Kerry next up in Navan
Do or die, win or bust. Frame it in whatever you you wish, but for the Meath hurlers Saturday's assignment against Kerry in the Joe McDonagh Cup boils down to one simple objective. Victory by a substantial amount.
Following their defeat by Down last Saturday nothing else will do for Nick Weir and his troops if they want to sustain any ambitions of achieving something really significant in the competition.
While they are likely to run the Kingdom close, that win they need so badly is unlikely to be achieved.
Perhaps in one sense this is just the kind of scenario Meath need. No ambiguities. No ifs and buts and maybes.
Their objective is as clear as day, but knowing what you have to do and actually going about doing just that are two very different commodities.
Meath will be going into the game with considerable grounds for optimism.
Nick Weir and his players can point to the fact that they ran Kerry very close in their league encounter in Tralee in last May, with the home side somewhat fortunate to emerge with a 1-24 to 0-24 victory.
The overall performance that day was one of the most encouraging aspects of Meath's league campaign.
A lacklustre start was to eventually undermine the Meath cause, but they recovered from that shaky beginning to dominate the game for lengthy spells.
Jack Regan scored 12 points on that occasion, nine from frees, some of them excellent efforts from distance.
The Kiltale man is central to Meath's ambitions, with his free-taking ability and general play.
While garnering scores from any frees Meath earn will be a vital part of the strategy, equally important will be the ability to NOT give away frees.
This week Nick Weir will be impressing on the players the importance of not gift-wrapping scores to opponents as they did against Down. Discipline will be his mantra.
Meath will be looking to reproduce on Saturday the kind of fast-paced, quick-passing, skilful hurling they served up for a spell in the second-half of the Down game.
It was impressive stuff, the running, the passing, the striking. There just wasn't enough of it.
Kerry go into the game having already defeated Down (2-24 to 1-21), the big scoreline chalked up hinting at the kind of power they carry in their forward division. Shane Nolan, Mikey Boyle, Cian Hussey and of course the outstanding Shane Conway are just some of the talented players they can look towards to help them over the line.
Meath need the victory - badly. However, Kerry look poised to make it two wins from two and that will send Meath into a relegation play-off with a possible return to the Tier 3 HC Christy Ring Cup for 2022.