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The Irish Sun
13-07-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
‘It tops the lot' – Meath star Eoghan Frayne reveals highlight from All-Ireland fairytale ahead of semi-final vs Donegal
EOGHAN FRAYNE always believed the Royals would rise again and fulfil the dreams of every young Meath fan — including himself. September marks 26 years since the county's last All-Ireland victory as they slipped away from the top table. Advertisement 2 Meath footballer Eoghan Frayne poses for a portrait during a Meath Football media conference at Bective Stud in Balgil, Navan Credit: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile 2 Eoghan Frayne, left, and Jordan Morris of Meath celebrate after the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway Credit: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile A Leinster title came in 2010 but the was followed by 15 seasons of Dublin dominance in the province. But growing up in the Royal County powerhouse of Summerhill — home of All-Ireland winners Mark O'Reilly, Mattie Kerrigan, Mick and Pádraig Lyons — Frayne dared to dream. Winning the Tailteann Cup two years ago brought hope to the beleaguered county but playing for Sam Maguire last summer was a major reality check. Legend Colm O'Rourke was Advertisement Read More on GAA Louth, Kerry and Monaghan swept Meath aside and faith in their credentials dipped again before Robbie Brennan took the reins. And the Dubliner has masterminded a first run to the All-Ireland semi-finals since 2009 with But whatever the result at The 22-year-old said: 'You still dream about that stuff, even if it's not within grabbing distance. You still think you can get there. Advertisement Most read in GAA Football 'If you ask any young lad in one of the weaker counties, I think they'd still imagine themselves there. You don't think you can let that stop you. 'You still like to imagine yourself there and we're lucky enough from Summerhill — you have Mark O'Reilly, you've Mattie Kerrigan, Mick and Pádraig Lyons. Watch RTE pundits' contrasting reaction to full-time whistle of Tipperary's epic win over Kilkenny 'You've lads who have been there. Even Conor Gillespie, who would have played with Meath at the time, like, he would have been a hero of mine growing up. 'I would have seen it when I was younger, clips of the Meath team from the 90s and that gives you motivation to try to get back there.' Advertisement A Frayne starred in that triumph in Portlaoise with a 0-11 haul. Ending a 15-year hoodoo against their old foes was a watershed moment, even if they The Wee County won their first Delaney Cup in 68 years, but Meath were far from finished. Advertisement They navigated the dreaded group stages undefeated and took another massive scalp by A fortnight ago, Frayne's fellow forward Jordan Morris was the Meath hero as he plundered 1-6 to And the Royal skipper revealed that trimming of the Tribe has been the highlight so far. Frayne admitted: 'I suppose Galway was probably the best out of them because considering it was an All-Ireland quarter-final and it's been so long since Meath were in an All-Ireland semi-final, so I'd say it tops the lot of them. Advertisement 'It was just great, especially the way the game went and when Galway got the second goal, we were under pressure and had to fight back and then ended up winning by a point. It was definitely a relief to get over the line. It was a crazy feeling and the Meath fans . . . once the final whistle went and the roar out of them was great. 'There were so many Meath fans and that definitely made an impact. 'I remember when Seán Rafferty turned John Maher over on the halfway line, the roar. That makes such a difference during the game. 'That can give you such a boost on the pitch and that can change momentum easily and the amount of Meath fans there, it was class.' Advertisement KEEPING COMPOSURE And the Royals have used that support to inspire them in some sticky situations too. Galway turned the game on the hour mark when goals from Maher and Liam Silke put them two ahead. But man of the match Morris fired a late 1-2 tally to settle it. Frayne reckons their great escapes are down to cool heads and a never-say-die attitude. He said: 'I suppose keeping your composure is one part of it. Advertisement 'I don't think it's easy enough to . . . when some things aren't going your way, to be just like, 'This game has gone out of our reach' and throw the towel in kind of. 'I think we just don't panic. There's a lot of level-headed lads in the group and they don't get too high or too low. 'That can have a huge impact on the result of the game. 'And then our preparation leading up to games, it's huge as well. The new rules . . . you could easily fall behind or easily gain a lead with the way two-pointers are. Advertisement 'So I don't think there's any game that you can give up on until the final whistle has gone, the way the rules are. You can see with two-pointers, a ten-point lead in the new rules isn't that much. 'It's not giving up, going until the end, keeping your composure and trying to get the next ball after the next one. We keep going.' A lot of that belief comes from their boss. Brennan has been there and done it with Kilmacud Crokes. He led them to club All-Ireland glory in 2023 and his first campaign in the Meath hotseat has been the stuff of dreams. Advertisement Frayne said: 'It's been great. He's definitely brought an energy to the group and given us a huge lift. 'Before the Galway game, he filled us with confidence which I think the group needed. 'Confidence makes a big difference. If you put him into any team in the country he'd fill them with confidence. 'There's not that much in the skill set between a lot of teams but once you have a good work-rate and you have a bit of confidence, you can win games and luckily we've won a good few this year so I can't speak highly enough of him. Advertisement 'Robbie coming in gave us a huge boost. Yeah, it's going all right so hopefully it keeps going that way.'
Irish Examiner
24-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Eoghan Frayne: Meath's aim has to be to win the All-Ireland
Meath captain Eoghan Frayne has refused to place any limits on how far the Royal County can go in the Championship, insisting their ambition is to win All-Irelands. The quarter-final draw has paired beaten Leinster finalists Meath with last year's All-Ireland runners up, Galway. They will face off on Sunday afternoon at Croke Park (1.45pm) in what will be a repeat of the 2001 All-Ireland final which current Galway manager Padraic Joyce played in, scoring 10 points. From Meath's perspective, they will be hoping that beating Kerry in this year's Championship isn't a bad omen having lost that 2001 final to Galway immediately after defeating Kerry at the semi-final stage. This Sunday's Meath versus Galway game will precede the Kerry versus Armagh quarter-final (4pm), a repeat of last July's semi-final which the Orchard County won after extra-time. A draw wasn't required to pair off Kerry and Armagh in what is a repeat of the 2002 final as holders Armagh had already played Galway, Dublin and Donegal. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Dublin will return to Croke Park (6.15pm) to take on Tyrone in the lead act of another intriguing quarter-final double bill. Ulster duo Monaghan and Donegal will be first up on Saturday afternoon (4pm). Of the eight teams left in the race for Sam, Meath have been installed on the longest odds, 40/1, having only won the Tailteann Cup two years ago. Attacker Frayne, speaking at the launch of RTÉ Sport's action-packed summer campaign, stopped short of guaranteeing a return to the glory years for Meath but said their young group is ambitious. Asked what is the ceiling for his team, Frayne said: "I don't know, hopefully winning All-Irelands. That has to be the aim, your goal can't be to just beat Dublin in the Leinster championship. "You have to be looking further than that. Everyone wants to be winning All-Irelands and Leinster championships, so hopefully we can get there." Frayne, who has started all 14 of Meath's league and Championship games this season and returned a whopping 1-72, shrugged when asked if the Galway draw was a positive one. "We're happy enough, it's going to be a tough game and that's fine," he said. "I don't think there's any easy games no matter what draw you get. "So we're happy enough, it's going to be a good test but we haven't been in an All-Ireland quarter-final in a good few years so we're really looking forward to it." All eyes will be on what matchday squads both sets of management teams announced later this week. Connacht champions Galway are sweating over the fitness of Shane Walsh who suffered a shoulder injury in Sunday's preliminary quarter-final defeat of Down. Damien Comer didn't play in that game at all. Meath, meanwhile, should have Mathew Costello available again after a hamstring injury which kept the Dunshaughlin star out of their group win over Kerry. "Mat's just about coming back, he should be alright to go," said Frayne. "I think everyone else is either a long-term injury that you'd know about, or fit. So I think we're good enough, yeah."
Irish Daily Mirror
24-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Meath's sliding doors moment as they prepare for All-Ire quarter-final v Galway
Meath skipper Eoghan Frayne says that beating Dublin meant that the Royals were in no mood to let their season slip away after the hammer blow of their Leinster final defeat. That breakthrough triumph over the Dubs was followed by the loss to Louth, and that could have been the signal for Robbie Brennan's young side to start thinking about other summer plans. Instead, they got their act together and beat Kerry and Cork in the group stage to set up Sunday's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Galway. Frayne describes it as a "great year" to date with those massive wins banked - but with the big asterisk of that loss to Louth. "You're judged off silverware so we were disappointed with that," he said. "But we've come on a long way this year so hopefully it keeps going. It could have gone two ways, really. It could have been the end of our season and it could have fallen apart. "Or we could have recognised, as we did, that it's not the end of the world and there's plenty more games to go and we kind of did that. "Everyone was of the same mindset that after beating Dublin, which hasn't happened in a good few years, we were kind of like, 'there's something here, there's no point throwing this away now' and giving up at this stage of the year. "So we kind of just got on with it straight away. There was no dwelling on it. We got back training straight away and tried to forget about it as quickly as possible and things have gone decent enough since. "It hit some lads differently than others. Maybe the older lads on the squad might have thought that it was kind of their last chance. The younger lads, and there's a good few in the squad, I suppose they kind of brushed it off, or it doesn't hit them as hard, so probably it takes a few days." Frayne believes the FRC's new rules have worked in favour of Meath, who have a number of players who are comfortable taking on longer range shots for two pointers. "There obviously is a huge reward for getting them. You could see in some of the games, there's no lead nearly big enough now," he said. "If you get two or three two pointers, it's a big chunk of scores that you can get in a short period of time. If you get two or three in a row, it's a huge momentum swing. So yeah, definitely it could come down to it. I think it's definitely something worth going after." Royals command is sitting lightly on Frayne's shoulders. Only 22, he was handed the reins by Brennan at the start of the year - a rapid promotion for a player who only made his intercounty debut two years ago. But the Summerhill man had been captaincy material coming through the underage ranks. "Definitely came quicker than expected," Frayne said. "Maybe down the line it was a goal of mine to captain Meath - just from maybe being minor and 20s captain, it would have been a nearly natural progression. "I would've been working towards that but then when it came along, I was obviously shocked that it came so soon. But I didn't have to think twice about it. I was always going to say yes. It's obviously a great honour for me, especially when I'm 22. I was delighted. It's been a great honour so far." Ciarán Caulfield, also 22, was made vice-captain. Frayne reckons Brennan made his leadership picks to put more responsibility on the younger players and to take that pressure off the older team members. The skipper says that Brennan has made the players feel "10 foot tall" while the older cohort have taken the pressure off him a lot. "It's been a team effort," he said. "It's not just laid all on me. "There's good lads in there helping out as well and everyone's kind of driving it, it's not just left to me. So that's definitely important. I didn't want to get caught up in the whole captaincy sort of thing and then it kind of affects my performance then. "Because that's the most important thing. I still have to focus on myself and get the best out of myself, but also try to get the best out of other lads as well." RTÉ launches over 90 days of national and international Sport: Women's Euros, Women's Rugby World Cup, European Hockey Championships, GAA Championships, World Athletics Championships, Irish Open, Horse Racing and much more free-to-air on RTÉ across all platforms
Irish Examiner
17-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Meath's Eoghan Frayne: People wrote us off but we knew we could trouble Kerry
Meath captain Eoghan Frayne admitted they were spurred on to beat Kerry on Saturday after being so readily dismissed in the build-up to their final round game. For the first time in 15 years, the Royal County will feature in an All-Ireland quarter-finals courtesy of their surprise win over the Kingdom. It is also the first time in the three years of this championship format that Kerry haven't automatically qualified for the last eight and Meath were full value despite being written off prior to the fixture. 'I suppose a lot of people probably wrote us off coming into the game but we had the belief, the same as the Dublin game,' said Frayne, 'and we knew we could trouble Kerry. It was just great to get over the line in the end and top the group. "You try not to listen to it, to be honest. You obviously hear things and you can use certain things to give you a bit of fuel or whatever and things like that. We had to just focus on ourselves and keep it internal and do the best we could." Meath have certainly responded well to their Leinster final defeat with two victories and a draw. 'We're really happy with that,' remarked Frayne. 'It was a tough week after the Leinster final. There's a good few young lads in the squad luckily so you don't really think too much about it. 'Maybe the older lads took it a bit tougher because they might have thought it might be their last chance. But we just kind of gathered the troops, put the heads down, got back to work and it's showing now." Kerry may have been depleted but so too were Meath who didn't have in-form Matthew Costello and James Conlon who had kicked eight points in the previous two games and was man of the match against Dublin. They also had to endure the loss of Jordan Morris for a period this year too. Frayne pointed to the resilience of the group. "There's great competition within the squad. You can see, it's just the next man in, the same with every team. 'You have to back the depth in your squad to come through and everyone coming on has to know their role as best they can. That showed again so credit to the lads on the bench." As Meath are sure to bring a big crowd to their quarter-final the weekend after next, Frayne is feeding off the buzz in the county. "It's very exciting now for Meath football. It was great to see so many kids on the pitch after the game and hopefully we can keep going."
Irish Examiner
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Skipper Frayne sure Portlaoise played its part in famous Meath victory
It's an unnatural thing to turn down the chance to score and sure enough Eoghan Frayne, Meath's cub captain, didn't. Last Sunday week, he sent over a close-range free to seal Dublin's first championship defeat in 15 years. With the hooter having sounded, the more sensible thing to do was kick the ball wide thus triggering the full-time whistle, and confirm a famous victory for The Royals. On a blustery afternoon in Portlaoise, had the ball struck the post and come back into play and Dublin won or forced extra-time, he mightn't have forgiven himself. Louth's Craig Lennon escaped such a possibility in the other Leinster semi-final in Tullamore earlier that afternoon when he punted the ball beyond his end-line thinking that he had concluded the game only for Kildare to be awarded a 45. But 22-year-old Frayne, who was fully aware of the repercussions, backed himself to convert his sixth free and bring his personal tally to 11 points. 'If you start thinking don't hit the post, you're going to hit the post then,' he recalls. 'So, I just had to pick a spot behind the goal and aim for it.' The score prompted scenes not experienced by Meath supporters since their side put five goals past Stephen Cluxton in 2010. Eoghan Frayne of Meath kicks a free during the Leinster SFC semi-final match between Dublin and Meath. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile 'It was a bit surreal, to be honest,' smiles Frayne. 'Before the game we had belief that we could win and then when it actually happens it's probably a different feeling. It's pure joy, it was unreal. Probably celebrated a bit too much at the end. It's hard to put into words. 'I'm only in the panel there three years but for the likes of Donal Keogan, Cillian [O'Sullivan] and Mento [Bryan Menton] and a few older lads, they've been getting hammered nearly every year. I haven't felt that but I'd say that's tough going. I was more happy for them than for me.' There is no question in Frayne's mind that the fixture's Laois Hire O'Moore Park venue, which marked Dublin's first Leinster semi-final outside Jones's Road in 30 years, made a positive difference for Meath. 'If that game was in Croke Park, Dublin probably would have come back. Or maybe we wouldn't have got a biggest lead because there might not have been as strong as the wind. I definitely think that played into our hands a bit. 'Cluxton would be real familiar with Croke Park. He'd have his sweet spots of where he can get the ball off. I think he probably wasn't as familiar with Portlaoise. I think that probably helped as well. There was a swirly wind kicking in as well.' For Meath to now be within 70 minutes of a Delaney Cup is unusual given the developments of the last couple of months, where they missed out on promotion to Division 2, then lost their coaches Martin Corey and Joe McMahon. 'It could have went either way,' Frayne admits of the pair's sudden departure. 'It could have been detrimental. Luckily, it went the other way. We all knuckled down a bit and said, 'Look lads, there's no point dwelling on this'. 'At the end of the day, it's us that's going to get the slack or the praise. We just had to move on from it and get back to the things you can control and back training. To be fair to all the lads, they didn't dwell on it too long and just got on with things. 'Shane [Supple] and Conor [Gillespie] would take most of the coaching now. Two really good fellas as well. We had full faith in them. There was obviously talk of would someone else come in or not. We had full confidence in the lads that they were able to do the job to the rest of the group.' Frayne was 21 when Robbie Brennan approached him to be captain. Even he was surprised by the invitation. 'To come so soon was a bit of a shock. I didn't have to think about it. I said 'yes' straight away. It's a great honour for my family and the club as well. It is what you dream of. Especially now, we're in such a fortunate position to be in a Leinster final against Louth.'
