SO, this wonderful rollercoaster of a summer for Meath continues. For the first time since they lost to yesterday's opposition in the 2001 All Ireland final, they're back in an All Ireland quarter-final, and while it was the prodigal son that's Graham Geraghty who was cheered off the field by the loyal Royal following, this was the day when a new star forward. Stephen Bray was deserving of such a coronation.

This was a pulsating game, laced with intensity, flair and a fair bit of nostalgia. In all likelihood we'll never see some of this Galway team again.

Peter Ford waited until the day of the game to reveal his side and it was obvious why.

Though some heads were always going to roll in the wake of the Connacht final, how big those heads were was something he didn't want publicised until the last possible moment. Declan Meehan was dropped. Derek Savage was dropped. And Padraic Joyce was dropped. Instead Galway went back to the future, with Matthew Clancy coming in for Savage at wing-forward, and the full-forward line consisting of those three under-21 All Ireland winners in the fullforward line, with Michael Meehan and Nicky Joyce and Sean Armstrong.

And so, instead of all those old reliable Meath and Galway double acts of Joyce and Savage or Geraghty and Murphy or even Sheridan and Regan, the kids finally had the stage to themselves. Some of them, like Michael Meehan, were slow to avail of it. Others were not. Brian Farrell notched Meath's opening two points, the second a clever fisted effort, and from the resultant kickout, Nigel Crawford thundered into the air to field beautifully and feed Shane O'Rourke, the teenaged son of Colm, for a lovely point to give Meath the lead.

At the other end, Clancy was on target with a nice point with the outside of the boot while Nicky Joyce with his incisive, blistering runs took the Meath defence for another three points from play.

The star and story of that first half though was Stephen Bray. Midway through the half, Kevin Reilly took his time about a free around midfield but the delay was worth it as he sliced it out to the opposite wing for Bray to run onto, turn and point nicely off his left.

Then, in the 25th minute, he latched onto a clearance which Diarmuid Burke could only deflect with his hand, and the Navan O'Mahony's man duly dispatched to the net.

A minute later he should have had another, been put straight through, but instead of pulling the trigger again, elected to fist across goal to O'Rourke. Problem was, poor Shane wasn't there, having slipped a split-second earlier.

It didn't matter. Within another minute Bray had atoned for it, as O'Rourke again roamed out the field to leave space for the Meath half-back line to pump it into Bray, and again he skinned Damien Burke to drill past Paul Doherty. That made the scoreboard read 2-4 to 0-4 and the third official's board reading '4' as Burke was called ashore to be replaced by Declan Meehan.

A couple of Joyce points reduced Meath's lead to four, but then as the half entered injury-time, Meath reeled off a couple more wonder scores, this time from unlikely sources, Mark Ward and Anthony Moyles curling over from acute angles to leave it 26 to 0-6 at the break.

Galway started the second half with intent, and Michael Meehan in particular. Within five minutes of the restart, he'd drilled over a 45 earned a free for Nicky Joyce to tap over and thumped over a fine point from play. The temperature was further raised moments later when a couple of old, big names joined the fray, Padraic Joyce and Graham Geraghty replacing Ja Fallon and Peter Curran. Bray continued to electrify the place any time he was on the ball, displaying a ball-winning and point-taking capacity reminiscent of Steven McDonnell.

But then Meehan took centre stage again, first blasting a penalty to the net in the 49th minute and then landing over a monstrous free either side of another Nicky Joyce point to leave it level, 2-9 to 1-12.

The pace would not drop.

The Meath half-forward line in particular continued to work relentlessly, forcing a couple of crucial turnovers, while inside, they continued to score too.

Geraghty conjured up one of the afternoon's biggest cheers with a trademark point and three consecutive frees from Farrell moved them 2-13 to 112 up entering the final minutes. And when Charles McCarthy marvellously thumped over a point within a minute of being brought on, it was all over for Galway.

GALWAY P Doherty; K Fitzgerald, F Hanley, D Burke; M Comer, D Blake, G Sice; B Cullinane, N Coleman; M Clancy (0-1), J Fallon, J Bergin; S Armstrong (0-3), M Meehan (1-5, 1-2 frees, one '65), N Joyce (0-5, one free) Subs D Meehan for Burke (28 mins), P Joyce for Fallon (40 mins), C Bane for Clancy (63 mins), P Geraghty for Cullinane (65 mins), D Savage for Bergin (66 mins) MEATH B Murphy; E Harrington, D Fay, N McKeigue; S Kenny, K Reilly, C King; M Ward (0-1), N Crawford; P Curran, A Moyles (0-1), P Byrne; S Bray (2-3), S O'Rourke (0-2), B Farrell (0-5, all frees) Subs S McGabhann for Harrington (inj, 15 mins), C McGuinness for Kenny (27 mins), G Geraghty (0-1) for Curran (42 mins), C O'Connor for McGabhann (54 mins), C McCarthy (0-1) for Byrne (69 mins) Referee M Deegan (Laois)