Meath 3-13 Louth 0-12
Jamie Murphy kicked 1-05 in a stylish performance as Meath were crowned U20 Leinster champions for the first time since 2001.
There was little between the sides in the opening half, the highlight undoubtedly being Eamonn Armstrong's rasper of a goal on 22 minutes.
First-half scores between James Maguire and Kieran McArdle kept Louth in touch with just three between the sides at the break.
That was to be as good as it would get for Louth as Meath’s fitness and clinical finishing came to the fore with the Royals out-scoring them 2-07 to 0-05 in the second half.
A shooting masterclass from Man of the Match Jamie Murphy, who kicked 1-05 on the night, as well as a late goal from substitute Tadhg Martyn saw Meath end their long drought.
The Parnell Park crowd had to wait until the fifth minute for the first score.
Jamie Murphy got the scoreboard up and running for Meath with a sublime free kick from distance, showing admirable composure and technique to drill his effort straight between the posts.
The influential Liam Kelly followed it up instantly with a fine individual effort, fisting over to put Meath two in front with six minutes played.
Louth responded strongly, settle into the game, hitting the front on nine minutes after a trio of points from McArdle, Maguire and Pearse Grimes-Murphy.
As the first half progressed, the game really started to open up with both half forward lines beginning to eke out space in attack.
An exchange of scores between McArdle and Corcoran, before a pinged point from Meath's Jack Kinlough, levelled the game at four points apiece midway through the first half.
Louth had a gilt-edged goal chance when substitute Deery weaved his way through the Meath defence but Oisín McDermott repelled the shot.
Just moments later it was Meath who found the net.
The rampant Armstrong and Conor Duke linked up brilliantly in attack, the former leaving substitute Deery for dead and burying to the net to establish a five-point gap.
Maguire landed a brace of points to reduce the deficit to three, Meath just about edging a very entertaining first half. But the leaders had their second goal of the game just four minutes after the restart with the unmarkable Armstrong centrally involved again to devastating effect.
He once more gathered possession just inside the Louth half before accelerating up the pitch towards the Louth goal. The wing-back showed good composure to feed Murphy, who fired the ball into the far corner to once more put five between the sides at 2-06 to 0-07.
Louth again rallied well with Grimes Murphy leading by example, nailing three scores from play as they tried to haul themselves back into it.
But Meath kept them at bay, routinely topping up of the scoreboard courtesy of the hugely impressive Murphy.
With a tally of 1-03 already to his name, the full-forward finished with a flourish, shaking off his marker and swerving over a gorgeous point with the outside of his boot.
Already home and hosed, Meath weren’t done yet and substitute Tadgh Martin put the icing on the cake, slipping home the third goal from close range in the dying moments to seal a memorable victory for a talented crop of players.
Meath: Oisin McDermott; Conor Ennis, Liam Kelly (0-02), Sean O’Hare; Eamonn Armstrong (1-0
2), John O’Regan, Killian Smyth; Jack Kinlough (0-01), Charlie O’Connor; Shaun Leonard, Rian
Stafford (0-01), Conor Duke; Hughie Corcoran (0-02), Jamie Murphy (1-05, 2f), Rian McConnell.
Subs: Conor McWeeney for Rian Stafford [34], Tadhg Martyn (1-00) for Shaun Leonard [47],
John Harkin for Hughie Corcoran [57], Seimi Byrne for Sean O’Hare [62], John Mannion for
Killian Smyth [65]
Louth: Cian O’Donoghue; Fionn Tipping, Cameron Maher, Cormac McKeown; Tadhg
McDonnell, Aaron McGlew, Keelin Martin; Dara McDonnell, Sean Callaghan; James Maguire (0-0
3, 2f), Liam Flynn, Darragh Dorian; Pearse Grimes Murphy (0-04), Sean Reynolds, Kieran
McArdle (0-05, 3f)
Subs: Ronan Deery for Fionn Tipping 17 min, James Rogers for Darragh Dorian [46], Conor
McGinty for Liam Flynn [49], Fionn Cummiskey for Sean Cunningham [53], Shane Halpenny for
Jamies Maguire, Tadhg Kellett for Keelin Martin (61).
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