Former Donegal star Kevin Cassidy feels that the Donegal bench could play a major role when Jim McGuinness’s outfit take on the Meath this weekend.

Donegal will compete in the All-Ireland Football semi-final for the second successive year when they take to the field against the Royals at GAA HQ this Sunday.

Donegal have gotten the better of Meath in their most recent meetings, the last of which was last year’s Division 2 encounter where Donegal ran out eight-point winners in Ballybofey.

However, Robbie Brennan’s outfit are a dangerous proposition for Donegal.

Kevin Cassidy discussed how he thinks Jim McGuinness will be instilling the message to the camp that Meath are certainly in the last four on merit and not to get distracted with by everyone on the outside building them up.

“It’ll be on Jim’s radar in the fact that he’ll drive home that message that everyone is writing Meath off and everyone is building us up. I can guarantee that the message he is also putting across is if you go back two years ago, everyone was knocking Donegal so there’s not much difference and he’ll be driving that home.”

“They’ve beaten Cork, Dublin, Kerry and Galway so Jim is going to drive that message home that Meath are absolutely here on merit, it’s up to Donegal to make sure they don’t gain more momentum as the game goes on.”

There’s a couple of key individual battles that could take place when the two sides meet at Croke Park this Sunday.

One stands out to the Gaoth Dobhair man more than the rest however, that being the duel between Sean Rafferty and Michael Murphy.

The Meath full-back is enjoying a stellar debut campaign in the green and gold jersey and Cassidy loves the fearless nature of the defender.

“It’s something that I’m looking forward to because Rafferty is a young lad and he plays with no fear. He’s the closest you’re going to get to Darren Fay because he attacks every ball. He’s physical in the tackle, he’s aggressive and he can also kick-pass the ball out of defence.”

When discussing how the battle could play out at HQ at the weekend, Cassidy feels that the Glenswilly man could have a selfless role to play, coming further out the pitch to pull the Meath full-back out of position and potentially expose them.

“I think Michael will probably try and drag him out of that position because Michael is comfortable out the field as well. I think if we can drag Rafferty out of the full back position, it may leave gaps for other players.”

Donegal have added depth to their squad this year and the players that are being summoned from the bench are having a real impact on the side.

Against Monaghan, the likes of Daire Ó Baoill, Patrick McBrearty and Jason McGee entered the action to great effect.

The two-time All Star mentioned how he thinks the substitutes will have a real impact on the game’s outcome with Meath lacking the same personnel to be able to call upon due to James Conlon, Jack Kinlough, Ronan James and Jack Flynn all being ruled out.

“I think this weekend where we might see the difference in the two squads is on fifty or sixty minutes if Donegal begin to empty the bench and bring in the likes of Paddy McBrearty, Daire Ó Baoill, Jamie Brennan, these kinds of lads that have been coming on and doing great jobs for us, we might see the difference in squad depth.”

“Obviously Meath are missing four of their big players who aren’t going to be available for the rest of the year so that eats into their bench.”