GAA / Preview: LEINSTER CLUB SFC Final - Dunshaughlin (Meath) v Mattock Rangers (Louth), Navan, Sunday, 2.00.
Tomorrow's AIB Leinster club final reactivates one of the great rivalries in football. It's 50 years since Meath and Louth last met in a senior Leinster final and as Dunshaughlin manager Eamon Barry remarked during the week, it may be a long time before the two counties' champions play each other again in a provincial final.
It is natural Dunshaughlin should be favourites after their two hard matches against last year's champions Rathnew. Over those gruelling tests the Meath champions came on impressively. Most observers would have felt they had blown their chances in the drawn semi-final, after losing a two-point lead in injury-time.
In the event the whole arduous year caught up with Rathnew and they posed astonishingly little threat despite having got to half-time only a point in arrearsand Dunshaughlin romped home.
This extended tussle diverted some of the limelight from Mattock Rangers. After their semi-final there was some feel-good guff about the "smallest parish in the smallest county" (Rathnew's defeat has stalled a Lilliputian celebration involving "the little village") but the club from Collon (named after the Mattock river) has taken a back seat in recent weeks.
Rathnew's defeat set up the classic rural parish versus town clash but there are aspects of the finalists that go against the stereotype. Dunshaughlin are a hard-working, never-say-die outfit straight out of the Meath football manual. They put their heads down and don't wilt when things seem to be going against them.
This isn't to suggest the Louth side are faint-hearted but their football is more sophisticated and inventive. They play quick-passing, attacking football compared to Dunshaughlin's more traditional virtues of a dominant centrefield and early ball into the forwards. Their most visible weakness is an apparent need for vast quantities of possession to make it count on the scoreboard.
Rangers' wins over Enniscorthy Starlights, Tullamore and Moorefield were distinguished by big-scoring totals and high-octane football. Their defence tends to concede comparatively large scores but after the hiccup of drawing with Starlights the wins have been comfortable.
Much will depend on what shape the match takes. Dunshaughlin are likely to bomb the middle and trust possession to big Niall Kelly's excellent form at centrefield. Mattock's game plan has wing forwards dropping back, crowding the defence and breaking quickly with possession. This proved particularly fruitful when Kildare champions Moorefield used their wing backs to attack. In the gaps that were created the Louth club thrived.
Christy Grimes orchestrates everything from the middle. Not as imposing as their opponents, Mattock will work around centrefield rather than do aerial battle and hope to unleash their fast and skilful forwards.
It isn't unusual for club sides to emerge out of nowhere and make a strong impact on the championship in their first year. Éire Óg are an obvious example and they went on to dominate Leinster throughout the 1990s but an even better example are their Carlow counterparts O'Hanrahan's who brought a clever game plan to the Leinster final two years ago and upset the odds.
This promising backdrop combines with the fact that Navan is a big field, which plays better in the wet than Newbridge or Tullamore. But you can't help feeling, on an inventory of the Louth champions' strengths, that late December is not the time to be whizzing around, deftly juggling ball.
Dunshaughlin's momentum and physique plus their opponents' odd insistence on playing the match at Meath's football headquarters gives them the edge to pick up the county's first club title in 19 years.
