Meath Ladies senior manager Wayne Freeman and his players can start filling in their diaries for the first half of next year with the announcement on Monday evening of the confirmed fixture list for the regulation phase of the Lidl Ladies National League.
The Royals recovered from an opening day drubbing against eventual All Ireland Champions Galway to inflict a similar thrashing on Dublin a week later – on St Brigid’s Bank Holiday Monday – in Stamullen.
From there, results were something of a mixed bag. With the result that, heading into the final round of games they still had a mathematical chance of qualifying for the final, but not doing so wasn’t the biggest of deals either. Chances are, once top flight status was secured that was considered to be job done as regards the spring campaign.
Hindsight would probably decree that Meath’s appearance in the All Ireland SFC Final of 2025 was very much against the run of play. Moreover, given the profile of those on duty for Meath that day and the fact that even more of them were known to be about to fly the nest at that time too meant that a period of that most odd and frustrating of concepts, transition, was afoot.
And, in such a situation, again, preservation of top flight status will occupy top spot on the to-do list for our leading ladies. It would also be realistic to assume that – in both league and championship – anything outside of the achievement of same would be considered bonus territory.
That is not to say more is not possible, of course it is, but, if you cut your cloth according to measure and pick your battles, it will dampen self held expectations and thereby make any achievement which does accrue seem all the more meaningful and noteworthy.
In Meath’s case, the critical thing in the credit column is, conversely, the fact that they were only in an All Ireland final less than two years ago is a decent indicator that the nucleus of a good team is still in situ. In the guise of Robyn Murray, Aine Sheridan, Katie Bermingham, Niamh Gallogly, Marian Farrelly, Ciara Smyth, Meadhbh Byrne and Emma Duggan.
The latter, at the time of typing, still only 24. Hard to believe as that may be given the extraordinary achievements she has amassed in a remarkable career to date. There’s no reason why plenty more couldn’t or shouldn’t be added to that for a long time to come. In fact, any team with our Duggie among its artillery will always stand a fighting chance.
Meath’s Lidl Ladies NFL Division 1 fixtures in full are:
24/1/27: v. Cavan (HOME)
31/1/27: v. Galway (AWAY)
7/2/27: v. Waterford (HOME)
21/2/27: v. Kerry (AWAY)
28/2/27: v. Donegal (HOME)
13/3/27: v. Cork (HOME)
20/3/27: v. Armagh (AWAY)
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