Coyle adopting cautious approach ahead of final

Meath minor football manager Pat Coyle is adopting a cautious approach in the build up to next Sunday"s Leinster MFC decider against Offaly at Croke Park. Without setting out to earn the tag of favouritism, Coyle"s side will go into Sunday"s game as the form team following their impressive quarter-final victory over Dublin at Parnell Park, a feat they achieved after extra-time by 0-14 to 0-10. That success would be enough to instal any team as contenders, but when the semi-final display against Longford is factored into the equation, the weight of expectation of the Royal County will be on the shoulders of 15 talented young players next Sunday afternoon. 'I suppose it would be fair to say that we would be expected to beat Offaly, but it"s just not as simple as that and I know that it will be a tough game for us,' commented the Meath manager. Although Coyle did not get to Wexford Park last Wednesday to see Offaly"s victory over the hosts, the other selectors, James Battersby, Martin Blake, Richie Cahill and Paul Clarke made the journey and were impressed by what they witnessed. 'Apparently, the conditions were poor and there was a very strong wind which made it difficult for both teams, but Offaly certainly deserved to win,' suggested Coyle on the strenght of the information provided by the selectors. 'Offaly are a very dogged team and they appear to be capable of grinding out a result, especially in difficult conditions, they have a very strong half-forward line and they look solid enough in the middle of the park as well. 'I suppose it"s very unlikely that they would be a poor team anyway as they are after coming through the back door after making a dreadful start to the championship against Wicklow where they were beaten by 10 points.' Coyle is more concerned about Meath playing to their full potential than in concentrating on what Offaly might, or might not, do. 'We will have to focus on our own game, and if we play to our potential then we are capable of winning the title,' he suggested. 'As far as I"m aware, I think the three fancied teams for the All-Ireland are Meath, Tyrone and Kerry, but we haven"t won anything yet and we won"t put much emphasis on what people think, we will just have to let our results do the talking. 'We haven"t had a lot of time between the semi-final and the final, although we have had a few more days than Offaly, that might be a good thing because we had a long lay-off after the win over Dublin to allow for the exams. 'The game against Longford will definitely bring us on a bit, but we have some injury worries also with William Carry probably on the treatment bench, Paddy Gilsenan will definitely miss out due to a knee injury, he probably needs about another week. 'William Carry limped out of the semi-final against Longford and I"m not sure at this stage, whether he will be fit or not.' Regardless of injuries or any other distractions, the players got back to training last week after the great win over Longford. 'We trained three times last week, nothing too serious, but this week we will just be going through various tactics and trying to get everyone into the right frame of mind for playing in Croke Park. 'Our players have never even been on the pitch, I"d say it"s the same for Offaly, so it will be a new experience for everyone. 'We"ve looked for permission to get into Croke Park this week, before Sunday, I have no word on that yet, but hopefully the GAA might allow some access, even just to have a walk around the pitch. 'The size of the pitch is also a factor, it really won"t be an option to have early shots with the chance of them falling short, that wouldn"t be any good and we will have to address that issue beforehand,' he added. The manager also intimated that predicting how under-age teams would perform could be a hazardous occupation. 'Minor football is difficult to predict sometimes, we might have the best team on any given day, but we could still get beaten, it depends on so many things. We won a u-15 Leinster Blitz and we would have beaten Offaly, but there was nothing easy about any of the games, it could come down to the bounce of the ball on the day. 'Meath beat Offaly in the 2006 Leinster final, that will be a great motivator for them, to avenge that loss, and the fact that we beat them at u-15 level a few years ago, they will want to put the record straight, as they see it. We can only take one game at a time, I"m expecting a close game, our aim on Sunday will be to win a Leinster title, the fact that we are guaranteed an All-Ireland quarter-final place is totally irrelevant at the moment,' concluded the manager.