So often the poor relation of the county teams, the Meath camogie side was injected with a new lease of life in 2007 and despite coming out the wrong end of three photo finishes throughout the course of the year, it was a season packed full of promise and suggested that a trip to the winners enclosure may be around the corner. This will be of scant consolation to the players that suffered heartbreak in three different finals, with Laois stealing the silverware on two of those occasions (Leinster B Championship and All-Ireland B Championship) while neighbours Westmeath pipped the Royal women to the post in the Division 3 league decider. One of the success stories of the campaign was the performances of captain Aileen Donnelly, who caught many the eye at centre-back and the Kilmessan player sees a bright future ahead for the crop of players that were involved, stating that they will come back hungrier for success next year. "The year has a whole would have to be seen a big success as we managed to get to three finals and although we didn't manage to win any of them, we showed vast improvement from others years where we were unable to compete. "It was my second year with the side and there was a big change in attitude this year in comparison to the year before it. There was a fully professional approach and everybody that was involved put 100% effort into everything they did," Donnelly said. So what has brought about this radical change in attitude? According to Donnelly, the main reason for the upturn in interest in the female small ball code was the appointment of John Davis as manager and Donnelly heaped praise on his contribution. "John Davis deserves great credit for the way we performed. He was approached last October and wanted to get things going then but had to wait until the turn of the year and the interest and dedication he has shown since then is quite incredible. "He has been at every single camogie club match in the county and knows every player inside out and he is staying on next year so that is a huge boost and hopefully we will be able to repay him by winning something," she added. Division 3 of the National League was the first port of call for Meath and they managed to take care of London, Tyrone, Cavan and Louth as well as receiving a walkover from Westmeath which cleared their passage to the decider of the competition. But having failed to show for their clash with the Royals earlier in the competition, Westmeath managed to earn a chance for revenge by booking their ticket to the decider and more than proved they were worthy of such a place by accounting for their neighbours. Next assignment for Davis' side was the Leinster Junior Championship and again they were forced to taste the sourness of a final defeat as Laois had too much firepower for the women in green and gold and ran out comfortable winners. But defeats of Kildare and Offaly on the road to the decider showed that Meath were progressing nicely. The All-Ireland Junior B Championship provided the last chance saloon for Davis and his troops to land a piece of silverware and wins over Westmeath and Roscommon set up a second meeting with Laois in appetizing final. The clash with the O'Moore County was the perfect opportunity to show that Meath had progressed as the year had unfolded and they were fancied by many to see off the Midlanders but a second half collapse saw them lose out once again, this time on a scoreline of 1-15 to 1-9. The script was being played out to perfection in the opening period when Meath built up a substantial 1-9 to 0-3 lead by half-time and were ultra impressive in doing so. Donnelly played a captains role at centre-back, contributing five points to her side's tally and driving forward at every opportunity to help out the attack. Christine O'Brien's early goal gave Meath the perfect platform to build from and points from Dearbhla O'Connor, Jane Dolan and O'Brien swiftly followed as Laois seemed to be sinking without trace. A nine-point interval lead looked to have been sufficient to land the spoils but few could have predicted what would happen in a most bizarre second half? Meath failed to raise any colour of a flag as their Laois counterparts accelerated from first gear straight into fifth and overtook a staggering Meath side in the home straight to claim an unexpected six-point victory. It was a most disappointing end to a campaign that promised so much and Donnelly admitted that the way her side capitulated after half-time left it an extremely hard defeat to recover from. "The final game against Laois was an absolute disaster to be honest. After playing so well in the first half, it was heartbreaking to lose in the way that we did. We just seemed to concede too many frees and they were a different side after half-time," Donnelly said. But despite the agonising defeat, Donnelly is still convinced that the current crop of players have the potential to make the breakthrough and she visualises a successful season in the offing. "This season was really only a learning curve and the players were only really getting to know each other throughout the year, whereas next season we will be much more at home with each other. "John (Davis) will be in his second season at the helm and he will all know us much better as well which will be a huge asset. With a bit of luck we will be able to challenge for honours. "Our main aim will be to win Division 3 of the National League which will mean we will be competing in a higher division the following year and playing better teams. With Laois out of the way now that target should be well within our reach," Donnelly concluded. Tweet

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