These are worrying times for the Dublin-Meath football rivalry. Not even Denis Bastick, the oldest living member of the Dublin team, can recall much about it, partly because there is no rivalry given he’s never actually lost a championship match to Meath.

Bastick made his senior debut against Meath, in 2009, which Dublin won: he was suspended a year later when Meath scored five goals in the near slaughter that was the 2010 Leinster semi-final, only since then it’s been all Dublin – and, it seems, inexorably on course for a 17th successive Leinster championship win in Sunday’s semi-final in Croke Park.

Indeed that 2010 victory for Meath is their only win in the last nine championship meetings with Dublin, which means much of the rivalry is now purely nostalgic, particularly when it comes to their four-act summer of 1991.

At age 35, Bastick is certainly old enough to remember that, although 25 years on, admits it will have no bearing whatsoever on Sunday: not only have the teams changed but the game has too, and without making any deliberate comparison, this era is possibly more suited to Dublin.

“Obviously that tradition has carried through all right,” says Bastick. “And I think all the talk of it back then was that it kind of gripped the whole nation at the time. People liked the two teams competing against each other, going really hard, but it’s changing and evolving all the time so it’s different now to what it was five years ago or 10 years ago. I suppose the whistle wasn’t used as much as it is now, and you have the black cards, and different things that.

“There’s a lot to be said for a lot of honest, hard footballers going out and playing that way and kind of getting on with the game, apart from real malice or intent to hurt someone or whatever which isn’t good for the game. But those were physical strong men going toe to toe and I’d say it was enjoyable to play in. Whereas now I think you are leaning towards more speed and more end-to-end stuff, and that brings its own excitement too. It’s a totally different game.”

Meath forward Graham Reilly recently declared he felt his team always have a chance against Dublin. While their quarter-final games suggested otherwise (Dublin comfortably beating Laois, Meath eventually beating Louth) Bastick is nonetheless wary that old rivalries never quite die.

“I think so. There’s a different mentality between Meath and Dublin and there’s always this bit of (he pauses)... I wouldn’t call it fear, but a bit of trepidation, if they come with a really good game.

“We do remember 2010. It’s not that long ago either. We were off our game that day. And there is that bit of history, obviously, with the older generation and recently enough with 2010.

“We gave away two goals against Laois. To ship two goals in a short space of time, that was disappointing for us. But, on the flip-side, it gives us something to work on, it keeps us clued in, it doesn’t let us get ahead of ourselves, in that sense.

“So we’re not thinking ‘we’re great, we steamroll everyone’. We know that, if we don’t play well and we’re very open at the back and don’t do the right things, we can be punished.”

Meath All-Ireland winner Colm O’Rourke further stoked the old rivalry by suggesting this is the best prepared Meath team of recent years, and they’ve been eying up this date with Dublin all season.

“Well, it’s risky, if you do that,” says Bastick. “Like us, if we were planning for someone later on in the championship, that’s a risky business. I suppose it’s common knowledge that other teams thought they’d be facing us in the championship and prepared for us. So teams do that and management have to do that and look a few steps ahead. And I’m sure player-wise they would have concentrated on beating Louth and. “Obviously Colm might be a bit more privy to what’s going on in the background, and when the draw does come out you naturally look at who you’re playing, who’s next and who’s on your side of the draw, and stuff like that.”

Rivalries also thrive on the understanding both teams firmly believe they can beat the other, only right now, it’s hard to imagine Meath feeling as confident as Dublin: “There was a great shift in our mentality as a team and it probably took that All-Ireland win in 2011 to get to that stage. I’m not sure what other teams feel in terms of fear for us, but I know what we felt when we were almost achieving, almost getting there. And 2011 just bridged that gap, gave us that belief. Then you can trade off your experience, and we have done that luckily enough over the three wins we have had (over Meath) since.”

Dublin v Meath: LAST FIVE CHAMPIONSHIP CLASHES

2014: Dublin 3-20 Meath 1-10 (Leinster final)

2013: Dublin 2-15 Meath 0-14 (Leinster final)

2012: Dublin 2-13 Meath 1-13 (Leinster final)

2010: Meath 5-9 Dublin 0-13 (Leinster semi-final)

2009: Dublin 0-14 Meath 0-12 (Leinster quarter-final)