We'll actually look the best of friends.

But, best friends forever?

I don't think so, even though in the last week two of my old football buddies have informed the country at large that the Meath and Cork football teams who, 20 years ago, fought and won and lost (and kicked and cried and bitched about one another), have fallen into one another's arms. It's a real, live GAA Love Story, according to Bernie Flynn and Jinksy Beggy but, honestly, I don't buy into that for one second.

The Meath and Cork football teams actually fought over four All Ireland finals in a 36-month period between September 1987 and September 1990. It wasn't a 'four-year war' at all! One of those finals was drawn. We won two of them. They won one. The two of us also played in a National League semi-final in the middle of all of this, which we also won. That made it a score of 3-1 in our favour, in case anyone is struggling with the maths.

When all of this ended, the Meath football team walked away convinced that the average Cork footballer was flaky in the head department, and pretty soft from the neck down. And, as you may guess, the Cork football team took off in the opposite direction, firmly of the opinion that the average Meath footballer had shit for brains, and also had the instinct and urges of a genuine muck savage.

Since then, we've all grown up, all 40 or 50 of us from both sides who played in those finals, and at least we don't liberally utter those opinions of one another any more. Thankfully! We're middle-aged men. We're in a cosy place when it comes to looking back . . . the defeats and the bad times don't seem so dreadful anymore and, mostly, in conversation, we cherry-pick victories and goals and big hits.

We've paid our respects in Cork when tragedy struck their team through the death of John Kerins at such a young age.

They've been to Meath golf outings and charity dos, and our lads have returned the compliment. And we've all shaken hands with their manager, Billy Morgan, who, by a distance of many miles, was public enemy number one in the Meath dressing room 20 years ago.

I'd imagine that I was the 'poster boy' in their dressing room, mainly because at the time I was the only member of the Meath team who had a grasp of the English language and worked as a sports journalist. Come to think of it, I'm still the only Meath footballer who knows his way around the English language!

Anyhow. . . at last, we're all grown up!

However, I bet you, and I bet Bernie and Jinksy especially, that if the balding, potbellied Meath veterans of 1987-90 were to sit down together and watch those four games, from the first whistle to the last, we'd be fierce, fierce close to secondguessing the respect we now hold for that old Cork football team (as gentlemen and footballers! ). And I wouldn't be surprised if they were even faster off the mark in removing our 'good guys' tag. Who knows?

All I know for sure is that most of the Meath team from that era of 20 years ago seldom qualify one another as best friends, never mind putting the Cork boys up in that prized category. And I say that two weeks before the annual Meath 1987-90 golf outing (which I've only attended twice over the last 20 years).

We were friends forever back then. But we're mostly strangers now, and that's how it is with most great football and hurling teams which, simply and quickly enough, grow old and fade away.

We're good for golf outings, and funerals. . . and I do funerals an awful lot better than I do golf outings!

But, today, thankfully we're alive and well and watching Meath and Cork get ready for an All Ireland semifinal which hardly anyone in the country . . . and not a sinner in either Meath or Cork . . . was expecting even a couple of weeks ago. Who knows what we'll be thinking, or saying, about one another if things get hot and heavy on the field a few hours from now?

Should things get hot? The young lads in green and gold and red and white have no interest whatsoever in what we did or didn't do 20 years ago, and they will probably be the calmest group of people in the entire stadium this afternoon. It's unlikely that skin and hair will be flying at any point during this semi-final. There's no bad blood between these two groups of footballers.

Both teams have their strengths and weaknesses, but are quite dissimilar in make-up. Meath have a questionable defence, good midfield and great forward division . . . whereas Cork have a great defence, good midfield (I don't go in for this business of rating Murphy and Kavanagh as Class-A midfielders), and a questionable forward division.

The two teams are also far apart in characteristics. Meath, as always, have the ability through their frantic, high-risk movement of the ball down the field to be the most exciting team in the country to watch. Cork, typically, can be as dull as ditchwater. And this Cork team, God bless them, totally lack any wow factor whatsoever.

We're looking at a tight, dogged contest (with small reminders of the four games from 20 years ago), and Billy Morgan, even though his defence is the best part of his team, is still clever enough to realise that his team's first and last priority must be to get high numbers behind the ball at all times and allow as little room as possible for Bray, Farrell (left), O'Rourke and Geraghty.

Meath, in the absence of James Masters, have nearly all the high-scoring forwards on the field. And that is the principal reason why every last man, woman and child in the country is predicting a Meath victory by somewhere between two and four points this afternoon. I'm not so sure.

Meath football teams, old and new, have never liked facing an underdog.

This Meath team, especially, has no experience in the world of entering this sort of game and, worse still, they had no expectation of fighting it out in an All Ireland semi-final for at least another two or three years.

While Colm Coyle has done a wonderful job painting a bright new future for the lads in his dressing room, they have come too far, too soon and remain out of their depth at this point in the season . . . and therefore highly vulnerable.

I mentioned that to a couple of Meath supporters, and close acquaintances of mine, last Thursday morning and I know they are still rooted to the spot outside the bank on Dunshaughlin's Main Street, still looking at me! They laughed at me, openly at first, but then it dawned on them that I was being 100 per cent serious.

Meath will be fearless, but this Cork team has more experience of this time and place in the championship, and Morgan and his senior players also share a sense of destiny about reaching an All Ireland final some day soon.

Losing James Masters knocked that thought out of their heads in the days after their quarter-final victory over Sligo, but a Cork team rebounding from that setback . . . and with a week and a half to recover and realise that everyone's effort must be redoubled before the semi-final . . . is a very dangerous team indeed.

This is one game which shouldn't be about the midfield battle. Mark Ward and Nigel Crawford have two average-togood performances on their backs, after a fairly nondescript opening half of the championship, and there is no reason to believe that Nicholas Murphy will be either a dominant ball winner or an inspirational presence this afternoon.

The four midfielders look set to slug it out, share the honours and leave it at that.

That leaves a questionable Meath defence against a questionable Cork forward line, and a good Cork defence against a good Meath forward line. Who wins? Normally a good defence should get the nod and be favoured, slightly, in this scenario. And Cork have a better defence, and have greater experience of Croker on a day like this, so they do appear to be in a more advantageous position.

Add in the fact that everyone is saying that Cork don't have a ghost of a chance, and Cork have three important elements swinging their way. Also add in the possibility that Cork may already have a prized 'stinker' of a performance out of their system after that dreadfully numbing victory over Sligo, and Billy Morgan and his team are looking better and better this afternoon.

Meath have four ways to win the game . . . Bray, Farrell, O'Rourke and Geraghty.

Shane O'Rourke is a fantastically talented young man with a great future, but with Graham Canty (the best full-back, and one of the three best footballers, in the country) shadowing him, Colm's lad only looks good for two points at most.

Geraghty is going to be shackled, hard and tight, and although half a second of mesmerising genius claimed a goal in the quarter-final win over Tyrone, he too is normally good for two points, no more.

For Meath to win, Bray has to have another five- or six-point performance (goals, points, it doesn't matter) and Farrell has to give the one big performance which he, and the whole of Meath, is waiting for. He needs a five- or six-point performance too! If another three or four points come from one or two other sources, Meath will be in the All Ireland final. But, I don't think that will happen against this Cork defence. Not this afternoon. Maybe in the next MeathCork installment between these two teams.

I'm taking Cork, and not Meath, to win by two to four points. Believe it, or believe it not.