From a hurling perspective, it was slightly unfortunate that the performances of John Andrews' charges were camouflaged by the return to the 'good auld days' of their footballing counterparts, who booked their ticket to the All-Ireland quarter-final just hours before Kildare terminated the Royal's bid for Christy Ring Cup honours. There is no question that the majority of the Royal County following became so engrossed in the epic tale of Colm Coyle reign of supremacy, that the achievement of Andrews' and his army was recognised with a muted whimper, when it warranted more extensive coverage, considering the plethora of poor campaigns which preceded it. Okay, it may be a while before the green and gold jersey will threaten Kilkenny's stranglehold on Leinster, but the fact that a minimum margin defeat against the Lilywhites in their last four date was greeted with utter disappointment around the county indicated the progress which had transpired since the turn of the year. After being part of the county's football set-up for a number of years at the beginning of the decade, David Crimmins made a successful transformation to the small ball code this year and was one of the most consistent performers on show with his performances at midfield catching the eye of many astute judges. Crimmins is no stranger to the ups and downs of championship action and the talented Drumree hurler was understandably disappointed that his new outfit were unable to clear the penultimate hurdle but was keen to stress that the management team of John Andrews, Kevin Dowd and Paul Donnelly are a huge asset to the county fold. "John, Kevin and Paul really put an awful lot of effort in this year to improve the state of Meath hurling and from the very first trial game that we had back in Dunganny in November until the Kildare game they gave 100% to the cause and it was just unfortunate that we couldn't repay them by winning something," Crimmins said. "It was my first year involved in the set-up this year and just from talking to other lads that had been there before it seemed that this year was completely different to any other year. Interest with the team was huge and there was no night throughout the year where we had any less than 25 lads out training and that is a clear sign of the improvement that has been made. "There was the right attitude and approach to the whole thing and as the year went on we got a bit of momentum going and we started getting used to winning which is always a nice habit to get into. "At the start of the year nobody gave us a chance of doing anything at all but we all decided that we were going to make a good fist of achieving something and our first aim was to get out of the groups of the Christy Ring and we managed to do that and it is just a pity that we couldn't go any further," he added. Drawn in the toughest of the two groups which included the two pre-tournament favourites, Westmeath and Down, there is no doubt that Andrews' would have snapped up a place in the 'semis' prior to the commencement of the campaign but such was the improvement through the group stages that the loss to Kildare came as a surprise to the majority of pundits. Meath began the group stages of their campaign with a rip-roaring draw with Westmeath at Pairc Tailteann in late June and victories over Mayo, Kerry and Down swiftly followed to ensure that they sat pretty at the top of the pile to set up a date with Kildare, who filled the runners-up slot in the other group. Entering the tie as favourites, Meath stumbled out of the traps as Kildare set a blistering early pace with a trio of Paddy O'Brien points giving them an early stranglehold on the tie but there was worse to come for the Royals as Brendan Byrne latched onto a long delivery from Billy White, and the sliotar nestled in the back of the net to hand the Lilywhites a 1-5 to 0-2 lead at the end of the opening quarter. But Meath eventually broke into stride and outscored their opponents 1-7 to 0-2 for the remainder of the half. Stephen Clynch began the scoring surge when he fired over from distance but it was Ger O'Neill's goal in the 24th minute that gave Andrews' side the lift they needed. O'Neill gathered possession from a long puck forward by Mike Cole and showed his predatory instincts that were evident throughout the campaign by finishing clinically to the net to level the scores at 1-6 apiece. Meath issued a statement of intent at the end of the half by posting three of the last four scores as Clynch, Nicky Horan and Eoin Brislane all found their range to ensure that their side were in the driving seat before the change of ends, leading 1-9 to 1-7. But Meath were unable to sustain that momentum in the second half and only tagged on four points to their first half tally. A Horan free kept Meath's snouts in front in the 45th minute but Kildare gradually began to asset their authority throughout the pitch and despite accumulating a tally of 15 wides, they did manage to establish a 1-14 to 1-11 lead entering the final eight minutes. In keeping with their battling mentality shown in the group stages, Meath never gave up the ghost and wing-back Enda Keogh reduced the deficit to two points before Mike Cole was handed an opportunity to stage a smash and grab raid for the Royals in the first minute of stoppage time. However his rasping drive was brilliantly stopped by Kildare 'keeper Conor Cunningham and although Horan did put the minimum between the sides with a late free, Kildare had just done enough to prevail and march on to a date in the decider with Westmeath with the board reading 1-14 to 1-13 at the end of the 70 minutes action. "It was very disappointed to lose to Kildare at the semi-final stage as we were fully confident that we would win the Christy Ring this year but things just didn't go our way on the day and conditions made it very hard for either side to play attractive hurling. "Losing by the smallest possible margin was very hard to take as we came so close to reaching a championship decider and then to have it taken away from us was a real shock to the system but these things happen and we will just have to improve on that for next year," Crimmins said. The foundations were laid for an impressive group campaign in the first outing against Westmeath on home soil in Pairc Tailteann. It was widely expected that the 2005 winners of the competition would hold too much firepower for their neighbours but the hosts defied the odds with a tenacious display which earned them a share of the spoils, 2-16 to 1-19. As the scoreline suggests, the sides served up a thrilling encounter and to revert to an overused cliché, neither side deserved to lose. Westmeath set the pace for the vast duration of the tie and their first half dominance was underlined by a 0-10 to 0-6 lead in their favour. Ger O'Neill then shot to the fore and he rattled the back of the net on two occasions during a highly entertaining second period but those efforts looked to be in vain as Westmeath still held a two-point advantage with the stopwatch fast approaching the 70 minute mark. But Tommevara recruit Eoin Brislane proved his worth to the side by sending over a brace of points in the dying seconds to tie the sides, with the second of these a coverted free from inside his own '65' which proved to be the levelling score. Soaring in confidence following this result, Andrews' troops travelled to Castlebar to meet Mayo in their second battle of the campaign and they left the Western venue in buoyant mood after recording a 2-23 to 1-10 success. Like in the opening round clash, Meath took their time to warm to the task and only held a slender 2-7 to 1-8 interval advantage with the goals coming from Cole and Stephen Clynch but they eased into a higher gear after the resumption and the fact that they outscored their staggering opponents 0-16 to 0-2 in that period, indicated the one-sided nature of the fare. Meath managed to get eight different players on the scoresheet in the tie with Cole leading the scoring charge with 1-4 while Clynch and Joey Keena were not far behind, registering 1-3 and 0-6 respectively, in a potent Royal attack. Next up was a home date with Kerry and Meath continued their steady incline of improvement by turning in their most impressive display of the year, tearing apart a limited Kingdom outfit on the way to a 2-17 to 0-13 victory. It was more or less the 'Kilmessan show' on this occasion as Ger O'Neill, Stephen Clynch, Joey Keena and Nicky Horan accounted for 2-11 of the winners tally and the outcome was never in doubt as the hosts led 1-11 to 0-3 at the break and continued in the ascendancy after the resumption to inch their way that bit closer to a slot in the knockout stages. Meath's last assignment in the group stages pitted them with a Down side that had proven disappointing in their prior outings but it was feared that they may just have a kick in them and Andrews would have made the journey to Ballycran in slightly wary mood, knowing that at least a draw was needed to book their semi-final ticket. Nicky Horan made his first start of the year and didn't disappoint, posting a personal tally of 0-13 and his accuracy from placed balls was a key feature of the tie as Meath stayed on best in the closing stages to churn out a 1-21 to 2-12 success. It was looking a bit bleak for the visitors when Joy Keena was shown a straight red card in the 52nd minute, at which stage they trailed 0-13 to 2-11 but they dug deep into their reserves and registered 1-8 in the remaining time, with Stephen Clynch grabbing the all important goal as Down only managed to add a single point during that spell. "Fair play to the lads, their commitment since the first of January has been brilliant. I've never seen anything like it and I have been involved with Meath teams since 1986," was manager John Andrews' response to the promising campaign. "The way that Meath hurling was, everybody doubted everything about Meath hurling. They doubted the lads, they were wondering why they gave me the job. Well I've a passion for Meath hurling and a passion for hurling in general. Everyone of the 26 players on the panel had that belief," he added. Perhaps estimations were low entering the Christy Ring Cup as a result of a somewhat subdued league campaign in which Meath failed to make a significant impact in Division 2A, although Crimmins believes that they were a bit unfortunate not to reach the latter stages of the competition and cites the heavy defeat to Laois as the turning point. "We were a little bit unfortunate not to make the knockout stages of the league. We had an off day against Laois down in Portlaoise and they gave us a good going over that day and it seemed to knock us for six. "But even when we were underperforming a little bit in the League, John (Andrews) was saying to us all year that everything was being geared towards the Christy Ring and anything else that we achieved would be a bonus," Crimmins stated. The high point of the Royals league journey was arguably their trip to Carlow where they managed to turn around a substantial half-time deficit with the introduction of Eoin Brislane accompanied by the brilliance of Mike Cole, who registered 1-11, playing a vital part in the 1-18 to 2-14 success. But there were few similar days along the way as apart from the victory over the Barrowsiders, Andrews' only managed to carve out one other success, a 2-12 to 0-14 win at the expense of Armagh. A sharing of the spoils against Derry at Pairc Tailteann offered some hopes of progression to the knockout stages but heavy defeats to Wicklow and eventual league champions Laois knocked that idea on the head and Meath failed to figure where it mattered most in the competition. But a mediocre league campaign failed to take away from a promising year in Meath hurling and Crimmins believes that the new facilities that have been erected in Dunganny accompanied by the continued generosity of sponsor Martin Donnelly will ensure that the county hurling side will continue to prosper in the forthcoming years. "The facilities in Dunganny are absolutely fantastic and it meant that training sessions were always up to the highest standard and we were able to do proper games in the session which was a huge help. "We have a fantastic sponsor there in Martin Donnelly and we never wanted for anything the whole year. He is a great asset to the county and a role model for anybody willing to follow in his footsteps. He has a huge interest in hurling in Meath and devotes so much time to it and hopefully he will continue his association with us for the foreseeable future," Crimmins concluded. The Meath side that lost out to Kildare in the semi-final of the Christy Ring Cup at Tullamore in July was as follows - S. Quinn; M. Horan, E. Fitzgerald, M. Foley; C. Keena, D. Donnelly, E. Keogh; D. Crimmins, C. O'Mealòid; N. Hackett, E. Brislane, M. Cole; G. O'Neill, S. Clynch, N. Horan. Subs - A. Ryan for Hackett, K. Dowd for O'Mealòid. Tweet

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