A precipice beckoned, but nobody walked over it. Dublin moved a step away from catastrophe in Croke Park yesterday when they finished strongly to beat Meath in the much anticipated replay between the sides, writes Tom Humphriesin Croke Park.
The game was something less than the classic spectacle which the sides delivered while cancelling each other out a fortnight ago, but then these sides are something else than their predecessors who created the fabled rivalry.
Still, 82,206 paying customers turned up on a day marred by grey skies and drizzle, and for their punts they got a decent game of football, at the end of which the sides were separated by four points (0-16 to 0-12), and an afternoon where both sides ended up with hope for the future.
Meath, young and madly hopeful, came closer over the two games than they had a right to expect at this stage of their development.
They left Croke Park yesterday with their reputation enhanced.
For Dublin, their hopes of an All-Ireland title are still alive, although their detractors consider it more likely that gold will be spun from straw before that happens.
Yesterday's was a game which needed to be ignited by a goal. Graham Geraghty of Meath and Alan Brogan of Dublin, the most feared marksmen on either county, failed to deliver despite each going close.
In the absence of this excitement it was attritional football from beginning to end.
Dublin led by two points at the half-time break and despite a worrying 20-minute period during the second half when they failed to score, they finished the game confidently with a run of points right at the end.
"Today it all worked well," said Dublin manager Paul Caffrey afterwards.
"That is something that the guys are taking responsibility for and showing composure when it is needed."
Dublin return to Croke Park for a Leinster semi-final against Offaly next Sunday.
Elsewhere on a gala weekend for Gaelic games, Waterford beat a Cork side depleted by suspensions to advance to the Munster hurling final, Donegal collapsed to Tyrone in Ulster football and the hurlers of Limerick again came from behind and drew with Tipperary for the second time in a week on Saturday night in Thurles.