Nelson leaves Meath Ladies role

Eamonn Murray could be in line for surprise return

With just over two weeks to go before they start the defence of their Ladies All-Ireland SFC title away to Waterford on Sunday 25th June (live on TG4) Meath are on the hunt for a new management team after Davy Nelson and his selectors stepped down from their roles today.

Meath LGFA issued the following statement this evening

With regret Meath LGFA announce that the County Senior Management will not be taking the team forward to the TG4 All Ireland Series Group B games against Waterford and Donegal.

The County Board wish to place on record our sincere gratitude to manager Davy Nelson, Head Coach Mark Brennan and the entire coaching and backroom team, for their commitment and work during the 2023 season.

Nelson and his management team of Mark Brennan, Bernie Murray, Alan Malone, John O'Connor, Mary O'Shaughnessy and Packie Reilly took over from three-time All-Ireland winning manager Eamonn Murray last October after Murray stepped away from his position a few weeks after successfully defending the Brendan Martin Cup.

Despite losing several key players to injury, retirements, travels and AFLW in Australia Nelson still inherited a highly regarded panel of players.

however, after an underwhelming league campaign which saw Meath just about escape relegation, and two disappointing losses to Dublin in the Leinster SFC, including in last Sunday's final in Portlaoise, Nelson has decided to step away from his role.

Meath managed just one win in their defence of their NFL Div 1 title, a fortunate 1-7 to 0-5 victory over Donegal in round two, as they lost out to Dublin, Mayo, Kerry, Waterford and Cork.

Meath only managed to hit double figures in their points tally in one of those games (the 0-11 to 2-8 loss to Cork), but apart from the 1-18 to 0-9 loss to Kerry they were strong defensively, only conceding double figures in point in one other game (v Dublin, 1-11 to 0-8).

After losing to Dublin in the opening game of the Leinster SFC round-robin, Meath secured their place in the final with 0-15 to 0-5 victory over Laois.

However, in the final Meath were poor and lost out to Dublin 0-9 to 2-9. After the game Nelson was at a loss to explain where it had all went wrong.

"The first thing is to be honest about it and we know it is not good enough and all we can do is look at everything and come back stronger for the next competition," Nelson told the Meath Chronicle in Portlaoise.

"They are experienced and they know how to battle so we have a little gap of three weeks and we have to recover.

"We are all together in this. We know about all the change and the loss in the panel and what have you so the year at the moment is underwhelming.

"We were looking for a big performance today and didn’t get it the thing is we have another chance.

"We will see what we are made of in three weeks time when we step on the pitch again on June 17 or 18. I hope we’ll see what we can do but at the moment we are a long way off it," said Nelson.

Nelson won six Keegan Cups as a player with Navan O'Mahonys, he also coached his club to four Meath SFC successes and he enjoyed glory with Latton O'Rahillys where he won the Monaghan SFC title.

No announcement was made regarding Nelson's replacement, but former manager Eamonn Murray could be tempted out of retirement to put a management team together ahead of the away trip to Waterford on Sunday 25th June.