Meath captain Shauna Ennis: 'I took 2017 off because I was so demoralised'

Meath's Shauna Ennis and Melissa Duggan of Cork. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Four years ago, current Meath ladies football captain Shauna Ennis walked away from the county set-up.

The workload involved in completing her H-Dip was among the factors in her decision to step away for the 2017 season.

If she’s being fully honest, though, her primary reason for stepping away was entirely unrelated to her studies.

The Na Fianna club woman had grown disillusioned with wearing the green and gold. She had become demoralised over the heavy beatings she and her Meath teammates were enduring each time they stepped inside the whitewash.

When Ennis joined the Meath panel in 2013, the county held Division 1 League status. They might not have been figuring at the business end of the Championship, but at least they were competitive.

Their graph dipped sharply in 2015 and 2016, though.

In 2015, Meath lost their three championship outings by an aggregate total of 77 points, conceding on average five goals per game.

In 2016, there was a Leinster round-robin draw with Laois, but in Meath’s three other championship fixtures, they suffered beatings of 16, 18, and 22 points respectively.

The county’s average losing margin across the two seasons was a staggering 22 points.

Ennis had had her fill of embarrassing hammerings and so opted to leave the county squad.

“I took 2017 off because I was so demoralised after those two years,” she says.

“In 2015, we had a lot of retirements. That led to it being a very young team, a sort of mish-mash of players. We were getting badly beaten those years. It wasn’t a good time at all.”

The low water mark was the 7-22 to 0-3 qualifier defeat to then champions Cork in 2015.

“I remember that day really well. I played as a sweeper. We actually had about three sweepers trying to stop them from scoring, but they were hammering us. It was embarrassing.

“A lot of people have used that game as a reference point with regard to how far we have come.

It obviously wasn’t nice at the time, but having beaten them in the All-Ireland semi-final, it is nice now being able to look back and look at how far we have come.

“All-Ireland final involvement was a pipe dream, really, back then. I remember watching Cork go on in the Championship that year and dad saying to me, ‘will you ever get there, will you ever get to be really competitive in the senior championship’.”

Meath’s journey from the bottom of the heap began with the appointment of current manager Eamonn Murray midway through the 2017 season and the county’s success in winning the Leinster intermediate championship at the first attempt following their regrading from senior.

Murray spoke earlier this week about the job he had in coaxing players back into the fold who, similar to Ennis, had opted out because of the consistent pummelings the county had been subject to.

The now captain was one of those asked to return for the 2018 season and she willingly accepted the offer.

“I’m obviously very glad that I came back in. It is the polar opposite now to what it was before. We are so proud every time we put on that Meath jersey and there is a huge amount of pride in the county, as well, coming up to the final. Everyone is talking about Meath ladies, everyone is buying Kepak jerseys. It is just a great buzz.”

In telling contrast to the three different managers the 27-year-old played under during her first four years with Meath, 2021 represents Murray’s fifth season at the helm. But the Cavan native and his backroom team have brought far more than stability to Meath ladies football.

“Their level of professionalism is amazing. They care so much about the players.

They would do anything for us, and we know that. They really, really genuinely care about every member of the panel.

“Eamon would have coached a lot of us at underage level. Through that, he has a lot of contacts and he was able to pull the best talent in the county together because at that time the best players weren’t playing for Meath because they didn’t want to on account of the fact we were getting beaten by so much, why would that entice anyone to play.

“He was really able to gather up the best talent Meath had to offer. Paul Garrigan and Paddy Dowling, from a coaching point of view, are just really, really good. They have given us a new lease of life.”

For anyone who has watched Meath weave a path to the county’s first All-Ireland senior final nine months after earning promotion from the intermediate ranks, that last point couldn’t be more obvious.