MEATH...2-13 WICKLOW...1-8: The power struggle in Leinster may have become more general in recent years but yesterday in Croke Park, Wicklow found the old order as depressingly forbidding as ever.
They travelled to the city trying to turn a deaf ear to the whispers that Seán Boylan's was an empire crumbling. With half an hour left, leading by 1-06 to 0-07, they might have started believing the same. But when it was all over, nothing had changed. Beating the masters was still a puzzle to be solved.
For Meath, this was a low-key mission. They slunk onto the sunny field at Croke Park unaccustomed to providing the warm-up act on a double bill afternoon. In winning the game, they managed to post even more questions about themselves rather than provide any answers.
Connoisseurs from Westmeath and Offaly that arrived early to cast judgement on Meath's current state might well have been encouraged by signs of vulnerability.
This was not the ruthless Meath machine of earlier eras. Yesterday, it lacked the spine-tingling edge that characterised the vintage sides. There was no sense of the wolf pack about the defence. They just shaded midfield. There was no glittering jewel, no Geraghty or Murphy, up front. All of these things can be presented as further evidence of Meath's slow and irrevocable slide.
Or you could just ask, so what? Meath did not need to be good here yesterday. They racked up a decent score without impressing, Daithi Regan contributing half that total on his own. The placing of the boisterously athletic Charles McCarthy at centre-half forward promises interesting confrontations when Meath return for the rawer days that now await them. Trevor Giles supervised the ball flow without ever needing to take the game by the scruff of the neck. And although Darren Fay and company looked under threat at the back, Wicklow's front guard were ultimately blunted.
This was a poor game. There was a lazy feel to the first half, which Meath ended with a 0-7 to 0-4 advantage. That state of affairs must have pleased Wicklow, who apart from a fine midfield display from Breandán Ó Hannaidh and flashes of lethal intent from Tommy Gill, were forced to play second fiddle.
Wicklow found their most optimistic voice just after half-time, when they crowd, scattered thinly across the lower tiers of the ground, were tucking into their ice-cream cones. After managing just four points in the first half, they stunned Meath with 1-2 in four minutes. The goal originated from a sharply worked free by Gill and when the Wicklow forwards worked the ball through the casual Meath back line, substitute Dónal McGillacuddy used his palm to flick the ball to the net.
It was his first touch and it emboldened Wicklow: O'Gorman thumped home a point with another goal chance looming and then Gill tapped over a free to give Meath a two point advantage.
How Meath would have responded if this pattern of creative aggression could have continued we will never know. The map of the game was torn up when Wicklow's other substitute, Ciarán Clancy, was sent-off on a second yellow card after 47 minutes. He was on the field just 17 minutes in total.
Wicklow failed to score for 20 minutes after his exit and by then the game had ceased to be a contest. No team makes use of any conceded advantage as remorselessly as Meath. Suddenly, with their backs liberated they began pouring forwards in familiar waves. Evan Kelly banged home two quick points. Giles ventured forward to test his radar. Regan, heating up again, punished a mistake by Thomas Burke and broke the game with a killer goal finish on 55 minutes.
Two minutes later, John Cullinane and Regan combined to set up Donal Curtis with another goal chance. He took it. Just like that, a promising situation for Wicklow had been reduced to a rout.
It was a disillusioning beginning to their summer and end to another Leinster championship. For Meath, it marked their first win at Croke Park since they famously lectured Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2001. The team has changed radically since then and little that presented here will change the view that Boylan is going to have to concoct his most unlikely formula to date if Meath are to enjoy a long summer. They have lost - for the time being at least - the sheen of invincibility. But in patches here they were still recognisably Meath and that fact alone should make the rest nervous.
MEATH: D Gallagher: N McKeigue, D Fay, M O'Reilly; P Reynolds, T O'Connor, S McGabhann (0-1); N Crawford, A Moyles; N Kelly, C McCarthy (0-2), T Giles (0-1, 50); E Kelly (0-2), S McKeigue (0-1), D Regan (1-6, four frees). Subs: R Kealy for N McKeigue (35 mins, inj), D Curtis (1-0) for N Kelly (half-time), J Cullinane for A Moyles (50 mins), D Crimmins for E Kelly (mins), B Farrell for D Regan (65).
WICKLOW: R Hollingsworth; C Hyland, S Cushe, T Burke; C Davis, S Byrne, A Foley; B Sheehan, B Ó Hannaidh (0-1); T Harney, R Coffey, A Ellis (0-1); T Gill (0-4, two frees), T Hannon (0-1), W O'Gorman (0-1). Subs: C Clancy for B Sheehan (27 mins), D McGillacuddy (1-0) for Ellis (half-time), L Glynn for Hannon (47), D Ó Hannaidh for Harney (61).
Referee: J McKee (Armagh).
