Pat "The Red" Collier evokes memories of the Meath teams of the 1960s which won three Leinster championships and an All-Ireland. Those were golden days for Meath, as was their first All-Ireland win against Cavan in 1949, the 50th anniversary of which is being celebrated next Saturday night. It wasn't until 1967, however, that Meath repeated their 1949 achievement when "The Red" was playing at right-half back. Significantly, Meath beat Cork that year. Collier looks back on those days with nostalgia and affection. He has retained his great love of football through his club St Patrick's from Stamullen and now looks after the youngsters who flock to the club. "If we don't look after the young lads we have no future," he says with conviction. Regarded as a combative but constructive player, he now fancies Meath to advance to the All-Ireland final against Cork once again. "I believe that the absence of Tommy Dowd could be a drawback, but Meath have improved in all their matches to date and I believe that they will just about scrape though against Armagh and go on to improve still further and beat Cork in the final."

One would scarcely expect Collier to say anything else, but he keeps a close eye on the team and its preparation. "I believe that the Meath defence is better than Armagh's and that the influence of players like Darren Fay and the corner backs Mark Reilly and Cormack Murphy will have a crucial effect on the outcome.

"As well as that, the Meath midfield of John McDermott and Nigel Crawford should dominate that area and that should give us a big advantage. Armagh have some very fine players, such as Diarmuid Marsden and Cormack McConville, but they seem to have a certain weakness through the middle of the field and that could decide the issue," he says.

Referring to last week's semi-final, he says he felt that Mayo had given away possession so often that they could not realistically have expected to win.

"They fell to pieces after a good start. Horan was having a good match at the start but he was then isolated by his colleagues and the whole thing went badly astray.

"Cork probably learned a lot from the experience. They have a very young side and the way they came back after a poor start shows that they have a lot of character and will be difficult to beat."

Armagh, Collier believes, will be under tremendous pressure on Sunday. "Their supporters expect a lot of them and that will get through to them. They will need to get a good solid start and get a few early scores to settle them down. They are capable of a lot, but Meath's experience of playing at Croke Park in big match situations should give them a big advantage," he says.

In regard to the way that the game has altered since when he was playing, Collier is critical of the standards of refereeing although accepts that the job has become more difficult. "It is true that the game has speeded up since my day but there is a lot of inconsistency in the refereeing in important matches."