Dublin set to grasp shot at redemption

IT’S 20 years since Meath last won an All-Ireland minor football title but denizens of the county may find greater solace in their last final appearance, in 2002, when they were well beaten by a superb Derry team.

Of that 1992 outfit, Trevor Giles was the only member of the squad to really make his mark in the senior game – and what a mark – whereas talents such as Joe Sheridan, Brian Farrell and Caoimhin King all emerged from the ultimately unsuccessful campaign a decade later.

The lesson here is a simple one: minor success is all well and good, but the priority must be the grade’s ability to deliver players to the top of the inter-county pyramid and the likelihood is Meath will be grasping that far from insignificant straw come tomorrow afternoon.

Dublin are 1/7 favourites for the second ever all-Leinster minor decider (The Dubs lost to Laois after a replay nine years ago) and they have already swatted away Meath twice this year. They met first in the provincial league final and again in the Leinster championship decider.

The margins of victory were five and 12 points, respectively, but this is minor football and, for all the undoubted talent on both sides, 17 and 18-year old footballers and hurlers are embryonic creatures all too prone to drifting away from the most straightforward of scripts.

Dessie Farrell knows that all too well. Twelve months ago, the GPA chief executive hitched up at Croke Park as manager of an all-conquering Dublin minor side spearheaded by Ciaran Kilkenny and whose meeting with Tipperary was supposed to be nothing more than another chapter in their coronation.

Instead, they fell short of what everyone assumed would be their destiny with some sloppy defensive play four minutes from time offering Colman Kennedy the opportunity to find the net and a shot at immortality – which he took.

“Some days they go with you and some days they don’t,” said Farrell at the time.

Only a handful of last year’s panel have been able to avail of this shot at redemption and there will surely be some in Dublin to have been encouraged and spooked in equal measure by a campaign that bears more than a passing resemblance to 2011’s.

Like last year, the Dubs have been irrepressible more often than not and, though they had to dig deep to get past Kildare and got a scare from Kerry in the semi, they have still shot an average of 2-16 this summer.

A lack of injuries has allowed Farrell to maintain a consistency to his team-sheet, particularly in defence and in midfield where his pairing of Stephen Cunningham and Shane Carthy have been contributing an abundance of scores.

Conor McHugh and Cormac Costello have been their chief threats up front. Costello, whose father is county secretary John, scored 3-4 against Meath in the provincial get-together and McHugh five points but such a haul will hardly be matched this time around.

Farrell and his Meath counterpart, Andy McEntee, have been in rhyme this week with their assertions that Dublin caught their old rivals on a bad day back in July and Meath have show some familiar old traits since that embarrassment. Gritty wins over Tyrone and Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter and semi-finals harked back to the days of Sean Boylan’s most cussed of teams but the same could hardly be said for the skill levels in the second of those contests.

McEntee has been one of the many names nominated as a successor to Seamus McEnaney in the senior role – he has been put forward for the U21 post too – but if he somehow undoes the Dubs tomorrow his candidature will surely stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Verdict: Dublin

DUBLIN: TBA

MEATH: R Burlingham; R O Coileáin, B Power, S Gallagher; D Smyth, P Harnan, S Lavin; S McEntee, A Flanagan; C O’Sullivan, J Daly, J McEntee; B Dardis, F Ward Wolfe, S Coogan.