‘I’m blue in the face having this conversation around the Leinster championship’

Last Sunday saw Meath fall to another heavy against Dublin in the LeinsterSFC as the Dubs look set to claim their 14th Delaney Cup in a row, writes Tom Gannon.

In years gone by the focus after similar Dublin drummings would have been on either their dominance or Meath's inability to compete.

While both of those rang true once again in this year's clash, the most disappointing element of Sunday's contest was not what happened on the hollowed turf of Croke Park but rather the hoards of empty seats that surrounded it.

From a crowd perspective, this felt like the worst atmosphere at a Dublin-Meath championship game, possibly ever. The seagulls circling the top levels of Croke Park made more of a ruckus than Hill 16 did. After Roy Keane made that famous decision to leave the Ireland camp at the 2002 World Cup, Niall Quinn said that a younger member of the squad asked him "is this what World Cups are about?".

It is very easy to imagine younger members of the Meath panel, of which there were plenty, approaching someone like Donal Keogan with a similar question... 'Is this what Meath-Dublin games are about?'.

There were a lot of young Meath players experiencing their first-ever championship clash with Dublin on Sunday and their expectations of what playing the Dubs in the Leinster Championship is like were a million miles away from being met. The atmosphere at Croke Park was dead and buried six feet under a long time before Dublin pulled away from Meath on the scoreboard in the final quarter..

Similar reports of a low attendance in Portlaoise at the other games in Leinster suggest that this may not be a Dublin-Meath issue. The root cause of this lack of interest in Leinster championship fixtures may very well be the current structure of the Leinster championship. That theory was supported by Dublin manager Dessie Farrell in his post-match press conference.

"I just think the trajectory of the season is wrong. We have come from a decent enough league campaign that seems to capture the imagination of GAA people. Then we move into the Leinster championship, and apart from the obvious outlier, I think everyone else is mundane enough at this stage. Just look at the crowd today. It is time for a proper review of the competition's structure and I've been saying that for a few years" said Farrell.

"I've read or heard commentary around the idea of running the Leinster championship as stand-alone competitions before the league. That is an option. I'm blue in the face having this conversation around the Leinster championship. Nothing has changed and probably won't in the immediate future"

It may be unlikely that we see any changes to the Leinster championship any time soon. However, when you look at the various invested parties, fans, players, management teams, media outlets, Leinster GAA, and the GAA themselves, it is hard to pick out any one group that is benefitting from the current state of the Leinster Championship.

Farrell was also quizzed about the challenge his side got from Meath and while the Dublin boss wasn't surprised with his side's victory he was impressed with Meath and believes that the future is bright for the Royals.

"They're a young team. When we were patchy at times, a lot of that was probably down to Meath, and you could give them credit," said the Dublin manager.

"They pushed up the press, they fought hard, they didn't take a backward step in some of the exchanges as well, which was very typical of that old Meath spirit.

"They're a young team, they're building. Sometimes you don't know what to expect in that situation. When a team that has nothing to lose they can be very dangerous. They had plenty of legs and were very athletic, they did show some of that today. Obviously we have plenty of experience in our mix that they might not have the same breadth of experience within their squad.

"They're definitely getting better and they will improve as this season goes on. When they get more tougher games in the qualifier series that will stand to them an awful lot," concluded the Dublin manager.