WITH a near-disastrous performance to mull over since last Sunday, Meath manager Sean Boylan and his selectors are contemplating changes in the starting line-up to face Mayo on Sunday week.

Given that a defender midfielder and forward were all removed by Boylan in a nervous second half, there is a case to be made for surgery in all three departments. The most influential substitution was the first: Colm Brady for Evan Kelly 12 minutes into the second-half.

Brady helped to consolidate a Meath midfield that, until then, was bearing an uncomfortable resemblance to the Tyrone midfield they had obliterated four weeks previously.

So, in the somewhat limited array of options open to Boylan. Brady presents perhaps the most compelling case for inclusion from the start.

It is not a new development - he had already figured prominently in Boylan's strategy before last Sunday, again replacing Kelly early in the second half against Tyrone. Brady is reluctant to get involved in speculation, but there is no avoiding the fact, however, that he is being seriously considered for the first 15.

"It's the management's decision obviously but I will certainly be there if I'm needed: If you're picked, well and good, if not then you still have your job to do," he remarked.

The job he was asked to do last Sunday was heavy-duty by any standards: "The pace was frenetic. McHale and Brady are as big a combination as you're going to get in the country - it's a tot to be dealing with in the middle of the park. But you'd have to give credit to Mayo. They're a big, physical team but they're well able to play football. They played out of their skins, they really rocked us back on our heels," added Brady.

With his appearance in the final last Sunday, Brady's career has come full circle six years after playing in his first. That was against Cork in September 1990. Two weeks later, he sustained the injury that threatened his career - and still continues to snipe at his wellbeing. Having damaged the cruciate ligament in his right knee playing for his club, Simonstown, it "snapped totally" 10 weeks later while training.

Nine months after the operation, he was back in the Meath colours: playing a league match against Monaghan. Ten minutes into his comeback he had damaged the medial ligament in in his left knee. It was almost one setback too many: "That was an awful sickening blow," said Brady. I was really disillusioned. I felt that a lot was being taken away from me, that I was being robbed of something. Football has always been central to my life." Football was central to him in more ways than one by then, he was making his living from it as a fulltime coach working for the Leinster Council. He is now one of three coaching directors with the council, helping to co-ordinate the activities of some 30 coaches in the province.

By 1993, comeback number two had been completed and he saw some championship action against Dublin that year. With an injury of that nature, however, trouble is only a wrench away and, in the spring of 1994 Brady rocked the knee causing it to swell somewhat grotesquely.

"Once you've had a knee injury it swells up very quickly if you damage it at all. It wouldn't be recognisable as a knee once the swelling goes up. When it first happens you're inclined to say `Oh my God!' but it tends to look worse than it actually is." The injury has spawned a couple of satellite injuries in the groin and hamstring but, at 26, he is hopeful that he will now get a clear run for a couple of seasons.

He is hopeful, too, that people will remember there is more to him than just his infamous knee: "It got to a stage where people used say to me, How is the knees as opposed to, `How are you Colm!'" he recalled with a weary laugh.

Nevertheless, he tends to count his blessings rather than curse his luck. After all, be has already played in two All-Ireland finals a privilege not extended to many footballers. He doesn't say it, but it's probable that he's on the verge of a third.

. Colm O'Rourke has scotched rumours circulating in Meath that he is set to make a dramatic return to the squad. His fitness is good, he says, but he hasn't been playing for his club, Skryne, this summer and he hasn't been invited back by team management. "The simple answer is that it's not true he said yesterday.

. The senior replay will go to extra time if it ends in a draw on Sunday week. The game will be replayed again if the teams are deadlocked after extra time but no provisional date has yet been set. . RTE is now almost certain to broadcast the minor hurling final replay live as part of their coverage from Croke Park. The GAA has had talks with RTE and the station is making plans for a live telecast of both games.

. The Ladies' Gaelic Football Association has accepted the GAC's decision to reschedule their All-Ireland final. Association president Helen O'Rourke said they would have had to cut their junior final between Clare and Longford from the programme had their senior final been retained as a curtain-raiser, to the men's replay. Both ladies finals will now be played on October 6th at Croke Park.