After falling short of the summit in Leinster, the Meath footballers have now set themselves a new challenge to climb out of their All-Ireland round-robin group.
The Royals lost all three games in the group stage of the Sam Maguire competition last summer, finishing bottom of the table and failing to progress to the knock-out stages after defeats to Louth, Kerry and Monaghan.
However, this has been a season of progress so far for Meath. Forward Mathew Costello believes Robbie Brennan’s side can put the disappointment of defeat to Louth in the Leinster final behind them and launch an assault on the All-Ireland series.
“First and foremost, [the aspiration now] is to get out of the group and try get ourselves to an All-Ireland quarter-final,” says Costello.
“Obviously last year we had a pretty poor campaign in the All-Ireland, so basically it’s to do better than we did last year and get ourselves out of the group.”
Meath begin their round-robin campaign at home to Cork in Navan on Saturday. John Cleary’s Rebels will arrive at Páirc Tailteann on the back of a hugely encouraging display against Kerry in Munster.
“I’m expecting a seriously tough contest, to be honest,” continues Costello. “Everybody knew they were a fantastic team but Cork really showed against Kerry they have a serious skill-set.
“They’re a team that are also probably on the road together now the last few years. They’ve experienced big days, maybe more than us, so we’re expecting a big battle in Navan.”
Beyond Saturday’s first-round clash, Meath will then face a trip to Roscommon before finishing off their group with a neutral venue fixture against Kerry.
Meath, Cork and Roscommon were all in Division Two of the National Football League this season while Kerry finished second in Division One. Meath lost to Cork but beat Roscommon.
“It’s funny, obviously a lot of the teams are in the same division in the league and we all feel we can beat each other on any given day. I think it leads to really competitive matches and that’s what we’re expecting over the next few weeks,” adds Costello.
Meath’s standout performance this season was their Leinster semi-final win over Dublin, a victory that was some 15 years in the making.
There was a lot of hard training and tough nights to build us up for performances like that
— Mathew Costello
It ended Dublin’s dominance in the province and opened up the Delaney Cup for the first time in well over a decade.
“Yeah, it was very significant but it was going to come at some stage,” says the versatile forward of that victory over the Dubs.
“And over the last four or five years that’s kind of what you’ve been trying to tell yourself ahead of those games – that some day we’re going to get a really good performance and we’re going to put it up to them.
“I think it was probably one of the best games I’ve been a part of, I’m sure the fans loved it. I think it was brilliant that the game was brought down to Portlaoise and we were able to build a bit of an atmosphere. And from that, hopefully we can keep Leinster a very competitive provincial series now.
“It does give confidence but really where the confidence comes from is the amount of work we did in the off-season, pre-season and throughout the National League.
“There was a lot of hard training and tough nights to build us up for performances like that. The Dublin game wasn’t just an overnight success or a one-off. We know we’ve plenty of big performances to come and hopefully we can bring that to the Cork game.”
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The defeat to Louth in the provincial final knocked some of the gloss off that win over Dublin, but Costello is taking a more global view on the Leinster decider setback. The Dunshaughlin clubman believes the experience will ultimately stand to the Meath players.
“I think it’s only a positive,” he said. “The lead-up to the game and then the actual occasion itself, like the parade and everything, was just something I’d never experienced before.
“We know full well, for the future, that’s 100 per cent going to help us having gone through that. If we can ever get back to those heights, back to Croke Park, we know what it’s like now. It just gives you the buzz and gives you a bit more motivation to go back and do it again. I think Louth’s experience probably did shine through in the last five minutes; they held the ball really well.
“Obviously the result just didn’t go our way. It just wasn’t our day – it was Louth’s day. They were full value for their win, so I just have to congratulate them and we move on.”
Given the array of young talent in the county, there has been a mood of optimism around Meath in recent times. Costello says potential cannot be talked about endlessly – at some stage it has to be about delivering on that promise.
“The aim, basically, is to do better than you did last year,” he says.
“We are young, but you can’t be young forever. We’ve got to be putting in performances and hopefully that will lead to results.”
