King out to dethrone Dubs

NINE years have slipped by since Meath last knew the joy of beating Dublin in the championship and the dwindling links with that success are almost severed.

Of the 33 players who togged out that day, only Nigel Crawford is still playing football for his county.

Shane Ryan has swapped hats for hurling while Jason Sherlock was cut loose by Pat Gilroy just prior to the summer.

Caoimhin King was only 15 in 2001 but his memories of that Leinster final win are vivid. Richie Kealy, the man who scored the crucial 55th minute goal, has been working on his house this week.

That was a good time to be a Meath footballer, especially one like Kealy whose Dunshaughlin base was just a stone’s throw away from the Dublin border, but six years of bragging rights were about to end.

King’s own introduction to the unique hothouse that is Dublin-Meath – and to championship football — came four years later. He kept Collie Moran scoreless that day but the Royals still lost by two points.

The script hasn’t really changed all that much since. In 2007, the counties drew another Leinster quarter-final before Meath lost the replay by four points. Last year, it was down to two points again. Same old, same old.

“There has only ever been one or two points in it,” says King. “That’s what rivalries do, I suppose. We all know the history. We don’t have a great record against them recently but we’ve never feared them either.”

Alan Brogan hit the nail on the head earlier this week when he described the rivalry as cyclical and there is an inescapable sense that Dublin’s dominance has finally exhausted itself.

Pat Gilroy is still trying to find the right pieces to fit the puzzle that is a Dublin side that strolls through Leinster year after year before tumbling out of the All-Ireland series in the month of August.

Facing them tomorrow is a Meath side that has lurched between brilliant and bad far too often in recent years but one which finally seems capable of assuming the mantle of Leinster’s best.

King took a hiatus from football for a few months around the turn of the year to go travelling and he noticed a few changes when he returned from New Zealand and Australia.

Some of the players turning up for training were complete strangers to him and he has little hesitation in declaring that this is the strongest Meath squad he has ever been involved with.

Established names like Joe Sheridan are playing to the peak of their powers and wing-forward Graham Reilly is one of the younger men to turn heads in their three championship games so far.

Injuries to key players won’t help in Croke Park tomorrow and Meath’s penchant towards the enigmatic has been much in evidence already this summer in their games against Offaly and Laois.

Superb going forward against Offaly, Meath’s vulnerability at the back cost them two first-half goals and their failure to kill off a stuttering Laois side consigned them to a replay in Tullamore last weekend.

They appeared to learn their lesson. Laois were dispatched with ten points to spare at the second time of asking and the manner in which they cantered home bodes well tomorrow.

“It’s hard to say what 15 they will put out but the talent is there in Dublin. They won the U21 All-Ireland this year and there were some really good players on that team. It won’t be for the lack of talent.”

“We actually said that at half-time last Saturday. Seamus Kenny stood up and spoke very well about driving on and not looking to just hold on. What happened in the draw game wasn’t like Meath at all.

Dublin could say the same after their puzzling display against Wexford.

Meath and Laois opened the bill at HQ that day but the Royals opted for a recovery session in the pool rather than a seat in the stand for the second game.

King caught snatches of it on TV later that evening however and that was enough for him to see that Dublin were “all over the place” for the first 50 minutes before reverting back to the players — and style — of yore.

Like everyone else, he is curious to know just how Dublin approach tomorrow’s semi-final. Will they persist with their more disciplined and defensive approach or will instinct take over yet again.

“In fairness to them, they are throwing the kitchen sink at it. They don’t seem to know their best 15 but you look at some of the subs they brought in the last day and Bryan Cullen is a quality player. Dublin will still want to win (Leinster) and they will want to stay in Croke Park and avoid going down the country. The back door is a real test but you don’t know with Dublin at the moment.”

The same can still be said for Meath.

Tomorrow will be illuminating.