Issue link: http://digitaleditions.uberflip.com/i/1437906
www.ladiesgaelic.ie | WINTER 2021 | 23 C OAC H F O C U S back up, he was experiencing the feeling of an electric shock in his groins. He was sleeping at a 60-degree angle in bed, and "putting on socks was a nightmare." At coaching sessions, he was asking kids to pick up cones for him. After those operations, Garrigan took some time out to recover. He was present for the Lidl Division 2 semi- final victory over Cavan but his first game back on the sideline with the team was the Kerry game at Croke Park. Winning that fixture sent Meath on a trajectory that would see them, incredibly, finish the season as TG4 All-Ireland Senior Champions. "The story is unbelievable," Garrigan admits. "Only people within Gaelic Games would appreciate it. I don't know of any other story that would replicate it. Garrigan smiles: "I said to the lads coming home that we were going to be 10/1 in the Final but there's something after happening out there and our name could be on this cup. "We were after getting out of jail – it was the biggest Houdini act ever in Ladies Football." It's an honest appraisal from Garrigan, who admits: "We'll have to tweak it (system). "Teams will watch it and be very familiar with it. In fairness to Cork and Ephie (Fitzgerald), they had cracked that system. We robbed the match from them. The system Cork went with had us beaten." But Meath's set-up was a puzzle that Dublin couldn't solve, with their manager Mick Bohan admitting in the build-up to the Final that figuring out his opponents was a conundrum. "Mick's a brilliant coach," Garrigan reflects. "He does a lot of workshops for me in Wicklow – I've have spoken to Mick loads of times over "Even winning in 2020…I felt this (2021) could be a really difficult year, we just wanted to stay up." Garrigan says that winning the League Final against Kerry fuelled the Meath players with the belief that they could compete at that level. Come championship time, they lost to Cork by just two points in the group stages, and Garrigan felt then that Meath "weren't a million miles away." When Cork and Meath met again, the Leesiders were in cruise control until a dramatic conclusion to normal time saw Meath score two quick-fire goals, before they finished the job in extra-time. the years. He knew our system but when you're not playing it regularly, it's difficult. "If you asked Mick how many times has he played that system in the last couple of years, he's say 'zero.' "He knew, and he knows exactly what we do and he'll be much better equipped next year if he plays against it." Garrigan knows that Meath will have to evolve further if they're to retain their hard- won title. But evolution has been at the heart of this Meath journey, under the stewardship of manager, Eamonn Murray. Garrigan was looking after the Baltinglass Above: 2021; Meath players huddle before the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship Final match between Dublin and Meath. Below from Left to Right: 2021; Libby Coppinger, Cork in action against Aoibhín Cleary, Meath during the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Ladies Football Championship Semi- Final match between Cork and Meath. 2 Emma Duggan, Meath shoots to score her side's second goal late in the Semi-Final