Tom talks about Royal hexes and how to halt Dubs
LEAGUE RELEGATION ...
"I made no secret about it and the players knew that we under-performed. Full stop. We under-performed. They were as much frustrated as me and it was probably that we couldn't come up with the answer why we were under-performing. It wasn't about any individuals, even though it sounded like that, but I couldn't come up with the answer at the time. We think we have a far better understanding now, and it was about having the players in the right positions."
THAT ROYAL COMEBACK ...
"We always believed, I suppose because of the last two games (against Louth and Wexford) where we always finished strong. You get that confidence out of it ... you can't ever use it as an excuse that maybe we were unfit, because we finished strong and we've been getting goals. That's the one thing that gives you massive confidence. We've been creating four to five goal chances in every game and we've been taking three or four."
MEATH IN PERSPECTIVE ...
"There are a few lads that got excited about it but not the team. A lot of it too was we felt for them because of the tragedy (the terrorist killing of Lorna Carty, mother of Meath panellist Simon, in Tunisia). The players were very much aware of that and we talked about it … that there's a young lad's parents who went out for his dad to recover (from heart surgery) and they are coming home without the mother.
"This is a game of football, please God we can win it; if we don't, no one is going to die."
SORTING HIS DEFENCE ...
"We are getting goals, we are getting loads of scores. Yeah, we're conceding too much. We've tried to address that majorly in the last couple of weeks. On the day it could really backfire; but if we didn't have a go at doing something about it, there's one thing for certain - we would have got hammered. Every Division One team playing them (Dublin) plays a defensive game, so we're not going to be stupid and go out and not have a defensive game-plan for them."
SKY BLUE BENCHMARK ...
"Dublin are a super class team. What can you say about them? They're bringing the whole thing to a different level. That's what happens in sport ... one team sets the standards, and if you want to get up to them you have to follow, instead of making excuses and everything."