels the Tailteann Cup experience will benefit his team as they look to climb further up the footballing ladder.

The Royals take on Down in the final of the secondary competition on Saturday. Victory will guarantee O'Rourke's side a place in next year's Sam Maguire race. That would mark an upbeat end to a year where the Leinster side struggled for much of their league campaign and then exited the provincial championship at the hands of Offaly.

Finishing sixth in Division 2 had Meath under pressure when it came to avoiding the Tailteann Cup; reaching a Leinster final was then their only route to make the All-Ireland group phase. Their disappointing loss to Offaly left many of their fans disappointed, with O'Rourke saying afterwards that his side deserved what they got.

"Well, everything went wrong, we weren't good enough on the day," he outlined after to RTÉ Radio's Sunday Sport.

"Simple as that, I don't make excuses. You get 70-plus minutes to score more than the opposition and we didn't do so. We're not going to complain about anything."

How then would a proud county like Meath take to the Tailteann Cup? Well, on the basis of their subsequent results, not too bad. They've won all their games and accounted for Saturday's opposition in their final group game.

O'Rourke is pleased that the collective under his tutelage have taken to the task of re-booting their season.

He told RTÉ Sport: "After the the Offaly game, there was huge disappointment amongst the panel. We got together afterwards and had a chat about it and everybody said they wanted to give this a shot.

"We got straight back into training and the