Limerick looming

THERE will be yet more treacherous unchartered territory for Meath to negotiate if they are to successfully tread the backwaters of the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers and stay in contention until the third Sunday in September. A first championship trip to the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick on Saturday, 19th July was plucked from the hat in Sunday"s draw. Opinions were mixed as to who Meath had hoped to draw in the opening round. Some wanted an easy home game so that the team could steadily build up confidence again following the demoralising loss to Wexford in the Leinster SFC quarter-final, but others wanted a tough test to challenge the merits of Meath as contenders for ultimate All-Ireland glory. What the draw threw-up was somewhere in between. Limerick are not one of Gaelic football"s superpowers, but neither can they be considered as minnows. They proved in their Munster SFC loss to Cork that they are a force to be reckoned with. With a couple of minutes to go against the Rebels, Limerick led by three points, but then they were hit by two sucker goals that sunk them. Considering the annihilation Cork handed out to Meath in last year"s All-Ireland SFC semi-final that form would suggest that Limerick will trouble the Royals. However, a lot depends on how Limerick approach the game. Their whole year was geared towards that game against Cork on Sunday, 15th June, but they ultimately fell short by 0-12 to 2-9. They had been less than impressive in their expected first round win over Tipperary, but that 1-8 to 1-5 success was only a stepping stone to the Cork game. When the going got tough Limerick improved, but what will their frame of mind be for the qualifiers? If they go into the game against Meath with their chins tucked into their chests and feeling sorry for themselves following the late heartache against Cork then they will suffer the consequences. However, if they take confidence from the performance displayed against Cork then they will provide a tough test against Colm Coyle"s side. Meath are in a similar boat. Many expected this year to be the Royals best chance of winning a Leinster title for the first time since 2001. It appeared that only Dublin stood in their way, but that all went horribly wrong in the second-half against Wexford in Dr Cullen Park. What psychological damage was done by the surrendering of a 10-point lead has yet to be assessed. How will Meath react to their elimination from the provincial race? There should be a lot of positive aspects, especially since the run they embarked on in last year"s qualifiers and team manager Colm Coyle is under illusions about the size of the task. 'It is not an easy draw. Limerick put it up to Cork in the Munster championship and they conceded two goals in the last few minutes,' said Meath manager Coyle after hearing the draw. 'The frame of mind after the Wexford game is good. Some of the doom and gloom after the game was probably justified because when you look at the performances for the first 50 minutes compared to the last 20, they were poles apart. 'It was probably the best football Meath played for years in the first 50 minutes and then that was followed by the worst football for the last 20 minutes.Obviously we were very disappointed after that loss and it took a few weeks to get over it, but now we just can"t wait to get up and running again. 'We will focus on the positives, but we will also look at the negatives and try to figure out why they happened. Last year one of the big spurs for us was the poor performance against Wexford. After that game we sat down and discussed a few home truths and moved on from there. We are in that position again. 'The five lads that were suspended are back so their season is just starting now. We also have Shane O"Rourke, Anthony Moyles and Brian Farrell available, they are seven weeks further down the line, fitness wise, so I"d like to think that we are in a stronger position now than we were two months ago,' concluded the manager.