Monica McGuirk and Meath set their sights on Leinster crown

They may have accumulated a significant number of honours in recent years, but there is still one item that Monica McGuirk and the Meath footballers would like to scratch off their bucket list in 2025.

A three-time All Star winner, the Duleek/Bellewstown goalkeeper was between the sticks when the Royal County secured back-to-back TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship titles in 2021 and 2022.

She also includes an All-Ireland intermediate championship among her list of honours, as well as Lidl National Football League triumphs in Divisions 1, 2 and 3.

Yet despite enjoying remarkable success on a national level, a Leinster Championship is the one major honour that has eluded Meath in the modern age (their last final victory in the competition was back in 2000).

The Royals have lost the last three top-tier provincial showpieces to Dublin and McGuirk acknowledged there is an ambition within their group to go a step further this year.

"One of our main focuses has to be - and is this year - a Leinster title. Because again it's one of the medals that still isn’t there yet for a lot of girls. It’s something that we want to drive on to try and get. Like last year, it’s a goal of ours and we’re not thinking any further ahead than the league and the Leinster championship. For now anyway," McGuirk said.

When Meath faced Dublin in last year’s Leinster final at Croke Park, McGuirk lined out at GAA HQ for the 11th time in her career.

Considering it wasn’t until the intermediate decider of 2018 that she had her first experience of playing at the Jones’ Road venue, this is a remarkable statistic for the dependable netminder.

Even though that initial outing a little under seven years ago didn’t go according to plan – Meath lost to Tyrone on