Club action the focus for Meath star Niamh O'Sullivan

In what has been a rare year without some form of inter-county silverware, Meath stalwart Niamh O'Sullivan is hoping to achieve another career highlight in the colours of Dunshaughlin Royal Gaels over the coming weeks.

A back-to-back TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winner with her county in 2021 and 2022, O’Sullivan also claimed the Lidl National Football League Division 2 and Division 1 titles in those respective years. Before that, she also helped the Royal County to secure intermediate honours at a Croke Park that was devoid of supporters in December 2020.

A little over three months earlier, O’Sullivan struck six points as Royal Gaels defeated Dee Rangers on a score of 2-19 to 3-06 to earn Meath intermediate club honours.

Much like with the county side, the 2021 All Star has enjoyed a strong transition back into the senior grade at club level as the Gaels reached the top-tier championship decider in 2022 – losing out in the end to defending champions Dunboyne by just three points.

Yet they have registered victories against Skryne and Simonstown thus far in the 2023 edition of the local SFC and with Meath’s bid for a third successive Brendan Martin Cup ending in a quarter-final reversal to Kerry, she is aiming to go a step further with the Dunshaughlin side this time around.

"We’ve won previous intermediate championships in Meath and we’ve always only managed to stay up a year in senior," O'Sullivan said.

"In the second year in senior, we always would have gotten relegated. When we won the intermediate last, we knew going up to senior that we wanted to be going up and competing, and staying at senior.

"We want to be competing at senior level, we want to be competing at semi-finals, finals. We were very