Meath ladies’ football is set to take on Donegal for the title of 2022 Lidl National League Champions. The final match is set for Croke park on 10th April and will be history making if Meath come out victorious. This is Meath ladies first time competing in Division 1 since 2006 and could be their first ever Division 1 title.
Speaking with Her Sport, goalkeeper Monica McGuirk put their need for victory down to the close- knit group of players involved in their panel. ‘’The girls in there are some of each other’s best friends including myself and I look forward to come training on a Tuesday, on a Friday and on a Sunday and you know we’re all friends inside football but also we all meet up outside of football, outside training, outside match days and I think that’s what done well for this team, the tight knit group that we have, we all gel really well together, everybody knows each other and their personal lives and everything it’s just absolutely fantastic so yeah I’m just delighted with the honour to be part of such an amazing group”.
McGuirk also discussed their mental preparation and motivation for their upcoming final match against Donegal, ‘’the motivation for us going into 2022 was the fact that we hadn’t been in Division 1 football since 2006 and the Meath ladies have never won a division league 1 football title at all and you want to go on and prove to other teams that we’re not a one-hit wonder, we want to progress and develop’’.
Finally, Monica acknowledged the importance of inspiring the next generation and how it helps to keep them focused, ‘’we want to show all the young kids in County Meath what you can go on and do in women’s football in County Meath so I think that was the main motivation, it was after games little kids coming up to you, looking for photographs and autographs, that in itself was motivation for a lot of the girls and the fact that we have a new challenge in that any time we go out and play a game or final we are always creating history for Meath ladies football so I think that was the biggest motivation for everybody.’’
The 2022 Lidl National League Final is set to take place on 10th April in Croke Park.