If the Fine Gael recruit 'stood' in Colm Coyle's dressing-room, he'd most likely still lose his deposit.

And neither should Graham Geraghty, as an elderly, unloved gentleman, have any major role to play in the future of the Meath senior football team. He's yesterday's misunderstood football star, today's misunderstood politician.

Yet, this very day, as the great washed and unwashed masses of Meath football folk stride, hands nervously rooted in their pockets, towards Croke Park they are very much thinking of the very man they would not vote for if he was the only footballer on a ballot paper choc-a-bloc with Meath hurlers.

They're talking about him all week long . . . 'If Graham can only do thisf and if Geraghty could do thatf!'

What they're really thinking about, and trying to visualise, are goals, glorious, goals. If Geraghty can give cause to or finish off a couple of goals, early on or at the death, then Meath can win this game and leave Dublin flat on their backs in the AllIreland qualifiers.

Mind you, it's always, in almost every conversation, a 'couple' of goals. The consensus in the county is that the shock value of an early goal or a late, late attacking movement beating Stephen Cluxton will not be enough this time to make all the difference between defeat and victory.

There are other things which Meath football supporters, and lots of old Meath footballers, are talking about. Sure there are. And one of the most deafening considerations is that Nigel Crawford simply must (for his own good standing, as well as the pride of the county) deal with Ciaran Whelan (right) . . . preferably by laying him out and not getting caught.

In case my old friend and sparring partner Luke Dempsey is reading the Tribune this morning, I must hasten to add thatf 'I, Liam Hayes, being of sound mind etc, etc, etcfam not encouraging any violent course of action.'

This morning, I'm only the messenger, the man who has been listening in on conversations, and the memory of Whelan 'whacking' Crawford while the opening credits were still rolling before the last Meath-Dublin episode two summers ago has been putting Meath blood back on the boil over the last few days.

So, the game plan today, if written by The Sopranos creator David Chase, would have Geraghty finishing the job or being the major accomplice to the game-winning acts, Crawford being the day's hero or anti-hero (take your pick), Brendan Murphy keeping a clean sheet goal-wise, and Darren Fay putting manners on Conal Keaney and anyone else who moves within the Meath '45'.

The Meath football team needs to get back to basics, and after a year of tomfoolery the county board appointed the right man to bring the team there. Colm Coyle, in his life, has not bothered himself with fears or favours. He doesn't court trappings or popularity, the limelight or easy friendships. He's solid, unforgiving and unsentimental, and he's definitely not the sort of team manager Luke Dempsey would ever care to talk football with in a dark alley.

(For those who are completely lost after my second, and last, reference to Luke Dempsey, can I explain that the Longford manager has these last seven days been bemoaning the over-physical nature and downright thuggery which has coursed its way through Gaelic football since Meath football resurrected itself 20 years ago this summer).

I like Luke and I think he's a good bloke and a great manager, and he has built a Longford team which plays a skilful brand of football, butf This 'BUT' has been coming from a long way back . . . the last thing Meath need, if they are to finally overpower Dublin this afternoon, is advice from Luke Dempsey and instructions on where they can buy 15 green and gold tutus.

If Meath are to beat Dublin, once more, the team and the men on the sideline will have to be utterly ruthless. They must plan, and think things through, and act everything out cold-bloodedly. Nobody has to get hurt. But only one team has to have any chance of winning this game!

Colm Coyle, you can bet, has therefore presented his lads with the same 'Rules of the Road' which applied though the first 10 years (1983-92) of Sean Boylan's reign. These 'Rules' were especially written for Meath teams with Dublin in mind, and they are:

1, Never allow Dublin to score a goal;

2, Never, ever, ever tackle, or try to dispossess or intercept, the Dublin goalkeeper (mark your man, and leave John O'Leary/Stephen Cluxton to run around in circles and become panicky and disorientated);

3, Never, ever allow a new Dublin 'hero' or 'find' to last 70 minutes on the field (preferably have him substituted by halftime or shortly after! );

4, Never, ever allow Hill 16 to have any reason to open its big mouth in the last 10 or 15 minutes of a game;

5, Never, ever allow a Dublin manager to survive 'Year Three' of his reign (preferably have him 'killed off ' by his own county board or people sometime between 'Year One' and 'Year Two').

Times have changed, of course, and some of these rules may not apply on this occasion. For starters, the Meath defence is the weakest portion of the entire team, and it will be surprising if Dublin do not score at least one goal. Equally, there are no 'heroes' or 'young bucks' whom all of Dublin is talking about, and expecting to make all the difference this afternoon Paul Caffrey must be as greatly disheartened as every last one of Dublin's 'summer army' that he has failed to discover any great talent over the last nine months. He is dicing with a new fullback in Ross McConnell out of necessity, and he can not have serious expectations that Diarmuid Connolly will lead Dublin on the scoreboard.

This leaves Dublin especially vulnerable in the months ahead. He's going into battle with the same team he built in 2006 and further back in 2005, and while this All-Ireland championship looks as wide-eyed and legless as any championship in living memory, Paul Caffrey has every reason to be worried. He's the last man whose shoes I'd like to have been wearing on the first day of summer.

In Leinster, and Leinster alone, he's possibly got to face two 'new' managers, Colm Coyle and Liam Kearns, who will have the Meath and Laois teams believing they are embarking on a whole new adventure in their footballing lives. History is history, and everything's up for grabs in the Meath and Laois dressingrooms at this moment in time.

In Meath's case, that means the amazing summer and the unbelievable growth which Sean Boylan's 1996 team experienced, could possibly be repeated. If this team gets its legs under it in Leinster . . .

and, specifically, if the defence can settle down and dig in around Darren Fay and Anthony Moyles . . . then it can outscore every other team in its path in 2007.

There is incredible scoring power in this Meath forward division. Stephen Bray, Brian Farrell (who misses out this afternoon through suspension, and will be greatly missed by the close of the 70 minutes) and Joe Sheridan, in addition to Graham Geraghty, can bury most teams if they receive enough good ball.

So, who's going to bury who in Croke Park in this Leinster quarter-final . . .

remember, for both teams, losing to the other would be a definitive act of burial, physically and psychologically. Defeat, in the 'head department', will be especially gruelling for either team to bear, but more so for The Dubs.

That's because, and this is the strange and quite amusing backdrop to this latest Dublin-Meath battle, neither team really rates the other as being a 'great Meath' or a 'great Dublin' football team.

Both camps see large weaknesses in one another. Dublin see a Meath defence which has not gelled (and which could be destroyed for pace down either wing. ), a midfield pairing which has still to prove itself as being more than just decent, and a half-forward line which is strong and hard-working but which remains make-shift. And the Meath view?

Meath, quite frankly, see a Dublin team and a Dublin team manager who could be backed into a corner fast enough. And, once there, Dublin will be in trouble.

To do that, Meath need Conal Keaney sucked into a tight, tiring, one-on-one contest, and they need Alan Brogan tracked down and man-marked, and doubleteamed and treble-teamed. Brogan, all on his own, and worryingly so for Paul Caffrey, is the heart and soul of this Dublin team. Keaney is their only genuinely feared 'hit-man'.

It remains to be seen who starts where? If Keaney and Brogan start out at 14 and 11, and play those shirts in a straight and honest manner we'd be in for a pulsating game, with both teams going for toe-to-toe right from the opening minute . . .

Keaney v's Fay, Brogan V's Moyles. If both of those contests were to materialise, and if they ended up all-even, then Meath might be in with a shout at winning.

Kevin Reilly offers a lot of physical strength and leadership qualities in the middle third of the field for Meath, and his presence there can act as the first line of defence for Colm Coyle.

Nobody on this occasion should doubt Meath and Dublin will slug it out, just like the good old days. It's sure to be one, long, physical, painful battle. In that sort of game, Dublin might pull through. Meath are going to need goals, and probably two of them, and this is where an unloved Graham Geraghty comes into the picture.

Meath will need him at his uniquely electrifying best for 20 minutes. Dublin need to have Paul Griffin on him when that time arrives. What happens then might determine exactly who win, and who loses . . . and loses almost everything this season in a single game of football.

Defeat to Meath is a terrifying thought for Dublin. Too terrifying to contemplate. Numbingly so, and that's why Meath just might win by a slim margin.

I'm expecting Dublin to be buried by one single point.