AND so, they'll meet again, those two old buddies, Cork and Meath, after all these years. Yesterday Colm Coyle's side joined Billy Morgan's in disposing of a provincial champion, albeit with a lot more flair and class. There's going to be at least one backdoor team in this year's All Ireland final and on the evidence of what we saw in Croke Park yesterday and Portlaoise two weeks ago, that's going to be Meath.

For Tyrone it was like Mayo and 2004 all over again, as again their fatigue and injuries were exploited by a fresh, fearless, expansive team.

While a Meath half-back could look up and see O'Rourke, Bray and Farrell inside, his Tyrone equivalent had Ger Cavlan, a natural half-forward, or the industrious but diminutive Collie McCullagh to hit;

Canavan and O'Neill it was not.

It's often forgotten now after all the bad blood and bandages it produced but that notorious 1996 All Ireland semi-final between these counties was a cracking game of football, with the first half particularly spellbinding. For the 52,300 people present, the opening 35 minutes were just as entertaining here.

In contrast to the dirge that was offered up in the earlier quarter-final, here we had backs who could play ball into forwards and forwards who could score. Both teams had different ways of doing it in a fascinating clash of styles;

Meath with their direct 'get it into the D as quick as you can' approach and Tyrone with their patient, 'the ball is gold' policy.

If any team was equipped to take down Tyrone, it was Meath with their ball-winning and free-scoring forwards, and from the start the Tyrone defence was in all kinds of bother. Stephen Bray and Brian Farrell each had a couple of points within the opening 20 minutes, Shane O'Rourke pointed a fine effort, while on the wings they had Graham Geraghty and Peader Byrne cutting through as well as take their score from range, while amidst them all, Anthony Moyles on the 40 was hitting good diagonal ball.

By the 20-minute mark Mickey Harte had to reshuffle his defence. Ryan McMenamin was moved off Stephen Bray and out onto Moyles with Conor Gormley . . . one again . . .switching back into the fullback line.

Up front, little was happening for Tyrone either.

Brian Dooher was clearly hampered by that leg injury, Ryan Mellon was anonymous, while nothing was going right for Owen Mulligan. In the opening two minutes he had a straightforward free come back off the upright, from play then he had two shots sail wide and drop short, and on one occasion, had a simple low ball played into him go straight through his hands before falling to the ground.

The good news for Tyrone was that Mulligan's Cookstown clubmate Raymond Mulgrew was performing, notching two of Tyrone's opening three points.

And then, in the 22nd minute, they got a lifeline.

With Meath 0-7 to 0-3 up, Byrne had a chance to put Meath out of sight when he was put through on goal by a deftly-judged foot pass from Farrell. Byrne's shot though came off the advancing John Devine's knee and out wide.

Brian Dooher then latched onto the breaking ball from Devine's kickout and passed off to Sean Cavanagh.

Cavanagh then went on one of his trademark runs before declining his trademark option of fisting or kicking his point, instead electing to blast to the net. Though it was not quite a replica of Mulligan's immortal goal from '05 . . . it didn't have enough dummies and shimmies for that . . . it was still a stunning effort.

Meath's response though was as emphatic as it was impressive, reeling off three quick points. Though some of them were the result of referee Vincent Neary's tendency to incorrectly deem Tyrone's legitimate swarm defence a foul, Tyrone themselves were the fortunate ones after a Collie McCullagh free to be trailing by only two points, 0-10 to 1-5, at the break.

Within two minutes of the restart they enjoyed even more luck. A Ger Cavlan free, from similar range to the match-winning effort against Fermanagh, came back off the upright, straight into the path of Mulligan, and this time his finish was exemplary.

He would continue to struggle with his game though, shooting two wides in the next two minutes, while by now his team were without their spiritual leader, Dooher, who had to limp off five minutes before half-time. In contrast, Meath's two survivors from that '96 epic were to play key roles. At full-back, Darren Fay was colossal, while in the 45th minute the other one put Meath into a three-point lead.

Kevin Reilly bombed in a high ball, Shane O'Rourke once again was out in front before slipping the ball into the onrunning Geraghty. Most mortals would have caught the ball and looked to round Devine but instead Geraghty ingeniously opted to palm it over the advancing goalkeeper.

Tyrone would not lie down.

Stephen O'Neill was brought on, and in the final minutes they would bombard the Meath goalmouth but they would be kept at bay.

MEATH B Murphy; C McGuinness, D Fay, N McKeigue; C O'Connor, K Reilly, C King; M Ward (0-1), N Crawford (0-1); G Geraghty (12), A Moyles, P Byrne (0-1); S Bray (0-3), S O'Rourke (0-1), B Farrell (0-4, 0-3 frees) Subs S Kenny for Byrne h-t; C McCarthy for O'Rourke, 61 mins; C Ward for Bray, 67 mins; S McGabhann for Fay, 68 mins TYRONE J Devine; R McMenamin, J McMahon, D McCaul (0-1); D Harte, C Gormley, P Jordan; K Hughes, S Cavanagh (10); B Dooher, R Mulgrew (0-2), R Mellon (0-1); C McCullagh (0-2, 0-1 free), G Cavlan (0-1), O Mulligan (1-1) Subs E McGinley for Dooher, 35 mins; T McGuigan for Hughes, 53 mins; D Carlin for Jordan, 57 mins; S O'Neill for Cavlan, 63 mins Referee V Neary (Mayo)