On Gaelic Games:There was much wistful talk last week about how Dublin and Meath isn't what it used to be and nostalgic reminiscence about the four-match series of 1991 and how the winners of this fixture used to be able to count on a decent championship challenge.

So it was cheering to listen to the hosannas being showered on Sunday's Leinster quarter-final, the most consistent theme being that it was a return to the old days when the perennial meeting of the neighbours was the highlight of the provincial football championships.

In terms of public appeal the fixture had suffered from a lack of wider relevance, a situation that has blighted the province's football championship for a number of years during which the competition has become noted for bubbly football whose practitioners have been unable to make a mark at the highest level of the game.

As the best of what's there in the past two years Dublin have suffered from the absence of top-class counties against which to test themselves. Leinster secretary Michael Delaney has regularly made the point that Meath's decline has been a fatal affliction for Dublin's chances of breaking through at the top (presumably a consequence that has made the county's ineptitude that bit easier to bear in Meath).

Although not quite unprecedented the gap to be bridged to the last All-Ireland in Leinster - eight years as against the record drought of 1928-'42 - has been especially demoralising because since the institution of the qualifier system, the province has struggled to provide semi-finalists let alone finalists and winners.

Over the six years of the current format Leinster has been the weakest province, filling just three of the 24 semi-final slots - the same as Connacht but the western province's representatives, Galway and Mayo, twice, have won all three of their semi-finals whereas Meath are the only Leinster county to have reached the All-Ireland in that time, back in the first year 2001.

It might be over-stating the significance of Sunday - what if it merely signifies the start of recession in Dublin rather than recovery in Meath? - to describe it as a new beginning but the indicators are good and two matches of that intensity will give whoever survives - and maybe even whoever doesn't - invaluable preparation for challenges ahead.

Colm Coyle's appointment as Meath manager fired a good deal of optimism in the county that better times were on the horizon. That glow might have faded a little during a pedestrian National League campaign but the team came good in the Division Two play-offs and looks like a side fine-tuned with the summer in mind.

Despite a lack of success at underage level Meath have what Dublin don't - as pointed out by Tom Humphries in this newspaper on Saturday - a school with a big reputation as a football academy that acts as a centre of excellence for the county. By the end of Sunday's match nearly half the team were alumni of St Patrick's, Navan.

So with a highly rated manager and some decent talent Meath look positioned to challenge once again. In the short term this is bad news for Dublin but in the medium or longer term it is for the best, as Delaney pointed out.

In the past 25 years Dublin and Meath have driven each other to All-Ireland titles. None of the six victories have been achieved without one beating the other along the way. In more recent times the emergence of other counties in the province hasn't had anything like that impact.

The excitement over Sunday's match in Meath isn't based simply on having a crack at the old enemy. It's that the ability to compete with Dublin is also a sign that the county is on the move. For all the shortcomings, Paul Caffrey's team have been Leinster champions for the past two years and have posed the province's most serious threat at All-Ireland level.

It would appear to most observers that the current Dublin side are unlikely to bring home the Sam Maguire but they have an energy that a rising Meath team might be able to harness in order to propel their own challenge in the next couple of years.

The sense of expectation is already there. Sunday saw the biggest attendance to watch the fixture and that record should be broken on June 17th given that more clement weather should fill the holes in the crowd that were in evidence last weekend.

For a rivalry whose modern chapter has been made legendary by draws, there have been comparatively few down the years. Sunday's was only the fifth year out of 50 that the match hasn't been settled on the first day - that's a strike rate of one every 10 years. This year it had been nine meetings since the famous 1991 series provided the most recent draw.

The four years in which draws have taken place split evenly two apiece although interestingly when Dublin have won, they have gone to take the All-Ireland (1894 and 1983) whereas Meath haven't on either occasion (1945 and '91).

In the immediate term it's hard to judge where the weekend leaves the teams. Both could claim to have been brought on by the experience: Meath because their developing team has known so little joy in Leinster over the past five seasons and Dublin because it had been over two months since their last competitive match.

Meath have the added bonus of being able to welcome back Brian Farrell, their top scorer in the league, from suspension although Graham Geraghty may find himself in a similar position and Dublin, too, will be strengthened by the possible availability of Jason Sherlock after injury.

Farrell's return would maintain his team's superiority in terms of scoring economy. Meath took 14 points from 19 attempts at scores whereas Dublin's 1-11 came from 21 opportunities.

The delicate balance between the teams also has to take into account that despite their less clinical finishing Dublin actually had a slightly smaller attacking platform, winning possession from just 18 of the 40 kick-outs so they are in fact better at creating chances than Meath but less adept at converting them.

Of specific concern is the fact that Stephen Cluxton's kick-outs, so important to the team last year and a vital component in his 2006 All Star, malfunctioned to the extent that Dublin did no better on their own restarts than they managed on Meath's (losing possession on both by 9-11).

Anyway the small-picture stuff will occupy the counties in the 11 days ahead but the big picture is already more encouraging in Leinster.