Ciarán Murphy: Facing Dublin in Croke Park again doing Meath no favours

The draw for the Leinster championship semi-finals was held live on The Sunday Game on Sunday night, with Kildare first out of the hat to play Westmeath, and Meath drawn first to play Dublin.

The first question a person might ask is just why the draw for this particular provincial championship wasn’t already set in stone, when in every other province the bracket is already well and truly set out from the start of the year.

The answer to that question is that, for the last 15 years, the prospect of playing Dublin in either a quarter-final or a semi-final has been enough to deflate even the most optimistic and upwardly-mobile of Leinster county teams – to the extent that the draw had to be formulated like this to ensure players and managers don’t lose faith in their right to a place in their own championship at all, before the year had even begun.

The mere fact that you would be standing there doing this draw, alone among all the provincial councils, with the championship already into its third weekend, would be enough to prompt soul-searching in most organisations . . . but the Leinster Council is not most organisations.

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Would the team drawn out first get home advantage? No. It would, inevitably, be a double-header in the 12-in-a-row-chasing champions’ home ground.

At what stage do you reckon maybe taking Dublin out of their comfort zone might be an idea worth trying?

Seán Moran has already reported in these pages this week that Kildare and Westmeath had stated a preference to play Dublin anywhere other than in their home ground of Croke Park if they had been drawn against them.

So what the hell are Meath thinking?

They’ve been beaten the last seven times they’ve played Dublin in Croke Park, with some of those occasions ranking among the most dispiriting days in the long and distinguished history of football in the county.

At what stage do you reckon maybe taking Dublin out of their comfort zone might be an idea worth trying? If not to Navan, then to Portlaoise, or Tullamore. Maybe Meath aren’t in love with playing in either of those venues – but maybe Dublin aren’t either.

If Meath were concerned that such a demand might make them look weak, then a combined loss by 37 points in their last two games against Dublin in Croke Park before last year certainly hasn’t made them look strong.

And let’s not absolve the Leinster Council of blame here. Instead of thinking of the extra 5 or 6,000 people they might get to buy a ticket for this double-header in Croke Park, they could have thought about how best to ensure they still have a functioning championship of any kind to organise in five years’ time.

Cracking atmosphere

Surely it’s not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility for them to think a Leinster semi-final that makes the possibility of Dublin losing even 2 per cent more likely, might actually be good for business in the long-term.

Dublin were very good on Saturday, against statistically the third-worst team in the country going on league form this year

And leaving aside the Dublin-Meath game, Kildare and Westmeath will be playing their game as a curtain-raiser in front of 7,000 or 8,000 people in a 90 per cent empty Croke Park, when they could have been playing in front of a similar crowd in Newbridge, where that number would make a cracking atmosphere, and an occasion befitting its status as a provincial semi-final.

Dublin were very good on Saturday, against statistically the third-worst team in the country going on league form this year. Dublin played seven league games in Division One this year, and lost five of them. They are still weaker now than they’ve been at any time in the last 10 years.

I know Meath people who looked at how Mayo closed out their All-Ireland semi-final last year and realised that with a bit more conviction in the Leinster semi-final, that could have been them. Now was the time to test Dublin’s mettle.

Meath don't have too far to look for inspiration in 2022. The Cork players were shafted by their own county board when they fixed an Ed Sheeran concert for the weekend before they were supposed to be playing Kerry. They stood up to the Munster Council when that game was fixed for Killarney, and the Munster Council backed down.

Earlier this year the Antrim footballers were robbed of their home Ulster championship game against Cavan because the Ulster Council thought they might sell a few extra tickets elsewhere. They stood up, kicked up a fuss for a hot minute, and the Ulster Council almost immediately backed down.

Antrim got their home game, and lost it. Not many Cork fans attending their home game in Páirc Uí Rinn this Saturday hold out much hope of springing a surprise on Kerry. But at least both those teams sent a message that, despite being outmatched on the field, they were not going to be treated as second-class citizens.

Meath didn’t even have to push for a home game against Dublin (although they should have) – they just had to insist it wasn’t a home game for Dublin. Should any of us be surprised if Leinster continues to be a joyless trophy-gathering exercise for even a weakened Dublin, if what we saw this week was all the fight their provincial rivals can muster?