Same old scene. Last Thursday evening, Dalgan Park, Navan, and a Meath training session. Crowds gather to monitor the well-being of the county panel. It was ever thus? "Nah," says Trevor Giles, "this is the first night there's been so many out."

Trapped in a time warp between drawn match and replay, the All-Ireland champions prepare for tomorrow's second tilt at Kildare, whose gritty performance surprised the many who doubted their ability to compete in top-class championship matches. Among those it surprised was probably a number of Meath players.

Giles, monarch of all he surveyed on a football field last year, isn't given to registering that particular emotion, but he knows that Meath struggled two weeks ago.

"A few of us felt short of energy and struggled. They're a very fit team and the game was very fast. Maybe we're not used to it. I felt it was faster than the Dublin match.

"They were very hungry. It's hard to be as committed as them because they haven't won anything. We were a little bit relieved by the end. We weren't surprised because we'd played them in the league and they'd beaten us. It's fine knowing that, but we couldn't do anything about it."

Giles had a quiet match, although characteristically he slotted over the equaliser in demanding circumstances. "There were a couple of minutes to go. I'm glad something went well for me because I'd have been conscious of things not going well during the match."

Defending Leinster and All-Ireland titles is hard enough without the obstacle course being so different. Last year, Meath had an expectation-free ride to an All-Ireland final. A tightly-knit panel and unchanging first team helped continuity. The tasks they faced round by round were graduated, allowing a young and largely inexperienced team evolve at a sustainable rate. This year, it's all changed. As All-Ireland champions, they are a highly visible target. The sulphurous replay of the All-Ireland final and the suspensions and deeply-held grievances that followed have stripped the young team of whatever naivete nature permits in the genetic coding of Meath footballers.

The draw in Leinster could hardly have been less similar to last year when the campaign opened with matches against Carlow and Laois. Meath started the defence of their titles with a match against their predecessors as All-Ireland champions, Dublin.

Before more than 60,000 people, they played better than ever for a spell and worse than ever for another spell.

Giles sees little difference in actual levels of performance. "It has been up and down," he says, "but a lot of teams are gone and we're still there. Last year against Carlow and Laois we didn't set the world on fire. We've played very good teams so far. A lot of people say that we're not going as well. I think we're playing just the same. Last year wasn't spectacular early on, either."

But there are subtle differences. "Maybe you don't pay as fine attention to detail. Preparation is just not as thorough. You think it is, but it's not. A lot of us have changed our preparation over the last couple of weeks. You mightn't have been watching your diet or getting as much sleep. When you're looking for success, you leave nothing to chance."

Manager Sean Boylan whistles the same tune. "Last year the team was an unknown quantity, even though with a lot of the lads there was a good pedigree there. They still hadn't been tried in the Leinster championship and there's a white heat, an intensity about it.

"This year we played Dublin in the first round and were very well prepared. Kildare came into the semi-final after beating Laois with 13 men, an extraordinary performance - not since Dublin in 1983 had there been anything like it. We had to hit our very top form to play Dublin and maybe we were on a bit of a low afterwards."

Because beating Dublin has been enough to win Leinster for the last 16 years?

"That'd be true. You always feel when you beat Dublin, you're going well. People forget that Kildare topped the points in Division One. They're very powerful physically. It's a huge job to perform against them when they're on on a run.

"I suppose the big thing about last year was that there were so few injuries. We used 19 players in six matches. In the '91 series against Dublin, we had 27 different players in four matches. It's a bit more like that this year.

"When that happens it can upset the apple cart. Many lads were not able to play in the league - for different reasons - so we had to make sure the challenge matches were meaningful, but it's hard to get opposition to take it as seriously."

Boylan doesn't subscribe publicly to exaggerated concern that the Kildare match was cause for alarm.

"We are playing well. People should look back at the match, there was a lot of good football played last day. The fact was we weren't able to convert enough of our chances and for that I wouldn't altogether blame our lads. Kildare deserve credit.

"They were able to dominate in places where we might have expected to ourselves. The (mid-field) diamond where we have dominated, we only held our own, but we didn't play badly. We did a lot of good things, but just didn't do enough."

With Changed circumstances was bound to come changed personnel. After a League campaign which concluded in Division One safety, Meath had a few non-first team players available who had developed good form and a few others who had developed injuries.

The left side of the defence was recast after injuries to Paddy Reynolds and Martin O'Connell. Both Donal Curtis and Nigel Nestor played very well against Dublin. Nestor, not a natural defender but a strong ball player, injured himself and yields to Reynolds tomorrow.

O'Connell, a hero in the county's last three All-Irelands but especially last year when his experience was a focal point for a very young full-back line, has not made it back onto the team. Some in the county say his form hasn't been terrific, but Boylan insists otherwise.

"Donal came on a few times in the championship last year. He had a very good League. Paddy (Reynolds) and him were our best players in the League. He was on the sideline against Dublin and I'd have hated to play him, he'd hardly had a trial match by that stage.

"Martin's case is very simple. In a club match he tore a muscle at the top of his right knee which caused fierce aggravation. He was just over that and played a challenge against Clare, then went out on the Tuesday night and got what he'd never got before, a hamstring pull. Then last Saturday he goes up for a ball, comes down, puts his foot on another player, trips and has a slightly torn muscle again.

"That's what happened. There's all sorts of talk and all sorts of rumours, but that's what happened. Both Nigel and Donal would have been in contention either way. If everyone was fit, they would still have been pushing hard."

No truth so in O'Connell being dropped?

"You heard a man come here tonight," he replies. "He asked me if everyone was alright. I tell him everyone is alright and two minutes later, he tells me he's heard things. I've never had a closed training session and I've been 15 years involved. Anyone who wanted to see the lads can do so. The only night we have to ourselves is the night before a match. Suddenly as great a player as Marty doesn't become bad."

But they do decline.

"That's a very delicate thing for players. I hope we could be open enough with each other that if things weren't going well we wouldn't be wasting each other's time."

But a player can still play a useful role on the panel without commanding a starting place.

"That's, that's . . . but again that's maybe . . . but certainly the other lads would have been pushing for places anyhow."

The Session concludes and the seasonal crowds begin to melt away. Some autograph hunters circle Giles who is last off the pitch after some place-kicking practice. As the sun goes down, the mood is relaxed and there is some talk about the poor health of Peter McDermott, "the man in the cap" of Meath football legend who is in hospital in Dublin.

Eventually, everyone departs waiting anxiously but not fretfully for the latest stage in the development of a team which has grown up fast.