Inniskeen the venue for Meath v Louth but demand for tickets could exceed capacity

Not everyone will be happy with choice of Monaghan venue

Meath fans will have to make their way to the picturesque home of poet Patrick Kavanagh in Grattan Park, Inniskeen for their All-Ireland Series SFC opening tie with Louth.

Kavanagh, of course, wrote about the "stony grey soil" of his native land but Meath will be hoping they can reap a rich harvest there and chalk up a victory against the Wee County the weekend after next before they take on Monaghan and Kerry.

Inniskeen will be a 'home' fixture for Louth. Ardee currently hosts the Wee County's home league games. However, the venue is deemed not fit to stage a major championship game.

Louth's plans to build a new stadium in Dundalk have hit the buffers for the time being at least - leaving officials with no choice but to look outside the county for a ground to stage the Meath clash.

Louth played Cork in Navan last year but they are understandably not willing to play in the venue this time around.

Grattan Park currently has a capacity of 6,000 but it is understood that Croke Park officials will look at increasing the attendance to over 7,000.

However even that may not be enough to house all the fans who will want to attend the game - and there could be calls in the coming week to have the fixture changed to a bigger venue.

Louth are certain to give Meath a demanding, testing game - certainly if their performance against Dublin last Sunday in the Leinster final is anything to go by.

Instead of receiving the thumping many had expected, Louth gave Dublin a real fight and only ended up losing by four points, a long way from the 21-point shellacking they shipped the previous year against the same opposition.

Louth were undoubtedly well organised and they fought like tigers for every ball but Dublin were unable to whip up the kind of whirlwind they normally hit teams with at this time of the year.

Maybe the Dubs are not the force they once were? Far more likely scenario is that they are saving their best for later in the championship, timing their run.

Last February Meath inflicted a 1-11 to 1-9 defeat on the Wee County in the NFL Div 2 but Colm O'Rourke's side were behind by three points in the second-half before putting in a strong finish.

It's sure to be close once more at Inniskeen.