Meath 1-12 Westmeath 0-11Summer days and Meath are living it easy again. As hard and as fit and as hungry, and working those old tricks just when Westmeath tried everything to keep them quiet. So Croke Park has the perfect act for its grand reopening, with Meath now meeting Dublin in three weeks' time.
If the Leinster title is to find a new home this season then history will have to take a new course. Yesterday it just repeated itself.
History stays on hold for Westmeath, still without a championship win over their neighbours. For 30 minutes they matched them and then conceded a goal. It may not have been the defining score, yet they never quite recovered, and Meath took over.
After the relentless pace of that first half-hour it seemed unlikely either side could sustain it for 70 minutes. But Meath did. At no point in the second half did they look like losing, and the four-point victory in the end could easily have been twice that.
While defensively they grew tighter, up front the barrage was continuous. As the clock ticked out Meath more and more resembled the team that took Kerry apart last summer, rather than the one that collapsed in the All-Ireland final against Galway.
In the 20 years that Seán Boylan has stood on the sidelines there couldn't have been much more satisfaction. Afterwards he expressed relief but there was no hiding either the renewed enthusiasm that this performance has brought.
"The first round of the championship is always very difficult," he said, "and coming down here we honestly didn't know how we were going to go. Especially after the Kerry game in the league, which wasn't a good day and was our last hard test.
"Out there though the pace was phenomenal, and it was serious championship stuff the whole way. In fairness, it was a good performance, and I thought there were some great scores taken. Our guys did lift the ante, and in crucial areas we did do very well."
The goal just before half-time gave Meath some extra skates. After an opening half-hour where no more than a point separated the sides (and they were level five times) suddenly Meath went into the break 1-7 to 0-6 in front.
It was a typical Meath goal, bred from determination and hunger. Fergal Murray had possession in the Westmeath defence but his hesitancy to clear saw him robbed. So Donal Curtis shot the ball over to Ollie Murphy, and he directed it to Evan Kelly. With the goal now open the result was inevitable.
"Well the goal did give us some breathing space," said Boylan, "but with the history of Meath and Westmeath you felt maybe a couple of points down would be the better position to be in going in at half-time. But the lads worked hard all the way, and they were hungry for it.
"But what happened this weekend will have no bearing on the Dublin match and that's the beauty of this game. I'm delighted to be there though, and to have a go at it. But I know it will come down to the wire, and I'd say Tommy Lyons will be delighted when he hears this result."
From the defence up Meath were largely faultless. Darren Fay especially showed no signs of slackness after his lay-off through suspension, and in midfield Nigel Crawford and John Cullinane have a working relationship.
The real story though was up front. Trevor Giles as sharp as ever and Ollie Murphy not far off. Kelly and Donal Curtis ran tirelessly and Graham Geraghty would have ended up top scorer had he converted all his chances.
In contrast, the Westmeath half-forward line never gelled, and the free-taking of JP Casey was never going to see them through. Even their trusty midfield struggled, and the likes of Martin Flanagan and Dessie Dolan haven't been so quiet in a long time.
Manager Luke Dempsey, however, was a little annoyed at the nature of the goal. "How the referee missed the pull back on Fergal Murray is a mystery," he said. "That left a gap of four points, which is huge when you're trying to compete against a team of Meath's standard. If you're only one point down it's a totally different situation.
"But it's only hypothetical to say we could have changed the result because of that incident. It was a still an awesome second-half performance from Meath. They were fantastic around midfield, an area where I thought we would dominate, and they seemed to be hungrier to get the breaks. In that first half we kicked about four easy chances wide, or dropped them short. That's the difference between Meath and ourselves. We need to score every chance."
Even when Westmeath produced some decent play from the defence, it was either wasted by the forwards not holding onto it, or swarmed by Meath tackling. It looks as if Meath were the ones who have learned the harder lessons from last summer.
HOW THEY LINED OUT
MEATH: 1. C Sullivan; 2. M O'Reilly, 3. D Fay, 4. C Murphy; 5. P Shankey, 6. H Traynor, 7. P Reynolds; 8. N Crawford, 9. J Cullinane; 10. E Kelly, 11. T Giles, 12. N Nestor; 13. O Murphy, 14. G Geraghty, 15. D Curtis.
Subs: R Kealy for Murphy (59 mins), R Magee for Nestor (65 mins), A Kenny for Curtis (72 mins), A Moyles for Cullinane (72 mins).
Booked: G Geraghty (42 mins), E Kelly (46 mins).
WESTMEATH: 1. A Lennon; 19. D Brady, 3. D Mitchell, 4. F Murray; 5. B Morley, 6. P Conway, 7. J Keane; 8. R O'Connell, 9. D O'Shaughnessy; 10. S Colleary, 11. M Flanagan, 12. M Ennis; 13. F Wilson, 14. D Dolan, 15. JP Casey.
Subs: G Heavin for Colleary, inj (7 mins), D Gavin for O'Shaughnessy (55 mins), J Fallon for Wilson (56 mins), Wilson for Heavin (60 mins), D Heavin for Keane (70 mins).
Booked: P Conway (6 mins), R O'Connell (56 mins), D Mitchell (68 mins).
