Meath capable of punishing their old rivals

IT HAS been difficult to tell from their outings so far this summer just how good the All Ireland champions are this year.

But if you're looking to test a Dublin side you rarely need to look further than Meath for a side capable of exploiting, and eager to punish, the slightest weakness in any aspect of their old rivals' play.

Last year may have been a very good one for Dublin but one All Ireland title is a poor return for so many close calls in the Nineties.

This is a team that has repeatedly had trouble fulfilling its potential and one which should still have a keen appetite for more success.

During his time in charge, there were huge demands made on the Dublin players by Pat O'Neill, who put great emphasis on the physical and mental areas of their preparations. Last season that approach finally paid off but it will be interesting to see how a side that took so long to win an All Ireland while being guided in one direction, reacts to being prodded off in another now.

Since taking over, Mickey Whelan has clearly felt that this Dublin team had the physical requirements to carry on where they left off in 1995 but improvements could be made in their tactical approach and in the area of ball skills. The upshot is that these days we hear that the great majority of their work at training sessions is devoted to ball work.

There is little doubt that Dublin's main failing over the past few years has been their poor scoring rate from play with the result that there has been far too much reliance on the free taking of Charlie Redmond.

Tomorrow's clash with Meath will be the first real test of the new regime. This will be the best opportunity so far to judge the success of Whelan in adding a new dimension to his side's play for if Dublin could start to manufacture a sizeable number of scores from play then they would be a far more formidable outfit in the closing stages of this championship - always assuming they get past this weekend's test.

Whelan has, with some of his earlier team selections, already shown himself to be a man who knows his own mind, and there is a surprise or two in the line up for tomorrow with Dessie Farrell switched to the corner forward position and his replacement at centre forward by Pat Gilroy.

Of course, Whelan has the advantage of having seen his side at close quarters in training over the past few months but Farrell's contribution in the centre of the half forward line was an important part of Dublin's success last season and it will be interesting to see what might come of altering his role in this outing.

In retrospect, of course, last year's success was achieved primarily because of the obviously superior fitness of Dublin in their matches with Meath, Cork and Tyrone. This was most noticeable in the manner in which players were willing and able to chase back and harass opponents when possession was lost and it is this sort of doggedness that the current Dublin team can ill afford to lose if they are to retain their title.

On Meath's side of the equation, Sean Boylan's decision to blood young players this season has already proven to be a wise one. The present team has a look of youthful enthusiasm, it is full of pace and seems to possess no shortage of clever footballing ideas.

He already has a young side that is capable of giving a more experienced team a very tough contest thanks to their athletic ability while their speed and agility will enable them to open up spaces up front, particularly for their ever improving full forward Brendan Reilly.

With that in mind, I'm not surprised to see Dermot Deasy returning to action in the number three shirt. He may not be the game's most spectacular full back but he is well aware of the basic requirements of a game like this and he will call on all of his experience as he attempts to curb Reilly.

Just in front of him, the battle between the Dublin half back line and the Meath half forward line will have an especially significant influence on the proceedings, although the result of this encounter will depend, in no small part, on how the midfield contest goes because success there for Dublin would enable their half backs to push forward and help build the Dublin attacks.

Meath's half forwards have already shown great mobility in the way that they forage for possession. They regularly run deep to help their half backs or cross the pitch and Graham Geraghty's athleticism is particularly impressive when he runs at a defender.

Tommy Dowd will also run at Keith Barr in the hope of drawing fouls - a tactic that might have met with considerable success a couple of years ago - but he is unlikely to do so now that Barr has developed into a far more disciplined defender.

In midfield Johnny McDermott has the footballing and physical ability to do well in this game but he will require substantial support from Jim McGuinness if Meath are to hold the balance of power in this vital area of the pitch.

They will have their work cut out to get the better of Brian Stynes, who played a key role in Dublin's drive for glory last year, and Paul Bealin, who is a wonderfully honest player to have in any side. Stynes could be more consistent but he and his partner are generally effective in an area of the pitch where, unfortunately, the lack of much clean catching these days means that most teams achieve dominance by picking up the breaking ball.

Overall then, the key battles seem to be fairly evenly balanced but there is always the worry for Meath's followers that there is, perhaps, just too little experience in this Meath side yet to win a match of this importance.

Like Kerry last week they are young players who have shown that they know how to win at Minor and Under 21 levels. But they will certainly depend on the likes of Martin O'Connell, Colm Coyle and Tommy Dowd to steady the ship tomorrow and the ability of a player like Trevor Giles, who will take responsibility for his side's free taking, to take the pressure will be of vital importance for Sean Boylan's side.