Eimear Ryan: Meath’s disruptive rise will give hope to breakthrough counties

Meath have all the building blocks to be a new dominant force in ladies football, but their splendidly disruptive rise will give hope to other breakthrough counties, like Tipperary, and do wonders for the sport as a whole

Meath’s Emma Troy embraces Sean Boylan, former boss of the county’s senior men’s team, after the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies SFC final at Croke Park. The corner-back was emblematic of their fitness and ethos of support on the way to glory. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

You could say this was an overnight success. Meath won the intermediate ladies football championship only last December, after all, and already they’ve ascended to senior All-Ireland champions. And they all seem so young, even if 19-year-old Emma Duggan and 23-year-old Vikki Wall have the composure of seasoned campaigners. Never mind that it was their third intermediate final in a row, that they’d had to drop down from senior to rebuild: This was a meteoric rise.

You could say it was a tactical masterplan — that merciless pressure on the Dublin kickouts; the tigerish defending based not on crowding and slapping but brilliant timing and interceptions. The way they found space on the counter-attack. The confidence of the kick-passing and shooting.