ALL-IRELAND CLUB FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINALS: Ian O'Riordan talks to Dunshaughlin manager Eamon Barry as his side prepare to face Crossmolina on Sunday

Success in any sport is largely about maximising all chances and rising to new challenges. At least that's the way Dunshaughlin are approaching Sunday's All-Ireland club football semi-final against Crossmolina, the team that has become something of a model for success in recent years.

Dunshaughlin are two games away from achieving what no Meath club has ever done before - an All-Ireland title. Yet on paper they have the least successful record of the four remaining contenders, and are also probably the least tested.

So when manager Eamon Barry assesses the task his side faces he talks mostly about that need to maximise their chances, and rise to new challenges. While his team did improve steadily through the Leinster championship he knows that to go any further will require a new and bigger swerve in their graph of progression.

"I know one of the main things we'll have to improve on is our scoring," says Barry. "I'd say in the last few games we've had something like a 50 per cent strike rate, and that for me is the most worrying aspect for the game on Sunday.

"We know if we don't convert more chances, and put over the scores when we have good patches, then Crossmolina will punish us.

"I know as well that some people have their doubts about whether we can compete at this level, and we know it is a big challenge for us. But all the players are looking forward to it now. It's a great chance to get to play in Croke Park, the dream of every club player in Ireland, and something that Meath clubs have badly wanted for many years.

"But I've been telling them as well to try to enjoy it. As a player these days you may only get four or five years to perform at your very best, so I'm telling them to maximise their chance now that they're there."

Yet Barry is in no way under-rating the club's success to date. Six years ago Dunshaughlin were still playing intermediate football, but have now won three Meath senior titles in succession.

They also won the Feis Cup this year, and are now the first Meath club to contest an All-Ireland semi-final since Walterstown in 1984 - who also came off three successive Meath titles and actually went all the way to the final, before falling to Nemo Rangers.

Coincidentally, Barry was a part of that Walterstown team, playing at centre forward. He admits that many Meath clubs have failed to repeat that sort of national impact simply because they weren't good enough.

"For a start I think club football has moved on an awful lot from those days," he says, "and in some cases you have clubs now that are almost as good as county sides. Say the likes of Nemo Rangers and Crossmolina.

"So for many years I just don't think Meath clubs were good enough. But luck plays a part as well, and there were days when Meath teams came very close to coming out of Leinster. Seneschalstown against Kilmacud, for example, in 1994 was one game that I remember being very, very close."

Not that Dunshaughlin had a completely free run out of the province. Rathnew forced them to a replay (again) before collapsing badly, although Mattock Rangers were easily handled in the Leinster final. Barry is happy now that his team are going in the right direction.

"I think the main reason we improved so much through Leinster was because we started out so badly. It definitely took us a long, long time to get going in the Meath championship, and it was really only in the quarter-final there against Blackhall Gaels that we started to play well.

"But can we take that improvement to the next level? I just don't know. To be honest I don't think we've been tested against that sort of quality opposition yet. I mean Rathnew were definitely a weaker team from last year, and maybe we needed to play a big club like Na Fianna to know just how good we are."

What Barry does know is that Sunday's game in Hyde Park marks the biggest day out in the club's history. Since taking over as manager five years ago he's watched the team mature that bit more every season, and he just hopes now they can take their chances, and rise to the challenge.

"We realise that most people will look at these semi-finals and see Dunshaughlin as the outsiders of the four clubs, and that we haven't beaten the sort of quality opposition that the others have. But we've talked about that amongst ourselves, and we're ready to rise to the challenge anyway.

"And there was a feeling against Rathnew, that it was now or never, the sort of game that could make or break this Dunshaughlin team. That's even more the case for Sunday."

Barry will finalise his team later today, hoping that Denis Kealy and Martin Reilly can shake off their injuries, and that by then team captain Aidan Kealy may also have heard some positive news regarding the

lifting of his controversial six-month suspension.