Topping the group will be the reward for a win
While next Sunday's NFL Div 2 North clash with Mayo in Castlebar may well be a nothing game in terms of advancing their promotion prospects, a rare victory over the Connacht side would be just the tonic for Meath ahead of a promotion play-off and a Leinster SFC quarter-final against either Longford or Carlow.
Because of the shortened pre-season and with games coming thick and fast Meath manager Andy McEntee will be torn between utilising his squad to give his fringe players an opportunity and maintaining a winning run that would be an ideal boost for what lies ahead.
McEntee revealed that the temptation is there to rotate his team for next Sunday's game, but he has laid the challenge firmly at his player's feet, insisting they must "put their hands up" at training if they are to secure a place in the starting 15 for the trip west.
Off the back of tough games against Westmeath and Down, McEntee might consider giving next Sunday off to key men like Donal Keogan, Bryan Menton and Cillian O'Sullivan, while Padraic Harnan, who has returned from a couple of long term injuries, might also benefit from the rest.
While taking those players out of the equation for next Sunday might be considered a risk, the replacements have proved themselves more than capable in recent weeks and players like Darragh Campion, Jason Scully, James Conlon, Brian Conlon and Fionn Reilly, if fit, will be chomping at the bit for their chance.
Mayo might also be tempted to make several changes for Meath's visit, but they will also be conscious of the fact that maintaining a winning run will be most beneficial and they know Meath will be no pushovers.
Aidan O'Shea remains Mayo's most notable absentee and after a slew of retirements in the summer manager James Horan has been forced to introduce some new blood - and to good effect.
While Cillian O'Connor remains the main scoring threat, Mayo have power all over the field with stand-in captain Paddy Durcan and rising Allstar defender Oisin Mullen as likely to pop up in attack as they are in defence.
Durcan kicked three points in the win over Westmeath and will need a lot of watching, but they have threats coming from everywhere as is evidenced by the fact that they had nine different scorers in the win over Westmeath.
When Mayo and Meath clashed in round three of NFL Div 1 last year Meath were very unfortunate to be edged out by a single point. Next Sunday's game will surely be a more high scoring game than the 2-5 to 1-9 clash in Navan last year and while the result will be irrelevant in the greater scheme of things maintaining a winning run could be crucial for both sides ambitions.