What goes on in the dressingroom usually stays there but when a Meath player yelps "bring on the f**king Dubs!" as he trots in through the door, well, lets just call it a statement of intent.

They certainly cannot be accused of taking their eye off the next task after this convincing dismantling of a flat Kildare.

Its not Meath's fault but this result was more a reflection of how bad Kildare performed rather than signalling the return of the Royal dynasty.

With manager Colm Coyle confined to the stand for another few weeks selector Dudley Farrell will again hold the line against their fiercest rivals in the Leinster quarter-final on June 3rd. He preached small steps yesterday.

"We are not going to get carried away. Meath were down. Now we're building but nothing is won yet. It's another step towards rebuilding."

Farrell is a forthcoming, no-nonsense type of character. This was most apparent in his refusal to shy away from the straight red card administered to his son, Brian, on 57 minutes.

"The sending off . . . I thought rightly so. I thought he did hit and I thought he had to go. I would have no queries about that whatsoever.

"They knuckled down well. When we were in Portugal we talked about if we lost a man what we were going to do. The one question we all were asking was if a player is sent off which team dictates the extra man. We had a lot of debates about that.

"As we saw when they had the extra man it didn't look like they had it. At least, the trip to Portugal, we got something out of it. Not just a tan."

What about the renewal of the Dublin v Meath collision that now follows?

"We've no fear. We've nothing to lose going in against the Dubs."

"Yeah a nice handy one next for us," joked one of the elder statesmen, Nigel Crawford. "It's going to be a huge challenge. It's been a few years since we beat them and they are one of the favourites for Leinster and the All-Ireland. We are really looking forward to it. It is a great prize to play Dublin at Croke Park in front of 80,000 people. We'll be delighted to be there for it."

Things were understandably glum a couple of yards down the hall. One veteran reporter couldn't remember a worse performance from Kildare in Croke Park.

Manager John Crofton remained calm when facing the media inquisition. (These group interviews can descend into ugliness but this particular encounter was devoid of any animosity, which is a credit to Crofton's poise).

The obvious question is usually the best. Seven weeks until the qualifiers. What do you do now John?

"Well, we have time. We don't have any culture or tradition in the qualifiers. We have never really done well in the backdoor so we have to get that right. The players will go off for a week and can think about it themselves. We didn't come anywhere near the pace and intensity we showed during the latter stages of the league."

Crofton didn't believe the absence of injured midfielders Dermot Earley and Killian Brennan had a significant bearing on the outcome. However, he did concede they missed their leadership qualities.

Will Earley be back in seven weeks?

"I don't know. He sees the specialist this week."

They certainly need him.