A crestfallen Shane McCormack admitted that Meath came up against a superior team in the All-Ireland senior ladies football final.

Facing the media after the Royals’ 0-10 to 2-16 defeat, the manager said: “I’m just gutted for the girls, to be honest. We were always doubted, even at the start of the year before a ball was thrown in, to even get to a quarter-final stage. But we did believe within our circle that we would achieve it.

“We (previously) played Dublin three times this year. A 16-point trimming in the league wasn’t good so we sat down that week and had a chat among ourselves and we kind of worked on different tactics. And in fairness to the girls with the Leinster campaign, obviously we lost to Dublin in the Leinster final, but we were gutted because Dublin got the last eight points without a reply from us.

“So coming into today’s game, we knew what was going to happen but the game was nearly over at half-time.

“In fairness to our girls, they battled to the end. I think we were 11 down at half-time. In the second half, pretty pleased that we came out of the blocks quick enough. I think we lost the second half by a point. But I’m just gutted for the girls because they’re a fantastic bunch.”

The former Kildare goalkeeper added: “Dublin got ahead with the two goals and when any Dublin team get ahead, they’re very hard to claw back. But credit to Dublin today, they’re a super team with multiple All-Stars and All-Ireland medal winners.

“We had 16 new girls on to the panel from last year and this year. I think nine girls got their first ever senior start in an All-Ireland final today, so there are a lot of positives.”

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