Mayo v Meath SFC preview

Watch Mayo v Meath and Kilkenny v Waterford live on RTÉ Two and RTÉ.ie (IoI) this Sunday from 11.45am. The show begins with live coverage of the MHC semi-final between Kilkenny and Tipperary. Live updates throughout the day on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.

RTÉ Sport's Seamus Leonard looks ahead to Sunday's GAA All-Ireland SFC quarter-final between Mayo and Meath, the winners of which will face Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.

With a Connacht title under their belts after beating Galway in the provincial final, Mayo are starting to look like genuine contenders for Sam Maguire.

But before any of the Westerners' fans start getting carried away with themselves, they need only look at the plight of their Dublin counterparts to see how easily a hitherto excellent summer can be ruined in just ten minutes.

Not that Mayo are a county prone to complacency. They are undoubtedly the nearly men of the decade, twice reaching All-Ireland finals only to have Kerry stand in the way and put them in their place.

But John O'Mahony is in his third year at the helm and it has been a slow and sometimes painful process to get the side where he wants them to be. And with all due respect to Meath, the Connacht champions will not enter the game carrying an inferiority complex.

Barry Moran's broken hand seemed certain to rule him out of contention for Mayo, but he has made enough progress to be included at full-forward. However, there is an obvious contingency plan should the Castlebar Mitchels clubman not make it, with Conor Mortimer slotting in at corner-forward and Aidan O'Shea moving to the edge of the square.

Meath have been slow burners this summer, but they finally hit their stride last Saturday against a Limerick side that never turned up in Portlaoise. Luck always plays a part in any successful Championship campaign, and the Royals couldn't have asked for a much easier path through the qualifier system than facing Waterford, Westmeath, Roscommon and the Treatymen.

To their credit, they have improved with every game and that's all you can really hope for coming through the back door.

The delay to their game with Roscommon also gave them a week's break in-between, and that should ensure that tiredness is not a huge issue when they get back to Croke Park on Sunday.

The only blot on their copybook at O'Moore Park was the sending off of captain Stephen Bray. However, there are questions over whether he should have received a straight red card for his tangle with Limerick defender Mark O'Riordan and it would be no shock to see Bray exonerated and free to start at Headquarters.

Nigel Crawford and Brian Meade dominated proceedings for Meath at midfield against Limerick, which provided the springboard to their success. You can rest assured Mayo's pairing of Ronan McGarrity and David Heaney will more than hold their own.

O'Mahony has said he fears Meath's momentum, but Donegal found out last week that momentum isn't worth much when you come up against a far superior outfit.

1996 was a long time ago but Mayo fans have longer memories than most and will be looking to avenge their All-Ireland final replay defeat to the Royals that year. It would be a surprise if they didn't.

Verdict: Mayo