No love in the air as Meath set for Louth battle
NHL PREVIEW: Meath take on Louth this Saturday evening in Croke Park.
It will be a case of a return to the scene of the crime in Croke Park (5pm) for Meath and Louth on Saturday evening where the Royals will be hoping to avoid a St Valentine's Day massacre at the hands of monkeys who currently perch on their back.
The scars of last year's devastating NFL Div 2 loss to Louth in Inniskeen which denied Meath promotion to Div 1 and the crushing defeat in the Leinster SFC final in Croke Park still cut deep for Robbie Brennan's side, but off the back of a promising start to this new NFL Div 2 campaign Meath will be hoping to finally break the hoodoo Louth seem to have over them in recent years.
Apart from the narrow win over Louth this time two years ago when Mathew Costello's stunning goal was the decisive score, Meath have found wins over the Wee County hard to come by and those defeats in 2025 have been particularly spirit crushing.
The championship loss in Inniskeen in 2024 still causes plenty of sleepless nights as Craig Lennon's two-goal salvo still haunts Meath, but times are changing and the current trajectory looks very different for the respective camps.
While Louth failed to kick on from their first Leinster SFC title in 68 years, Meath embarked on a remarkable run to the All-Ireland semi-final that included sensational wins over eventual champions Kerry and then Galway in the quarter-final.
That run restored Meath's confidence in their own ability and while their pride did take a bit of a battering in the all-Ireland SFC semi-final loss to Donegal, the Royals have shown remarkable resilience top bounce back and start this year's NFL Div 2 campaign in fine style.
while Meath do have two wins from two outings, they must be careful not to get carried away.
Those wins came against a Derry side that hadn't won a competitive game in over 15 months, and in their two-point, last-gasp victory over a Cavan side that had looked like they had completed a smash-and-grab in Breffni Park.
There have been times in this year's league when Meath looked sensational, but there have also been occasions when they looked capable of being overrun.
Derry dominated the opening 20 minutes of the league opener in Croke Park at the end of January and it took a performance for the ages from Jack Flynn to inspire Meath to a magnificent recovery.
A week later Meath failed to apply sufficent bite after baring their teeth in a dominant opening half against Cavan and that allowed the Breffni men stay in the game and almost snatch victory before Flynn once again came up with a heroic intervention.
When they are good, Meath are very, very good. Seamus Lavin and Brian O'Halloran have excelled in defence, while Flynn at midfield has been a revelation. In attack Jordan Morris is setting the world alight with mesmeric displays, while James Conlon's impact off the bench has sent opponents into tail spins.
There is no doubting Meath are on an upward curve and with Louth showing several cracks in their heavy loss to Cork in Ardee in round two they look there for the taking.
Just like the Cavan game though, Meath need to be wary of formbooks flying out of windows in local derbies.
The men in red will love nothing more than causing more heartache for Meath on Valentine's day, but the love in the air for the Royals right now is strong and they look more than capable of maintaining their winning ways.