Last Saturday evening Meath Ladies held their 4th Annual Awards Night in front of a large crowd in the Newgrange Hotel, Navan. The Meath GAA Family were all present with Meath GAA Chairman, Conor Tormey and Meath Camogie Chairperson Martin Heneghan in attendance. Meath Ladies U21 Team were presented their Aisling McGing Memorial Championship runners up medals by Ladies Football President Elect, Marie Hickey. Marie spoke on Meath's achievements in 2014 - congratulating the Development Committee on all their hard work and paying special tribute to Eureka in Kells and St. Michaels Loreto in Navan on their All Ireland success in the Post-Primary Competitions.

Meath Ladies were fortunate to have Irish Rugby Internationals, Jackie Shiels and Grace Davitt in attendance on the night. Jackie and Grace very kindly presented awards to the nominees in the Players of the Championship categories.

After dinner, the presentation of awards began. Marie presented the Meath u21s with their medals and Lar Wall spoke on the achievement of these players and announced that Oldcastle's Bridgetta Lynch was the U-21 Player of the Year. Lar also spoke highly of the effort the seniors had put in in 2014. Shauna Bennett, the captain of the Meath Ladies Senior Team, was announced as Senior County Player of the Year. Meath Ladies Chairperson, Aisling Clery, thanked Lar, Martin and all the senior management team for their work over the last two years and presentations were made to Lar and Phil Fay from the Shauna Bennett as Senior Captain, and Maire O'Shaughnessy as U-21 Captain

The Night moved on to the announcement of the nominees and the overall winners. Katie O'Brien, for her performances in 2014 for St. Ultans was announced as Generali Pan Europe Senior Club Championship player of the Year. The Intermediate Club Championship Player of the Year was unveiled as Niamh Crowe from Summerhill while the Junior A crown was won by Rebecca Goodwin from Dee Rangers. Goodwin had a crucial role in the heart of the Dee Rangers attack and was very much to the fore in the Junior A Final back in September. The Junior B Club Championship Player of the Year was won by Moylagh's talented midfielder Colette Kenny. There was much cheering in the room when Simonstown's Kelsey Nesbitt from Simonstown was called on to collect the Rising Star Award for 2014!

Club Team of the Year went undoubtedly to Dee Rangers. The recently crowned Leinster Junior club champions were unlucky in their All Ireland semi-final where they took on Murroe Boher from Limerick. The Munster team won the All Ireland Junior Title last weekend. Dee Rangers also competed in the Feis Cup Final to Senior Champions, Seneschalstown. Joint Captains, Aoife Conlon and Briona Rowe accepted the Award on behalf of their team.

St. Colmcilles, Dunboyne, Royal Gaels and St. Pats Stamullen faced off for Club of the Year honours. Clery spoke on the achievements of the four clubs in 2014. All four have been to the fore in developing ladies football in their areas in 2014. St. Colmcilles were announced as Club of the Year having been previously nominated in 2012 and 2013. Cliona Smith and Tara McHugh, two of St. Colmcilles stalwarts accepted the Award on behalf of the club.

The shock of the night however had to be the announcement of the 2014 Hall of Fame. This is the fourth year of this award, with previous recipients Kitty Carroll, Geraldine Moroney and Christy Regan already ensconced in the history books. The 2014 Award went to a founding member of the Royal Gaels club (1995) - Ollie Bowe. Ollie has managed u12, u14 and u16 county teams as well as currently holding the Development Officer position on the Executive Committee. The announcement was well received by the room who rose in applause to congratulate Ollie. Never lost for words, Ollie thanked the Committee and congratulated all the clubs on the important work they do in developing and looking after their players.
Clery announced that the much anticipated Meath Ladies website was finally live and could be found at meathladiesgaelicfootball.ie. It is hoped to develop the website further in 2015. After a tremendous evening, Clery brought proceedings to a close but not before thanking people for attending and wishing next year's county management teams and players the very best of luck in their respective campaigns in 2015. Diane O'Hora, Senior and U21 manager, Eamon Murray, Minor manager, Phil Fay, U-16 manager and Peter Byrne, U-14 manager and Ollie Bowe, U-12 manager were all in attendance and here is hoping there is lots of silverware displayed in 2015!

Congratulations to all who won or were nominated for Awards in 2014.  Ladies Football in Meath continues to grow and by working together we can ensure success for not only our club teams but our county ones too. The Meath Ladies AGM will take place on Monday 8th December at 7.30pm in the Castle Arch Hotel, Trim.

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