‘That game earlier in the season will have zero bearing on what happens next Saturday’

One word that is repeated more than any other when talking to Meath senior hurling manager Seorise Bulfin is 'develop'.

Next Saturday's Bulfin will lead Meath to Croke Park for the Christy Ring Cup final and while climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand and lifting the silvberware is the main focus there is a sense that the manager is keen to continue to improve standards in Meath and raise the culture of the ancient game in the county.

"There are two things to look at, outcome goals and performance or process goals. If we win next Saturday then it will have been a very, very successful season," Bulfin told the Meath Chronicle

"The league was a bigger picture. I looked at the league as an opportunity for players to get game time with a view to the future.

"The general supporter will look at next Saturday and say if we win then it's a success, but if we lose then it's a failure. For me it is somewhere in between because even if we win we still have loads to work on for next year.

"All of sudden there will be new challenges coming down the track very quickly and if you start clapping yourself on the back then you will come unstuck. If you get too high by the highs or too low with the lows then you will struggle with sport, you will have a stressful time.

"We didn't get too down after the London game. We refocused very quickly. If we had let ourselves fall apart after that game our year was over. The same applies for next Saturday. We won't let ourselves get carried away because we are playing Derry in a final and we have already beaten them, Derry would love that, that would be right up their street.

"We have a plan in regards the game and we have a bigger plan in terms of bringing lads through and we are trying to develop a culture and I'd be happy with the progress we have made.

"When you get a final at this level you are going to be judged, outside of the group they want trophies, internally we have our own checks and balances."

Since taking over from Nick Weir and building on the excellent work of the Westmeath man Bulfin has enjoyed the journey, but remains insistent that Meath have one more mighty obstacle to take on this year.

"The journey has been fantastic. I worked with the lads last year and was really looking forward to this year," said the manager.

"Ultimately, it wasn't too hard to refocus the lads because we knew in league and championship 2023 we should be fairly competitive in every game and we could develop from there.

"From that point of view the journey has been very enjoyable this year. The lads themselves knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk this year, outside of the group some people might have thought Div 2B and the Ring Cup might be a cake walk, but as Martin O'Halloran (Hurling Committee chairman) said to me it took us 12 years to get out of Div 2B the last time Meath were in it.

"We have pressed on the lads that they would have fierce battles in training and they could work hard in training, but that brings no guarantees. The only guarantee that hard work brings is that no matter what happens you won't have any regrets.

"We have had a few interesting journeys this year. We were away to Derry, Tyrone, Sligo twice and London twice, those games played their own roles because it made the group closer to each other because they were basically living with each other.

"When you only had a handful of games at home it was important to make those big physical journeys count, particularly the Derry game, which was probably the turning point in our season.

"We are constantly impressing on them how physically fit they are and that the hard work they put in preseason would stand to them. When you come through close games by finishing strong it copper fastens the notion that the hard work was with it. None of our games this year were easily won."

After being relegated from Div 2A of the league and out of the Joe McDonagh Cup in 2022, Meath could have spiralled into a slump, but Bulfin set targets for the team to achieve and he freshened up the panel by bringing through a plethora of young exciting, talented players.

"I had five steps in my head for this year. The first was to get into the top three in the league, then get to the league final and win it and with no safety net in the championship the aim was to get to the final and win it too" said the manager.

"We have completed four steps now and there's one to go. We wanted to start the season as good as possible while still freshening things up a little and develop a bit more the culture that we had started to develop last year.

"Ultimately it was all about winning the two main competitions we were taking part in. We have one of those goals done and we have put ourselves in a position to complete that on Saturday."

Despite beating Derry in round three of the Ring Cup when down to 14 men for the majority of the tight contest Bulfin believes that game will bear no refelction on what might happen next Saturday.

"We are now in a one-off stand-alone game and that game earlier in the season in Owenbeg will have zero bearing on what happens next Saturday," warned the Limerick man.

"Sometimes it's easier to take on a team in a final if you were after losing to them by a couple of points earlier on.

"The lads are around long enough, they know the battle ahead. They know this is a straight shootout and if we start getting bogged down on what happened the last time we met then you'll come unstuck very quickly," concluded the manager.