UNDER 21 players are all the rage in this year's senior championship, and the age group's All Ireland semi final replay tomorrow will decide who will oppose Kerry in the final after the holder's late deliverance against Galway last week.
Cavan and Meath meet at Hyde, Park after the draw of three weeks ago. Meath's team is largely built on the 1993 minors who lost the All Ireland final to Cork (strangely, that unsuccessful side has contributed more to the current seniors than the triumphant predecessors of 1992 and 90).
Cavan have attracted a certain amount of attention by training their under 21s together with the seniors under the tutelage of senior county manager Martin McHugh. They were brought together in January, and although sharp looking three weeks ago, would have presumably preferred to have avoided the necessity of another match - although it is preferable to the alternative which faced them as Roy Brennan addressed that injury time free in the drawn match.
Meath, for their part, are hardly disadvantaged on the score of experience they have no less than five of the team that has reached the county's first All Ireland senior final in five years. After a certain amount of poker playing by the Meath selectors during the week, all live - Mark O'Reilly, Darren Fay and the injured trio, Trevor Giles, Paddy Reynolds and Barry Callaghan will play.
Giles's role is crucial for Meath. Deployed at midfield in the sort of central position that surely represents his inter county future, his influence in the drawn match extended from being the team's joint top scorer, with four points, to performing peace keeping duties when matters threatened to get out of hand in the middle the first half.
For whatever reason, not all the senior players made the same sort of impression seniors don't always at this grade and Cavan will hoping that thoughts of the third Sunday of next month, play a role in dulling the intensity of those same players.
Cavan's own forwards played well, with Anthony Forde scoring a spectacular goal at just the right time, early in the second half to prevent the danger of them being forced into an all out attacking game. Forde's tactic of bringing Darren Fay out the pitch left Michael Graham deep inside and he caused problems.
Ollie Murphy won a reasonable amount of ball up front for Meath, but Barry Callaghan was a sluggish version, of the player who made such an impact last weekend. Meath's midfield of Giles and Stephen O'Rourke kept a good supply coming from the middle until Dermot McCabe and Tom Farrelly, in particular, recovered themselves for the second half and helped Cavan to establish an edge in the sector.
There's little enough between the sides. In the drawn game Meath's superiority came in short bursts - an early goal, a hyperproductive run up to half time whereas Cavan's performance was more measured.
After a taxing campaign in Ulster, the Northern champions are fairly confident in themselves and after rescuing the draw will have shed any inhibitions about playing Meath.
The ultimate question comes down to the following consideration. Will a fit and well prepared Cavan be playing a Meath team that lacks focus with the impending senior final or one that is tired up after the exploits of last week? The feeling here is that it will be the latter and that Meath will move themselves into position for a crack at the senior/under 21 double, which hasn't been achieved since Cork managed it seven years ago.
