Mick O’Dowd: Meath still on learning curve

It’s not easy trying to talk up and talk down your team’s chances in the same string of sentences. Meath are surely a better team than last year, stronger, fitter, and more confident, but then Dublin surely are, too.

Meath are missing some big name players, but then Dublin are too, and even if Meath were the last team to beat them in the Leinster championship, Dublin are looking to win their ninth provincial title in 10 years.

Final showdown

Mick O’Dowd is reeling this off ahead of Sunday’s latest Leinster final showdown at Croke Park. The Meath manager also talks up the fact they were ahead of Dublin at half-time in last year’s final, were still level on 50 minutes, and still “it was gone away from us coming into the home stretch”.

So what exactly has changed from last year, when Dublin out-scored them 1-5 to 0-2 in the last 20 minutes, to emerge seven-point winners? Meath’s own level of self-belief is surely higher, and the belief of their supporters too, and while Eamonn Wallace and Conor Gillespie are long-term injury victims, Mickey Newman, Brian McMahon and Kevin Reilly are all fit to start, ensuring Meath will be full-strength from their panel they currently have.

“And there’s no doubt about it, the nature of who you’re playing, the All-Ireland champions, double league champions, Leinster champions, really makes it exciting,” says O’Dowd. “And a Leinster title, and beating Dublin, would be great.

“It would show massive progress by the squad. I still maintain, in the long-term, you have to become a top-eight team. That’s the bigger picture, the long-term stuff, in that you have to be playing against the top teams, regularly, to develop individually and collectively.

“But it’s a brilliant position to be in, another Leinster final. You do so much work going back, right throughout the year, and mood is great as a result. When you think of all the preparation you put into it, it’s for games like this. There is massive effort at this level now, and these are the games every player wants to play in. It’s really exciting, and there’s great anticipation.”

Not that Meath are anywhere near the finished article yet. They started very impressively against Kildare in their semi-final, but then seemed to back-off. Dublin, O’Dowd admits, will probably afford them some chances, but Dublin won’t be wasting many chances of their own.

“I thought against Kildare our pace and our movement was very good, for 50, 55 minutes. And there were periods we weren’t happy with. We know against a team like Dublin it has to be a more complete performance to be there.

Bank of experience

“It’s 12 months on from last year’s Leinster final. For our individuals last year’s Leinster final is a bank of experience, and you’d want to be better as individuals. Last year, in the opening half, we had a lot of chances that we didn’t take. We were two up at half-time, but we felt we could have been more up at half-time, so that’s the learning there. When you get your chances you need to be more clinical.

“But I also think the depth of our squad has improved. A word I’ve used a lot since we took over is adaptability, because there are such different styles out there. We spent the league dealing with a lot of teams that had a lot of men dropping back.

“Dublin don’t do it as much, if you look at the Kerry game last year, Kerry got scores. But at times the Dublin defence was brilliant. They got numbers back. Any team that wins an All-Ireland have a good defensive set up, and attacking set up. You have to deal with both. Because I certainly think Dublin are on a par with where they are this time last year, if they’ve not gone beyond it.

What it probably will come down to, O’Dowd suggests, is who will last the pace – in more ways than one: “To to be fair, if you’re thinking of the type of player that will survive in Croke Park, in the summer, he’s going to need pace, more or less. But everyone is not a rocket, and doesn’t have to be. You’re trying to get the blend right within the team. But in general I think every county is looking for pace.

“And our own expectations have risen as our performances have risen. I would say the Tyrone game (qualifier) last summer was one we were close to winning. The Dublin game I wouldn’t, because it was gone away from us coming into the home stretch.

"But when it comes to Meath-Dublin, Meath people always love that game. It's close to the heart. I can't say exactly how much people's expectation has risen. But I'd imagine there's a good connection between Meath people and this team again." DUBLIN-MEATH: LAST FIVE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES 2013: Dublin 2-15 Meath 0-14 (Leinster final); 2012: Dublin 2-13 Meath 1-13 (Leinster final); 2010: Meath 5-9 Dublin 0-13 (Leinster semi-final); 2009: Dublin 0-14 Meath 0-12 (Leinster quarter-final) 2007: Dublin 0-16 Meath 0-12 (Leinster quarter-final) Replay.