It was supposed to be the Dublin manager talking about Leinster glory and All Ireland heartbreak. It would have been Pillar's thoughts on a game against Meath that made us remember just why we love football so much.

When we made a call nine days ago he answered and then obliged. "Sure call us back later, that will be no problem at all. Talk to you then."

For those who have ever spoken to Caffrey, you'll realise why this came as a surprise.

He is always an awkward phone call, hanging up before you thank him for the rejection. But soon it was Monday and as the calendar pages whittled past, we kept faith, even when he stopped returning calls and messages. But in the space of a week Caffrey managed to sum himself up better than any interview. He never makes things easy.

Earlier this year, after Dublin had thrown away the points against Mayo in Castlebar, the manager was wandering back towards the dressing room. As he prepared to enter, some locals began to taunt him. Instead of keeping his head down, he challenged them to come over and say it to his face. Imagine Mickey Harte or Joe Kernan or Pat O'Shea doing likewise.

But we shouldn't be overly surprised. This was just the latest in a line of incidents that has damaged the good work he has done. Before last year's All Ireland semi-final he shoulder-charged John Morrison in front of the Hill. The Mayo selector knew at that moment the opposition were rattled as did his players and he later confessed he and Mickey Moran realised breaking Dublin's routine was vital.

They were proved right. Not that Caffrey learned. Back on the big stage against Tyrone in the league this year, he did his side no favours when becoming involved in a row with Ryan McMenamin. The corner-back had already been dismissed for kicking out at Kevin Bonner and it was Caffrey's duty as manager to make the most of the numerical advantage in the closing stages of a tight game. Instead he couldn't stay quiet. Dublin again lost by a point.

But that has always been the case with Caffrey. He has consistently drawn attention to himself for all the wrong reasons and remained silent when it comes to his record as a manager, one that Dublin supporters craved when he took the job at the beginning of 2005. Before this year he had brought the county backto-back provincial crowns, something they had not managed since 1995. He had lost just two of 11 championship games and it had taken the match of the year in both campaigns to stop Dublin's march towards an All Ireland.

In fact, ever since his days as a selector in 2002 both Dublin and Armagh have been running parallel. That year Ray Cosgrove struck the post against the eventual All Ireland winners and Dublin were out but since then there has been little difference between the sides. For Oisin McConville there's Alan Brogan. For Paul McGrane there's Ciaran Whelan. It goes on.

There's also the respect of Kieran McGeeney who played under Caffrey at Na Fianna when he took the club to three county titles and a provincial crown. When Tyrone won the 2003 All Ireland, Peter Canavan paid tribute to Art McRory and Eugene McKenna.

McGeeney made no reference to the previous Armagh management team after he lifted Sam Maguire. He did, however, acknowledge Caffrey's contribution to his own development in his post-match interview. That's praise not easily won.

But compare Caffrey and Kernan. Both have had a team that consider themselves capable of winning All Irelands at the start of each season and both men have been bitterly close. But will they be remembered in the same way?

It's possible that Kernan will be remembered in a positive light and Caffrey will be remembered for his antics and for his confusion when it comes to digesting defeat.

Before the 2005 All Ireland quarter-final against Tyrone, Caffrey was still doing interviews. "There is no Pillar Caffrey way, " he said. "I really see myself as a figurehead for what is a very competent management team. My job is just to pull strings and delegate. I think it tends to be overstated what Paul Caffrey has done for Dublin or what Jack O'Connor has done for Kerry or what Joe Kernan has done for Armagh. Whoever wins the All Ireland automatically becomes the guru for the next couple of years and yet we all know there is no formula written that guarantees success.

What I've done is surrounded myself with a bunch of hardworking people who know their football. Brian Talty, who's a PE teacher, Paul Clarke, probably the fittest man who ever wore a Dublin jersey, Dave Billings, who's been involved with 41 championship-winning teams through his career, Ciaran Duff, Ski Wade. And the lines of communication are always open between us."

Therein lies the rub. When failure comes Dublin's way, and it has been very rare during Caffrey's reign despite the unfair criticism emanating from not reaching an All Ireland final, nobody knows who to turn to. After the defeat to Mayo last year the Dublin team were left to think about the opportunity lost for a couple of days. Alan Brogan later let a shaft of light shine on the process that followed.

"Straight after that we didn't have any big discussions about what went wrong. There was a lot of emotion in the dressing room and it was left alone.

People thought about it over the days afterwards and then we came together when heads were in some frame of mind for it and we went back over all that. In fairness to our management they are excellent facilitators and they gave us every chance to go through things and left it to us to find the reasons why it went wrong." The problem is they were never sure of what went wrong and still aren't. Neither was Caffrey. In his programme notes before the Tyrone league game this season he wrote: "Everyone has a theory and none of them are relevant. It makes great bar stool talk." And that was it. Was this bizarre quote his only sentiment on the game? If he had no idea what the problem was, how could there be any solution?

It might be a little early to talk about the end of Paul Caffrey. Given his record in Leinster, his side will win today and they should go on and pick up a third Leinster title under him, a brilliant achievement by a very talented manager. But it's unlikely Dublin will win an All Ireland this year and only that will keep him in the job.

Ironically, it's a posting that Brian Mullins looked likely to get when Tommy Lyons walked but part of the problem was Mullins' relationship with the media and the fact he wanted to hire a PR person.

We weren't to know it then, but it was Caffrey who could have done with someone to take care of his public image.

His achievement with Dublin has been impressive and there's been no end to the entertainment. Sadly though, Caffrey won't be remembered for that when the axe does fall.

MEATH CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DUBLIN'S FULL-HOUSE BLUES LEINSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL REPLAY DUBLIN v MEATH Croke Park, 4.15 Referee P McEnaney (Monaghan) Live, RTE One, 3.45

Man, it's tempting to go for Meath here. Dublin have dirtied their bib so often now that backing them has moved beyond taking a punt on their mood and has settled on an altogether duller premise.

Namely, that although these are occasionally fine players in an occasionally fine team, the possibility exists that they're not to be taken as seriously as we might have presumed.

Like Dylan might have said, how many leads can a team cough up before you can say that they're ill? In the drawn game, they even managed to do it twice. And worse, to do it quickly. The five-point margin that stood in the 19th minute was down to one by the 25th.

Another that stood in the 50th minute had completely evaporated by the 62nd. For a side that places so much store in having Croker rocking and getting on a roll, they're alarmingly prone to finding themselves on the receiving end of barrages of punches at times.

It might do them no harm to find a lace to tie here and there or a wink-to-the-physio calf strain to take the needle back out of the red. Because for all that they make every effort to harness the crowd's energy and aggression in Croke Park . . . it's clearly what the pre-match march to The Hill is about . . . the evidence of the last couple of years seems to point to there being something in Tommy Lyons' contention that playing in the big house is a disadvantage to Dublin.

Take Mossy Quinn, a man who has proven time and again that he's a tip-top free-taker. He's won or saved last-kick games with difficult frees in front of full houses before and he'll do so again. Yet, the life seemed to drain right out of him after a missed 45 into the Hill the last day. And without his frees, his contribution can often be decidedly peripheral. Worse, the easy line resurfaces about Dublin not having a free-taker.

That it simply isn't true doesn't lessen the effect.

Jayo hasn't been named in the side here but we'll see him at some stage, and maybe even from the start. If his facility for calm, for playing the right pass at the right time and not panicking over his options can rub off on the rest of the squad, then maybe they can relax and play the football nobody doubts they have in them somewhere.

But on all the evidence so far on a direct line from last August and the meltdown against Mayo, that's a pretty big 'if'.

Hang it. Meath.

Verdict Meath by two DUBLIN S Cluxton; D Henry, R McConnell, P Griffin; P Casey, B Cullen, B Cahill; D Magee, C Whelan; C Moran, S Ryan, D Connolly; A Brogan, C Keaney, T Quinn MEATH B Murphy; E Harrington, D Fay, N McKeigue; S Kenny, A Moyles, C King; M Ward, N Crawford; G Geraghty, K Reilly, P Byrne; S Bray, J Sheridan, B Farrell