Emotional day for the players

Meath captain Aileen Donnelly was very emotional following Sunday"s All-Ireland final success against Roscommon and referred to the great character and determination in the panel. 'I can only describe the victory as a huge, huge relief, I can"t really put it in words, it"s unbelievable and it makes up for last year,' she told the Meath Chronicle. 'The girls put in a huge commitment this year, I think we"ve had about 90 training sessions since we started back again last October or November, the intensity of the whole thing is nearly too much,' she added. The trophy, the Nancy Murray Cup, was presented by Camogie Association vice-president Catherine O"Hara who commended both teams on producing an exciting decider. 'This was a wonderful game and it was a great credit to both teams, Meath know what it"s like to lose finals after last year"s performances and I"m sure that Roscommon will take something out of that when they have a chance to look back at today"s result,' she stated. The speechmaking was relatively short and there was an extra bonus for Meath when the player-of-the-match award was presented to wing-back Edel Guy who was one of the hardest working players for the Royal County at the Cavan venue. There were many candidates for the accolade on both teams, but Guy was certainly a worthy recipient and a popular choice amongst the Meath players. Team manager John Davis was beaming in the aftermath of the success and that was easy to understand. Twelve months ago, in his first year at the helm, he guided Meath to three finals and they lost them all. This time around the interview was easier. 'We knew that we had the ability to win the game, but we didn"t play to our best, that"s what finals are about, sometimes you just have to dig out a result and that"s what we did,' stated the man who guided Meath hurlers to a place in the top flight of NHL Div 1 less than a decade ago. 'There was huge amount of effort put into this by everyone, particularly by the players, we had over 80 training sessions and we introduced a lot of young players. 'We lost about six girls from last year, they just weren"t able to give us the commitment, but they"re here today and that"s important, this victory certainly compensates for the disappointments of last year. 'We also knew that Roscommon would put it up to us, we"ve beaten them three or four times and they had nothing to lose here today, but they will come again and will have their day. 'Hopefully, we can build on this and move up to the next level, if we can do that we will be in Croke Park next year for the final, that"s what the players would want and there"s no reason why they can"t build on what they have achieved so far,' he concluded. Meath Camogie Board chairman Christy Mangan was also in a buoyant mood. 'We made hard work of that, but Roscommon are a good team and we can certainly understand how they must be feeling now, we were in that position last year,' he said. 'It was a difficult game and we were a bit nervous, but it"s a sweet victory and it has been a long time coming. 'I have to thank so many people for their support, our sponsors Bovale, Tom and Caroline Bailey got behind us and that was a great boost for everyone, John Davis has turned our fortunes around and we will have to try to build on that now for next year,' he added.