Shauna Ennis has heard the talk.
The mastermind’s gone, the dynasty’s over and that, as a team, the Meath ladies footballers’ best days are behind them. Ennis has heard it all but, frankly speaking, as captain of the team, she doesn’t care for the talk.
Meath have had a very poor League campaign – they’ve only won one of six games and are sixth of eight in the Division One table – but they have their reasons, and Ennis is confident that those writing them off will be proven wrong.
“We love a good underdog tag,” says the John West Féile ambassador. “I’d actually prefer them to be saying that it (the dynasty) is over to be honest.”
“I don’t care what people are saying. It doesn’t bother me.”
The departure of Eamon Murray and his management team was always going to take some getting used to first of all but the temporary loss of players like Vikki Wall (to the AFL) and Emma Duggan (to injury) has also played its part.
“At the start of the league, after the first few games, there was a lot of stuff said about us not being up to scratch and stuff like that. But we can turn that on its head now. We can use that definitely for motivation going forward,” adds Ennis.
Meath have blooded a lot of new players in this League campaign and Ennis has praised Davy Nelson and his management team for the work they have done.
“In fairness I don’t think there would have been many people who would have wanted that job which sounds funny to say because being All Ireland champions you might think it would be a great job to step into but no it is a very tough job to step into and a hard role to follow.
“We really admire him for taking that on he knew it was going to be a really hard challenge.”
Vikki Wall is now back on the scene for the rest of the year, and that comes as another timely boost.
“In the media and stuff like that, there were so many questions about it whereas we as our friends and teammates, we always knew what the plan was, so we weren’t ever overly worried. We knew she would be back with us, Vikki is back now for the rest of the championship, which is obviously a really good boost.”
It has also been said that, of all the teams, Meath are one of the toughest to play against but Ennis takes that as a huge compliment.
‘Vintage Meath..’
See Stacey Grimes set up Niamh O’Sullivan for a trademark @meathladiesMLGF goal in today’s Lidl NFL defeat at home to Waterford.
You can watch the full game back on our InPlayer: https://t.co/gAgq2pv9r4
Live Stream with @JeromeQuinn in @BallinloughGaa pic.twitter.com/udIJMBLQ8k
— Ladies Football (@LadiesFootball) March 19, 2023
“We definitely take that as a compliment.
“We want to make our opposition uncomfortable. If the opposition are uncomfortable they’re not going to play well. So yeah, we’ve had some really good battles in the league.
“Even as people have said, after losing all these people, after a change of management, we’re still there.
“We’re still within a couple of points of all the teams. Yeah, look, when the league is over we’re going to park it and definitely move on to the Championship.”
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