What now?

Dreams of a first Leinster SFC title in 16 years turned into a nightmare at Tullamore on Sunday as NFL Div 2 winners and last year's All-Ireland semi-finalists Meath were stunned by Div 3 outfit Westmeath at the provincial quarter-final stage.

Meath went into last Sunday's game on a high with expectations soaring across the country about their prospects for the season ahead, but Westmeath had other ideas and they produced a superb performance to stun Robbie Brennan's side.

The universal view of the Royal display was that they just didn't get up to the pitch of championship football until it was too late and by then they were too far adrift to launch one of those famous comebacks that rescued them several times during the successful league campaign. It was a devastating blow to Brennan's hopes, but he has a contingency plan in place and while Sunday's loss was crushing it doesn't mean Meath have become a bad team overnight. Brennan, his players and management must now view the next five or six weeks before the start of the All-Ireland series as an opportunity, a chance to hit the reset button after a hectic spring and prepare for tough challenges ahead.

The ramifications from Sunday's loss to Westmeath, just Meath's second to their neighbours in 24 clashes, is that they will have to play a preliminary round in the Leinster SFC in 2027 and this year they will be in pot two for the draw for the All-Ireland series. They will have to travel to face one of the provincial finalists in round one.

Should Meath draw a provincial finalist from Connacht or Munster they will play on the weekend of 23rd/24th May, while if they are fixed to play an Ulster or Leinster finalist then that game will be on 30th/31st May - and Meath can be drawn against Westmeath again if the Midlanders were to defeat Kildare and reach the provincial final.

The eight winners of those round 1 games will be drawn to play each other in round 2A on 13th/14th June with the first drawn out team at home, while the eight losers from round one will be drawn to play each other on the same weekend, there will be an avoidance of repeat provincial final pairings.

In round 3 on 20th/21st June the four losing teams from round 2A will be drawn to play the four winning teams from round 2B (repeat pairings to be avoided where possible), with the four winners from round 3 advancing to play the four winners from round 2A in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals on 27th/28th June.

The All-Ireland SFC semi-finals are scheduled for 11th/12th July with the final fixed for Sunday 26th July - it's a long ardous journey ahead if Meath are to go one better than last year.