All-Ireland SFC Quarter-finals/Meath 1-13 Tyrone 2-8: Maybe the doomed Hill of Tara has a chance yet. Running up that sacred landmark is supposed to be a rite of passage for Meath All-Ireland teams. What a massive leap Colm Coyle's team took in a gripping match in Croke Park on Saturday. Meath are on the threshold of an All-Ireland final.
On the backs of their shirts seven stars acknowledge the All-Ireland teams of yesteryear. Don't bank on this young gang not making it eight. They are as cocksure and ambitious as their master ever was.
It does not seem that long ago since the state of Royal football was believed to be in long-term decline. How stupid of us to believe that. Yesterday was a bit like watching a classic hard rock band back on stage after getting off the junk. It looked good and it sounded familiar. There was Darren Fay, impenetrable at full back. There was Stephen Bray, the latest in a long line of gold-standard Meath forwards.
There, still, was Graham Geraghty, playing the game on a slightly different frequency than the rest. They were big-boned and fearless, and that old landlord-on-the-estate swagger was back.
Tyrone seemed to pale and shrink over the afternoon. Instinct and bravery kept them in the match but we saw the crossing point of two heavyweight football counties this weekend.
"I thought they were better than they were given credit for," said Meath manager Coyle. "It was said we hadn't really beaten anyone and I thought some commentators showed a lot of disrespect for Down, Fermanagh and Galway . . . Tyrone are an amazing team and at the start of the year I thought they would have beaten us out the gate. It shows the work the lads put in. This will bring them on a ton."
Even as the crowd of just over 52,000 watched Tyrone warming up beforehand, small doubts nagged at us. As Ryan McMenamin pointed out in this newspaper three weeks ago, Tyrone had done nothing to set the world on fire since the All-Ireland final of 2005 until they toyed with league champions Donegal in June.
Against Monaghan in the Ulster final, Tyrone looked ordinary. Stephen O'Neill was sidelined with an injury and rumours about Brian Dooher's fitness here proved correct. He had to give up the ghost just before half-time.
Shorn of their captain, playing without O'Neill and playmaker Brian McGuigan, Tyrone were not quite the same. Kevin Hughes lost the midfield exchanges. Philip Jordan was replaced. O'Neill came in for the last eight desperate minutes but could stop nothing. Mickey Harte played every card but he must have known this was not his day.
The teams were dead on their feet going into the last 10 minutes and the mistakes and poor shooting in that period meant the match fell short of being categorised as a classic. Meath failed to score for the last 16 minutes and yet held an iron grip on their four-point lead, with Tyrone bombing wides with increasing desperation.
A brave, almost poignant score from Owen Mulligan on 57 minutes and a late snap shot by Ryan Mellon kept the Northern lights flickering. But in truth, Tyrone were forced into errors of judgment they simply would not have made in their vintage years.
Meath looked forbiddingly sharp and eager. They tore into the favourites and by 20 minutes, it appeared as if they might eclipse Tyrone entirely. By then, Bray was picking the pocket of McMenamin, the best man-marker in the game and the size and ball skills of men like Caoimhin King, Shane O'Rourke and Brian Farrell threatened to overwhelm Tyrone.
Their football was direct and compelling and they built from the back with economy. On 21 minutes, two crisp passes from the impressive Nigel Crawford and Farrell put Peadar Byrne through and John Devine made a fine save. A goal here would have put Meath 1-7 to 0-3 ahead.
O'Rourke missed the 45, Dooher gobbled up the kick-out and sent Seán Cavanagh on one of those turbo-charged runs. Mark Ward chased back in vain as Cavanagh's thundering goal kept Tyrone in the championship. Early in the second half, Mulligan scored another, gathering Ger Cavlan's free off the post before firing home.
Conor Gormley was moved on to Bray and the pair engaged in a ferocious, elemental battle. Bray kept showing but he would not score again. The Tyrone defence was lion-hearted: they kept Meath to just three points in the second half.
Geraghty made the difference. He haunted Tyrone in 1996 and did so again yesterday, scoring a goal that will become one of the iconic images in the archives. Sweeping passes from Kevin Reilly and Farrell sent Geraghty through and as he came on to the ball, he was at full speed and running out of ground. With the Hill goal gaping and the ball suspended before him, Geraghty held his palms out like a man bringing bread and wine to the altar. Then he guided the ball over the head of goalkeeper John Devine.
It was a goal that would set Meath back on a familiar road. No wonder Geraghty didn't succeed in the election: no Irish politician has shown such lightness of touch in decades.
Meath play Cork now in the semi-final: another throwback to the days of hard knocks in the 1980s. "Yeah," chuckled Coyle. "But it is just great to be in a semi-final. I don't care who we are playing." That was always the Meath way, fearless and ready to take on the world.
MEATH: B Murphy; C McGuinness, D Fay, N McKeigue; C O'Connor, K Reilly, C King; M Ward (0-1), N Crawford (0-1); G Geraghty (1-2), A Moyles, P Byrne (0-1); S Bray (0-3), S O'Rourke (0-1), B Farrell (0-4, three free). Subs: S Kenny for Byrne (half-time), C McCarthy for O'Rourke (60 mins), C Ward for Bray (65 mins), S McGabhann for D Fay (67 mins).
TYRONE: J Devine; R McMenamin, J McMahon, D McCaul (0-1); D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh (1-0); B Dooher, R Mulgrew (0-2), R Mellon (0-1); C McCullagh (0-2, one free), G Cavlan (0-1), O Mulligan (1-1). Subs: E McGinley for Dooher (35 mins). T McGuigan for Hughes (55 mins), D Carlin for Jordan (59 mins); S O'Neill for Cavlan (61 mins).
YELLOW CARDS: Meath: P Byrne (12 mins), B Farrell (25 mins), M Ward (36 mins), G Geraghty (62 mins); Tyrone: None.
Referee: V Neary (Mayo).
