Royals should fear Dubs’ deadly duo

DUBLIN legend Cian O’Sullivan suggested this week that the DublinMeath rivalry is not what it used to be. He is not wrong. Since Meath’s last success in the fixture, their average losing margin is running at 13 points a game, which feels to me like where the betting handicap margin should be.

True, Meath made a better fist of it last year when they lost by six points which, allied to Dublin’s spring troubles, should have allowed some heat to return to this fixture.

But the reality is that Meath regressed in the Allianz League and it is likely that Dublin simply rested in spring.

I would read very little into Dublin’s mauling of Wexford – the teams are worlds apart – other than from the performances of Brian Fenton and Con O’Callaghan (left).

Fenton looked like a player hurting from suggestions his game was in decline and it should concern the rest of the country if he is prodded into life, such is his class.

O’Callaghan’s return merely confirmed his rude health along with the sense that the few months spent parked up might not have been the worst thing for a player who had been on a frantic hamster wheel so early in his career.

There are all kinds of reasons why they will win today, but watching that pair in full flight will remind everyone that Dublin have not gone away, you know.