Gavin: We were ready

In his acceptance speech afterwards, Stephen Cluxton admitted Dublin had been worried about Meath but the amount of homework they had done on their neighbours stood to them.

Jim Gavin, who had name-checked Meath in his post-match All-Ireland final interview last September, acknowledged they had put Mick O’Dowd’s men under the microscope.

“We knew the challenge Meath would pose. Dublin-Meath games are traditionally really intense encounters. We’ve seen how Meath can get goal chances and create them against Carlow and Kildare so we knew if we didn’t bring an intensity to the game, they would have exploited us in the back line.