Weight of expectation may be a burden on the players

There is such a weight of expectation in Meath that if a Leinster or All-Ireland title isn"t won then comparisons will always be made to the man that led the county in the heady days of the 1980s and "90s. Few men are held in as high a regard as the legendary Sean Boylan who guided Meath to four All-Ireland titles and eight Leinster titles along with many other accolades. Filling his boots could be viewed as next to impossible. Eamonn Barry and Colm Coyle have both tried with varying degrees of limited success, but no Meath manager has managed a championship victory over Dublin since Boylan took charge for the 2001 Leinster final. Eight years is a long time to go without a win over the four-in-a-row Leinster champions. Now another of Boylan"s former lieutenants, Eamonn O"Brien has been handed the task of restoring Royal glories. Some might regard the job as mission impossible, but O"Brien is happy to take it on. 'I said at the start of the year that you need to be an optimist when you take on the job of Meath manager,' O"Brien told the Meath Chronicle. 'The objective is to get the team ready for the games and enjoy the occasion as well,' he said. Since taking over the reins from Coyle late last year, O"Brien has endured a mixed bag of results. He has endured the good, the bad and the ugly in a league campaign that threatened relegation early on, but ultimately was salvaged with good performances against Wexford, Monaghan and Laois. Avoiding the drop to Div 3 was a relief for the manager, but he also believed that his side were capable of better. 'I wouldn"t suggest that 'happy" is the right word I"d use when I reflect on the league campaign. The most pleasing aspect of it was that the lads applied themselves really well, they worked hard,' said O"Brien. 'When we look back at it we have to be disappointed that we didn"t beat Monaghan and Fermanagh and that would have left us at the top of the table rather than down near the bottom. 'Injuries have been a big concern for us also. At the start of the year we trained hard because we felt that many of the players needed it, but maybe some of them suffered injuries because of the hard work. 'However, most of the injuries are clearing up now, but we do have some concerns about match fitness and readiness for some key players. We only have managed to get half a game into some of the players and that is disappointing. 'It has been a long lay-off since the Kildare game, I know it has been the same for Dublin, but they have been in this position before and they know what the championship is all about and they know how to deal with the long lay-off. 'You can"t beat competitive football because it brings out the best in players and it allows us, as selectors, to see what they are made of. 'We learned from the league that if we can play to our expected ability then we are not far behind the best teams in the country. That is a real positive for us, but the championship is a few steps up. 'It will be made all the harder by a Dublin side that have been Leinster champions for the last four years, they are one of the few counties that are capable of winning an All-Ireland. 'We had some tough games in the league. Cork were the best side in our group and while we didn"t fare too well against them, it was our first game and we have improved. 'We don"t know how the other teams have progressed from the league because the championship is so different and more challenging.' The disaster of defeats by Wexford and Limerick in 2008 set Meath football back years and prompted Coyle to resign because he believed he couldn"t take the side any further, but O"Brien is confident that Meath are better than those two results indicated. 'I hope it is the case that 2008 was not a true gauge of Meath football. In 2007 we reached an All-Ireland semi-final, so the real question is where are the real Meath at for 2009? Maybe we will have to wait until Sunday to find out that answer.' Meath, Dublin games stir the imagination like no other within the two counties. Even the old Dubs will agree that their great rivalry with Kerry is second only to the games against Meath, but O"Brien is refusing to get entangled in the hype. 'The Meath, Dublin game is nothing more than the first round of the Leinster championship for us and we will be doing our best to win it. 'Other than that we are trying not to get caught up in the hype. It is another game of football that we are going to try to win,' he said. 'I don"t believe that just because it is Dublin that it brings extra motivation. It is the first round of the Leinster championship and we want to try our best to win it if we can. It doesn"t matter who is put in front of us we have to play our best if we want to succeed. 'If we play our best we will be in with a chance against Dublin, but if we don"t, then we won"t win, it"s as simple as that. 'I"ve said from the outset our focus is the 7th June, Dublin are one of the top teams in the country and we can"t look beyond them. We are ready for whatever happens on Sunday and no matter what, we will keep the spirits up. 'I want to avoid what happened last year. If there is a big gap between games then I want our players to be motivated no matter what happens. 'I"m confident that if our players perform well then we can win. I wouldn"t be involved if I didn"t think we had a chance of winning. That probably goes against the general consensus - what the experts have to say, but we will try to defy those experts,' concluded the Meath manager.