Meath ladies set for promotion push

LADIES NFL DIV 3 PREVIEW

FERGAL LYNCH

The objective is simple. Nothing less than promotion from Ladies NFL Div 3 will do for Meath as they bid to maintain the progression they have shown over the last two seasons.

In 2017 Meath won the Leinster IFC title and reached the All-Ireland IFC semi-final. Last year they lost out to Wexford in the NFL Div 3 decider and just missed out on All-Ireland glory when losing the IFC final to Tyrone in Croke Park.
All that disappointment needs to be put behind them now and next Saturday Meath will open their bid for NFL Div 3 promotion with a tough away test against Sligo.
In the normal scheme of things Meath would be considered too strong for Sligo and over the last few years that has generally been the case, but the Connacht side pushed Tyrone very close in last year's All-Ireland IFC semi-final and they will fancy their chances.
Meath manager Eamonn Murray is well aware of the potential banana skin Sligo can be and he is taking nothing for granted ahead of what is sure to be a tough, challenging campaign.
“Just because we reached two finals last year everyone is automatically assuming we are favourites for promotion this year, but we certainly are not taking anything for granted,” Murray told the Meath Chronicle.
“Sligo proved against Tyrone last year in the All-Ireland semi-final just how good they can be and they are improving all the time, so I don't think we could have been handed a tougher start if we had went looking for it.
“We have lost a few players from last year's panel including our captain Niamh O'Sullivan who has gone travelling for a year, but we have brought in a few new players too and we are very happy with the panel we have put together.
“Paul (Garrigan) and Paddy (Dowling) have worked the girls really hard over the winter and they have responded to everything they have been asked with great enthusiasm. 
“We have also played a couple of decent challenges, so we are looking forward to getting stuck into the real thing now,” said Murray.
After losing two national finals in 2018 it would be easy for the Meath players to let their heads drop, but Murray insists that that is not the case and he believes that the hurt of last year is providing the inspiration to do better this time around.
“Sure losing the finals last year was very disappointing, but this is still a very young group of girls and on reflection getting to an All-Ireland final last year probably came a little too early for some of them,” said Murray.
“I believe the girls learned so much from their experiences over the last two years and so have we as a management. We are looking forward to the games ahead as much as the players.
“Of course our aspirations are to achieve promotion. If we want to start making strides back towards senior football then we need to operating at a higher level in the league.
“The league is not going to be easy. We have four away games against tough sides and two of the three home games are against sides that beat us last year, Wicklow and Roscommon.
“I know it is a cliche and it can be frustrating to hear, but we have to take every game as it comes, one match at a time. 
“If we take our eyes off Sligo and start looking ahead we will be caught out, so nothing else matters to us now only the game against Sligo next Saturday,” concluded the Meath boss.