Green zone too hot for Dubs

The green zone proved to be a very hostile place for Dublin on Sunday as Meath bombarded the five-in-a-row Leinster SFC champions into submission and extinguished their provincial regime front of more than 60,000 supporters. Having ruled Leinster with a dictatorial-like reign since 2004, Dublin were emphatically swept off the throne by a Meath side that stomped all over a once feared foe with ruthless efficiency. A New World Order is taking over Leinster and on Sunday 11th July Meath and Louth will take centre stage for only the third time - the first since the Royals claimed a 1-6 to 0-8 provincial final victory in 1952. The prospect of the mouthwatering Leinster SFC final has ignited a great buzz in the north-east. Already, revenge for 2006 and 2002 is on the Louth agenda. Their fade-out in Croke Park four years ago still rankles, but the heartbreaking loss in the All-Ireland qualifiers in 2002 hurts more than most. On that glorious summer evening at Pairc Tailteann, Graham Geraghty stunned the huge Louth crowd with a late, late goal to book Meath's place in the next round of qualifiers. All those memories will be consigned to the bin on Sunday week. Fresh banter and friendly rivalry has arisen, but don't expect banter or friendliness to come into the equation when the teams meet in the final. After the dust settled on last weekend's heroics, both managers assessed their wounded troops and for the most part clean bills of health were reported. Against Dublin, Meath welcomed their captain and only current Leinster player with an All-Ireland medal, Nigel Crawford back to action. Kevin Reilly continued his rehabilitation with an excellent performance while Anthony Moyles, Mark Ward and Graham Reilly showed no ill-effects of previous knocks. For so long Louth have been viewed as Meath's poorer neighbours, but they will be keener than ever to put one over the Royals. Meath will have to be wary of complacency. If Meath learned anything from 2001 they will know that they can't go into a game following a comfortable victory believing they have a divine right to victory. They will have to battle and this Meath side are good enough to end a nine-year drought without a Leinster SFC crown to wear.