Ciaran Kilkenny: Meath are putting up big scores

While Sunday's Leinster SFC final (Croke Park, 4.0) opponents, Dublin and Meath, have not meet too often in the past few years plenty of the players in the frame this weekend are famililar with each other from their underage days.

Dublin and Meath clashed in both the 2012 Leinster MFC final and later that year in the All-Ireland decider, the previous year they had met in the Leinster final.

From those two years the following current Dublin seniors were involved in one or both encounters against the Royals - David Byrne, Eric Lowndes, Niall Scully, Conor McHugh, Cormac Costello, Robbie McDaid, John Small, Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion and Ciaran Kilkenny.

While for the Royals the likes of Shane Gallagher, Padraic Harnan, Seamus Lavin, Shane McEntee, Adam Flanagan, Cillian O'Sullivan, James McEntee, Barry Dardis and Bryan McMahon were involved in either 2011 or both 2011 and 2012 with the Meath minors and have featured in this summer's SFC campaign victories over Carlow (2-18 to 0-9) and Laois (3-13 to 0-11).

Ciaran Kilkenny is a 'veteran' of the Dublin minor team of 2011 (having also represented the county in 2010) and fondly recalls those minor days.

“In 2011 I was playing in the (Leinster) minor final. We played Meath in that minor final and it was a good game. A lot of those Meath players are in the senior panel at this stage.

“We’ve great respect for those guys and I would have played with a lot of them at college level as well since.

“To have two Dublin teams (minor and senior) playing, that day (Leinster finals 2011) was really special.

“As minor footballers you are going out and you playing, and knowing that your idols and your heroes are going to be playing in the game after that – that’s really cool.”

Looking ahead to this Sunday's senior meeting Ciaran says: “They (Meath) have been performing well and they are a Division 1 team now.

“They have been putting up serious performances in the last couple of games – putting up big scores so we are going to have to prepare really well for that game, and do the best we can in our preparation and hopefully we can put in a good performance against them in the final.”

Here we look back on the teams and scorers from the 2012 All-Ireland MFC final and 2011 Leinster MFC final meetings between the Dubs and the Royals.

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2012 ALL-IRELAND MFC FINAL

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23: Croke Park

DUBLIN 0-14 MEATH 1-5

SCORERS - Dublin: Cormac Costello 0-5 (0-4f), Shane Carthy 0-3 (0-3f), Niall Scully, Niall Walsh 0-2 each, Eric Lowndes, David Campbell 0-1 each. Meath: Fiachra Ward 1-2 (1-0 pen, 0-2f), James McEntee, Cillian O’Sullivan, Patrick Kennelly 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: Lorcan Molloy; Emile Mullan, David Byrne, Ross McGowan; Eric Lowndes, Conor Mullally, Maitias MacDonncha; Stephen Cunningham, Shane Carthy; Robbie Gaughan, Niall Scully, Niall Walsh; Conor McHugh, Cormac Costello, Gavin Burke. Subs: Shane Cunningham for Robbie Gaughan, Donal Gormley for Gavin Burke, David Campbell for Niall Walsh, Michael Deegan for Niall Scully.

MEATH: Robert Burlingham; Ruairí O Coileáin, Brian Power, Shane Gallagher; Declan Smyth, Pádraic Harnan (c), Seamus Lavin; Shane McEntee, Adam Flanagan; Cillian O’Sullivan, Jason Daly, James McEntee; Barry Dardis, Fiachra Ward, Stephan Coogan. Subs: Patrick Kennelly for Barry Dardis, Harry Rooney for Stephen Coogan, Conor Carton for Declan Smyth, Conor O’Brien for Jason Daly.

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2011 LEINSTER MFC FINAL

SUNDAY, JULY 10: Croke Park

DUBLIN 2-18 MEATH 1-11

SCORERS - Dublin: G Ivory 0-6 (0-1 '45'), C Costello, S Fulham 1-2 each, J McCaffrey, E O Conghaile, P Mannion, C Kilkenny (0-1f) 0-2 each. Meath: W McGrath 1-1, B McMahon 0-3 (0-2f), A Forde, C Finn, D Smith, N Shorthall (0-1f), C O'Sullivan, S Mattimoe, C Smith 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: R O’Hanlon; G Hannigan, R McDaid, R Real; E Lowndes, J Small, J McCaffrey; P O’Higgins, E Ó Conghaile; D Campbell, G Ivory, C Costello; S Fulham, P Mannion, C Kilkenny. Subs: S Carthy for Campbell (47), E Archibald for Fulham (57), E Boyne for Lowndes (57), R Noone for O Conghaile (60).

MEATH: R Burlingham; A Forde, B McConnon, O Fitzpatrick; C Finn, S Melia, D Smith; P Harnan, S McEntee; N Shorthall, B O’Brien, C O’Sullivan; B McMahon, C Smith, W McGrath. Subs: R Farrelly for C Smith (ht), S Mattimoe for N Shorthall (38), N Hannon for A Forde (38), O Sheridan for D Smith (47), S Sheridan for W McGrath (55).