THE ROAD to redemption for both teams continues here, after losing their respective provincial finals – Meath to Dublin, and Mayo to Roscommon – and with a place in the All-Ireland decider at stake neither of them will be in the mood to make the same mistakes twice.
Meath were well beaten in the Leinster final, managing only 1-11 to Dublin’s 3-17, and yet promptly made amends in their All-Ireland quarter-final showdown against Ulster champions Tyrone in Newry. Full forward Stephen Coogan scored a trademark Meath late goal to give them the 2-12 to 1-14 victory, and possibly even set up a revenge match against Dublin.
Of course they’ll have to get past Mayo first: Andy McEntee’s team surely aren’t as bad as they looked against Dublin, but will need to raise their game yet again to get past a Mayo team that were themselves fairly stunned in their provincial final, losing to Roscommon by 0-10 0-8.
However, Mayo bounced back from that defeat in excellent style with a convincing All-Ireland quarter-final win Tipperary, beating the two-time Munster and reigning All-Ireland champions 0-19 to 1-8. Not surprisingly, manager Tony Duffy has named an unchanged Mayo team, hoping form is unchanged too.
If that proves true then Mayo it would appear might just have a little too much for Meath, especially around midfield, in Eoghan Lavin and Ruadhri O’Connor, with Meath looking to counteract that in the form of Adam Flanagan and Pauric Harnan.
It’s sure to be tight, and Meath, given their familiarity with Croke Park, may actually have the guile to progress.
MAYO: C O’Malley; J Geraghty, S Moran, M Plunkett; P Durcan, C Burke, K Lynch; B Mullen, A Gallagher; E Lavin, S Coen, D O’Connor; J Quinn, S Regan, S Hennelly.
MEATH: R Burlingham; D Smyth, B Power, S Gallagher; C Carton, S McEntee, S Lavin; P Harnan, A Flanagan; C O’Sullivan, J Daly, J McEntee; B Dardis, S Coogan, F Ward.
