Coyle gets set for Dublin

Friday April 18 2008
They have been the best of rivals in modern times, regularly attracting and thrilling 70,000-plus crowds at their championship encounters over the last two decades.
But Dublin and Meath are strange bedfellows when it comes to league football in that same time and when they meet on Sunday in Parnell Park it will be their first game at this level in 14 seasons.
Dublin were still punch drunk from another All-Ireland final flooring from an Ulster team a few weeks earlier, this time Down, when they gathered for their first match of the new season in Croke Park in October, 1994.
Meath, the reigning league champions at the time, prevailed and avenged their Leinster final defeat of just over two months earlier.
But since then one of Gaelic football's most compelling rivalries has, for the most part, been limited to championship encounters, with nine meetings between that 1994 afternoon and the quarter-final replay last June.
Sporadic
There have also been sporadic O'Byrne Cup meetings, most recently two years ago when Meath triumphed at Parnell Park.
Meath have had quite a nomadic relationship with the league since 1994 and have made regular forays into Division Two. In that time they have crossed swords with every other county in league football with the exception of Leitrim, Offaly and, of course, Dublin. Keeping them apart in Division One has been an opportunity lost for promoters of the league.
Not surprisingly, Sunday's tie at Parnell Park is expected to be a sell-out. For Meath and their manager Colm Coyle, it has presented an unexpected "gap in the door" that has provided a fleeting glance of Division One football again.
Because of the anomaly of the unplayed games with Cork, Meath can now force a play-off with Dublin if they can claim the points on Sunday. If Westmeath draw or win in Clones a three-way play-off could yet develop.
Coyle accepts that Monaghan and Westmeath, who have both lost to Cork in the division, will have cause to cry foul if they lose out on promotion to Dublin or Meath.
"They'd have a grievance, no doubt, no more than we had last February," he said.
It's not a scenario that Meath were expecting. Two weeks ago they were worried about the teams behind them, now they have their sights set on those ahead. Coyle will reserve judgment on how the league has been for his team until after Sunday.
"If we can beat Dublin we can consider it a good league, if we don't we can't say it has been. Nine points would be a good target," was his candid assessment.
Meath have only shown snatches of the form that helped them to wade their way through the qualifiers and into an All-Ireland semi-final last year, which has disappointed Coyle.
"I thought we played well against Armagh and in the second half against Cavan," he said. "But this is an opportunity, a good opportunity at that and a real test at the perfect time of year.
"We were talking about avoiding relegation a couple of weeks ago," he said.
Meath have conducted their league campaign against a backdrop of injuries to some key players and the withdrawal from the squad of others.
Last week Cormac McGuinness, who started last year's All-Ireland quarter-final and semi- final, withdrew while Niall McLoughlin and Charles McCarthy pulled out earlier in the season. But it is injuries to Brian Farrell, Anthony Moyles and Shane O'Rourke that Coyle has found most debilitating.
Farrell has returned to training after groin and hamstring injuries that have kept kept him out of action for the last six months. Young O'Rourke is plagued by the same ailment and is now likely to miss the opening round of the championship against Carlow, while Moyles has struggled to shake off a stomach muscle problem.
Sore
He hasn't been helped by a recent cycling accident when he was knocked from his bike by a car. "He was sore after that and it set him back somewhat," said Coyle.
Meath had lined up this week for some intense championship training on a running track in Navan, but those plans have had to be tailored a little to allow for Dublin's defeat at Crossmaglen last Sunday.
Coyle acknowledges that bringing Dublin to a second game in the league would trigger even more problems for championship preparations -- Meath are due to go to Portugal in early May for a training week. But the benefits will far outweigh any negatives.
"I don't think there could ever be a negative side to beating Dublin. They have everything to play for and now we have too. I'd take two games against Dublin any time if it comes to that," he said.