1. What do we know about Kildare and Meath?
Both Kildare and Meath come into today’s quarter-final relatively untested.
Kildare breezed past Louth in their quarter-final clash. The game was over as a contest within fifteen minutes, with Kildare finishing as 1-22 to 1-7 winners.
The Lilywhite’s young forward line looked clinical, and their defence was tight, but for a team like Kildare, where there’s very little between a number of the players, the win over Louth didn’t do Jason Ryan too many favours.
Meanwhile, Meath bagged seven goals in beating Carlow by 28 points. Barring a spirited spell in the opening ten minutes by Carlow, Meath strolled into the semi-final.
2. Can Meath cope with these injuries?
Mick O’Dowd’s team have been terrorised by injuries this year. Star forward Eamon Wallace and midfielder Conor Gillespie have both suffered cruciate ligament injuries, while Micky Newman, Bryan Menton and Eoghan Harrington are all major doubts for today’s semi-final.
Putting that into perspective, Meath could be without their main midfielder, their two most dangerous forwards and one of their top defenders. They have some great young players making the breakthrough this year, but will those injuries prove the difference?
3. Dublin simply unstoppable?
Dublin have won eight of the last ten Leinster titles, and within the Jim Gavin regime they look to only be getting stronger.
Furthermore, they’ve won three of the last five U21 All-Ireland titles. Their recent victories over Laois in the championship and Cork in the league semi-final demonstrate their ability to win games despite being outplayed for large amounts of them.
Central to that, of course, is their bench. They used 36 players during this year’s league, and their substitutes amassed nine points between them against Laois.
But as Meath showed in 2010, if you score goals against Dublin you have a chance – because they’ll certainly score plenty of them.
