Dublin v Meath, Croke Park, Sunday, 4.05 This really is uncharted territory. Tomorrow's Bank of Ireland Leinster football reunion of the counties that have defined the provincial championship for the best part of 25 years is a reflection of changed times: a Dublin-Meath match with Dublin available at 4 to 9 and the whispered word from Meath that the match is proving a hard sell.
Neither side have won the province for over two years and while Dublin are moving with a certain amount of confidence, their old rivals are in a more uncertain mood.
It was pointed out yesterday by one Meath man that the collapse of interest in the match within the county was exaggerated. "The county's only recovering from a terrible tragedy last week so naturally there hasn't been much talk about football. But interest has picked up in the past couple of days."
But it's no surprise the football talk is downbeat. The county is going through a rough patch.
Although the team bounced out of Division Two at the first time of asking, championship form over the past few years has been as poor as at any stage during Boylan's 23-year reign.
Injury has also made a most unwelcome intervention in the form of Trevor Giles's enforced absence. Giles had been in good form and together with Graham Geraghty formed an experienced spine in the team's attack.
There are five newcomers in the team - as against Dublin's one, Steve O'Shaughnessy.
Comparisons with 1996 have been reflexively made by Dublin, a ritual acknowledgement of Meath's power to surprise. Yet there is little comparison between now and nine years ago. Then Boylan was able to redesign a team using the raw material of a number of successful years at underage. He doesn't have the same quality of player coming through.
Dublin, on the other hand, have in the past four years at under-21 contested a Leinster final replay, an All-Ireland semi-final and final as well as winning the title two years ago.
There will be areas where Dublin may have problems. Centrefield, for instance, looks Meath's strongest sector and whereas Ciarán Whelan and Shane Ryan did well against Longford, they function as a complementary unit and if Whelan is disrupted the whole team will suffer.
Dublin's full back line hasn't been the steadiest this year and Paddy Christie will need a tight focus on Geraghty to stop the experienced full forward causing trouble and creating openings for Joe Sheridan.
The same contest at the other end will be equally interesting with Kevin Reilly seeking to build on a promising start to his senior career by curbing Conal Keaney, who had his best championship outing for the footballers when knocking 1-4 past a hapless Longford.
Otherwise, Dublin are in reasonable shape. Paul Caffrey's management has calmed things down after the turbulence of recent years and players are believed to be happy with the way things are going.
During the league the team had a number of close calls and won most of them. Even in Tralee when it looked as if the All-Ireland champions were going to tear them apart, Dublin rallied and took the match down to the wire.
The team have fought hard in matches and there is an impression of greater ball-winning capacity. Scoring returns have also been better than in the past two years with players capable of taking scores from distance.
Two years ago Dublin gave a similarly juggernaut display in thrashing Louth but flopped against Laois in the next round. The Longford match wasn't a test of anything because the opposition folded towards the end.
How Dublin respond tomorrow will tell us much more about the team's improvement but at the same time it's not going to be an ultimate test.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, P Christie, S O'Shaughnessy; P Casey, B Cahill, C Goggins; C Whelan, S Ryan; C Moran, A Brogan, B Cullen; J Sherlock, C Keaney, T Quinn.
MEATH: D Gallagher; M O'Reilly, K Reilly, N McKeigue; D Crimmins, D Fay, C King; N Crawford, A Moyles; N Kelly, P Byrne, S Bray; J Sheridan, G Geraghty, B Farrell.
