Former Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice was on Friday’s OTB AM and spoke about Meath’s chances of beating Dublin.
The Royals go into Sunday’s Leinster Final as massive underdogs but have been in good form in both this year’s League and the Championship so far.
“Look I don’t think any of us are expecting Meath to win, it would be the shock of the century really if they did.
“Meath obviously themselves will be believing they can win the game but from everyone else's perspective if they can stay in the game as long as possible and stay as competitive as long as possible, it’ll make it interesting,” Fitzmaurice said.
Fitzmaurice said that Kildare’s performance in the 2017 Leinster Final in which they were reasonably competitive with Dublin should give Meath hope, but that anything other than a comfortable Dublin victory was unlikely.
“Certainly if they get to half time and it’s still a game and Dublin aren’t out of sight at that stage, it’ll be good.
“Meath are coming with a good bit of confidence. Again, conditioning-wise they seem to have progressed a good bit this year, so it should be an interesting game,” Fitzmaurice said.
Mayo are still dangerous
Fitzmaurice also touched on the disappointing performances of Mayo and Tyrone in this year’s Championship but wasn’t writing either side off yet.
“I think Mayo were in a situation where they thought they were further down the line than they were, that they were overconfident almost coming into the Connacht Championship.”
“They had that bit of a setback but I actually think they’re more dangerous now than they would have been had they come through the Connacht Championship,” Fitzmaurice said.
Mayo won the League earlier this year, beating Kerry by 3-11 to 2-10 in the Division 1 Final. While it was certainly a good achievement, Fitzmaurice said that Kerry’s 2017 League title didn’t do much for them in the long run.
“I think the big thing for us in 2017 was beating Dublin in Croke Park more so than winning the League Final... I don’t really think it impacted us in the Championship that year.
“At the end of the day the league is the league and you want to win the league but at the end of the day it's all about the Championship,” Fitzmaurice explained.
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