Hopes boosted

Sixty years after the Sam Maguire Cup was brought to the Royal County, the prospects of an ideal anniversary present to mark the occasion were boosted at Croke Park on Sunday when Meath qualified for the last four of a competition that has changed radically since 1949. Sunday's 2-15 to 1-15 victory over Connacht champions Mayo sets the Royal County up for a repeat of their last semi-final victory over Kerry in 2001. That mouthwatering contest is scheduled for Croke Park on Sunday, 30th August, 3.30, seven days after the clash of the remaining provincial champions, Cork and Tyrone, in the other semi-final. Sunday's game started badly for Meath as they endured a complete first-quarter blank on the scoreboard before Cian Ward pointed a '45' in the 17th minute. David Bray's goal was a real boost two minutes later, but the sides were level on eight occasions. Ward converted what could be described as a fortunate second-half penalty which again revived Meath's flagging fortunes. There were a number of other favourable decisions by the referee and linesmen, but then it's not too many years ago that decisions by the officials went against Meath. Perhaps it was payback time! Meath supporters have to go back 10 years, to 1999, for the last All-Ireland title success when Cork were negotiated by 1-11 to 1-8 in front of almost 63,000 spectators. That victory was the perfect present for the golden jubilee celebrations of the historic first success in 1949 when Brian Smyth raised the trophy for the first time following a 1-10 to 1-6 victory over Cavan. The original Sam Maguire Cup was presented for the last time in 1987, Meath won it when they beat Cork by 1-14 to 0-11. The new-look Sam Maguire Cup was handed over for the first time 12 months later, in 1988, and again Meath won it, they beat Cork in a replay. Long odds were available on Meath even making it to the last four at the start of the championship and for the next test against Kerry, Eamonn O'Brien's men will still be cast in the role of underdogs. Kerry's demolition of Dublin will be sufficient to earn the popular choice for the Kingdom, but Meath will revel in that role. The fact that Stephen Bray will be eligible again will also be a major boost to O'Brien and his selectors, Robbie O'Malley and Donal Curtis. "We probably wouldn't have expected this at the start of the year, but we are delighted to be where we are now," commented O'Brien. "It was a great second-half performance, but we have been lucky in the qualifiers and have been able to build our confidence. "There were some aspects of our performance that we weren't pleased about, but that's for another day and we can look forward to facing Kerry at the end of the month," he added. After a poor start to the NFL campaign and a Leinster SFC exit against Dublin at the first hurdle, O'Brien appears to have transformed the fortunes of the team and 2009 can now be described as a success, regardless of the outcome of the semi-final against Kerry. "I maintained when I got the job that you have to an optimist to be an inter-county manager, you never give up hope and we got favourable draws in the qualifiers," he concluded. Meath supporters had to dig deep into their pockets again with admission of up to €45 demanded due to the hurling semi-finals. And some of the hurling stalwarts would have had to leave the ground early as Meath hurling committee had scheduled a SHC fixture between Killyon and Boardsmill at 7.0 in Kildalkey.