McMahon: 2010 defeat by Meath wake-up call we needed

Dublin and Meath.

The Leinster final.

It may still be three weekends away but it is 11 years since those two last paired off on the province’s big day and that fact alone is already investing the decider with a cache that has been lost recently by dint, mostly, of Dublin’s dominance but also Meath’s demise.

So, prepare yourselves for a deluge of reminiscences about the three-game epic in 1991, the changing of the guard when Meath toppled the All-Ireland champions in 1996 and any number of other days when these neighbours clashed.

Meath certainly seem to have recognised the need to handle the hype given their decision to hold the pre-match press conference tomorrow evening – 17 days prior to the decider – although the fixture’s history doesn’t engage everyone equally.

“I used to go (to Dublin games) with my father but it wouldn’t be in to the Hill or anything,” said Dublin corner-back Philly McMahon yesterday. “I don’t drink so I probably don’t belong in there. No, I wouldn’t have been a huge fan going along.

“I used to play soccer and stuff as well so it was only the odd game I would have gone to. So the Meath rivalry for me, it’s just a game of football. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, whether it’s Meath or Wexford.”

Meetings between the sides have, admittedly, thinned out in recent times mostly because Meath have endured one of their intermittent dips in fortunes at a time when the Dubs were bending the province and, finally, the entire country to their iron will.

Yet Meath have always retained an ability to conjure up performances in keeping with their glorious past. They did just that two days ago with their shock defeat of Kildare and before that, in 2010, when they had 11 points to spare over Pat Gilroy’s side.

Two years on and the script of that Leinster semi-final continues to take the breath away. It was Meath’s biggest championship defeat of their rivals at Croke Park, the first time they put five goals past them and their first win in the series since 2001.

McMahon remembers it well. Gilroy had only recently placed his trust in the inexperienced full-back line he inhabited along with Rory O’Carroll and Michael Fitzsimons. Their collective future looked bleak that afternoon but, here they are, still there manning the last line.

“That game wasn’t only defensively from the back, it was from the forwards all the way back that we went asleep,” said the man from Ballymun Kickhams. “We weren’t together. Maybe it was the wake-up call to say we weren’t as good as we thought we were moving.

“So, we got to the semi-final of the All-Ireland that year, 2010, and it probably gave us that bit of experience that, you know, ‘we’re not invincible’. The back door that year helped us as well, you know.”

Dublin still had much to learn. They lost that All-Ireland semi to Cork by a point, having led by five entering the closing stages, but they have since demonstrated a newfound ability to land on the other side of those coins.

Last September’s dramatic recovery against Kerry stands apart as the monument to their development but Sunday’s success in turning around a three-point deficit with 14 men against Wexford buttresses the suspicion that they have found a new level of mental toughness.

“I think we’ve a good structure in place,” McMahon said yesterday. “In the first half they were pulling us all over the place and dictating the shape of the game. We got in at half-time and said we had to get our shape right. That was important, first of all, to do that. It’s been tight the last few years so we expected a big challenge off them this year. We’re versatile so even if we’re not playing well we can still pull off a win.”