Cynical Dubs prove too strong for Royal ladies

A dominant Dublin side were too strong for Meath in the All-Ireland ladies SFC final

Dublin 2-16

Meath 0-10

A desperately sad ending to what has been an incredible season for Shane McCormack's side. Meath were comfortably beaten by Dublin in the Ladies All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park on Sunday.

Alarm bells were sounding when Dublin raced into a 1-3 to no score lead after only ten minutes. By half-time, Dublin had kicked clear of the Royals and led by 2-9 to 0-4. It took Meath 35 minutes to register a score from play.

It was an awesome Dublin performance against a Meath side who were below par. To the Royals' credit, they kept battling and the second-half was a more competitive affair but it was too little too late as the Dubs had already sailed into the sunset.

The stand-out difference between the sides on the day was Dublin's cynical defence and their ability to split Meath open on the counter attack. Every time Meath went on the offensive, Dublin more often than not had every blue shirt on the field behind the ball and if the Royals threatened to break the line, they were generally either fouled or turned over.

Dublin fouled Meath a total of 23 times and the vast majority of those were cynical fouls inside their own '45'. Going forward, Dublin were just on fire and by half-time, every single one of their forwards had scored from play.

Meath yielded no scores from their first four attacks while the Dubs on the counter hit 1-3 with a brace of Hannah Tyrrell scores, one from Kate Sullivan and a well-worked goal courtesy of Nicole Owens.

Emma Duggan eventually got Meath off the mark but her point was quickly cancelled out when Carla Rowe cut open the Royals' defence and tapped over.

Duggan and Tyrrell traded blows and after registering scores with their first six attacking opportunities, Dublin registered their first wide of the contest in the 18th minute.

Dublin then hit three points in quick succession through Orlagh Nolan, Sullivan and Tyrrell before Niamh Hetherton, who had a goal disallowed moments before, capitalised on an uncharacteristically poor kick-out from Robyn Murray and finished to the back of the Royals' net for Dublin's second goal.

Sullivan followed that goal up with a point which put Dublin ahead by 2-9 to 0-2 after 25 minutes. Duggan put a slightly better look on the scoreboard with a brace of frees but at the interval, the Dubs led by 2-9 to 0-4.

To their credit, the Royals came out fighting in the second-half and their brightest spell came just after the restart when they hit three points on the bounce, two from Duggan and one from Vikki Wall.

However, Dublin slowly started to wear the Royals down again and they hit the next three scores through Rowe, Tyrrell and Sullivan. Sarah Wall played a nice ball to Ciara Smyth and she split the posts to pull one back for the Royals but the Dubs kept the foot on the pedal with two more scores courtesy of Hetherton and Niamh Crowley.

Aoibhin Cleary and Emma Duggan hit Meath's final two points before Rowe wrapped up proceedings with a brace of points. A disappointing end to the season but the Meath girls can be extremely proud of how they represented their county in 2025.

Dublin - Abby Shiels; Jess Tobin, Leah Caffery, Niamh Donlon; Sinead Goldrick, Martha Byrne, Niamh Crowley (0-1); Eilish O'Dowd, Hannah McGinnis; Nicole Owens (1-0), Carla Rowe (0-4 two free), Orlagh Nolan (0-1); Hannah Tyrell (0-5 three frees), Niamh Hetherton (1-1), Kate Sullivan (0-4). Subs - Sophie McIntyre for Ownes 49m, Aoife Kane for McGinnis 51m, Hannah Leahy for Donlon 54m, Laura Grendon for Tyrrell 55m, Chloe Darby for Sullivan 57m.

Meath - Robyn Murray; Aine Sheridan, Mary Kate Lynch, Shauna Ennis; Aoibhin Cleary (0-1), Sarah Wall, Karla Kealy; Orlaith Sheehy, Marion Farrelly; Megan Thynne, Niamh Gallogly, Ciara Smyth (0-1); Emma Duggan (0-7 six frees), Vikki Wall (0-1), Kerrie Cole. Subs - Katie Bermingham for Farrelly 25m, Marion Farrelly for Ennis, Ella Moyles for Sheehy both 42m, Niamh McEntee for Cole 49m, Ciara Lawlor for Kealy 51m.

Referee: Gus Chapman (Sligo).