New faces to bring fresh impetus to Meath

With the return to training set for 21st November Meath are already preparing for could be an exciting 2026 with up to 55 players expected to be part of Robbie Brennan's early season panel.

Brennan told the We Are Meath podcast that he expects most of last season's panel, including Donal Keogan and Bryan Menton, to be available for next year with the only absentees expected to be Sean Ryan and Shane Walsh who are both due to go travelling.

Curraha's Jack O'Connor is expected to rejoin the panel and Brennan will also wait until Summerhill, Kilbride and Clann na nGael are finished their respective Leinster Club campaigns before cutting back his panel to 36 players.

The manager is looking forward to getting back to work ahead of the return of the O'Byrne Cup with an away trip to take on wicklow on 3rd January and the start of the NFL Div 2 in Croke Park against Derry.

Brennan had toyed with the idea of holding trials, but is using the Regional FC to look at players and then call them in to work with the extended panel for a number of weeks.

"Trials can be a worthwhile idea, but until you get lads in Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday to get a good look at them you never really know," Brennan told Davy Rispin.

"Trial games might show you something, but sometimes they're not fair on lads. John McCarthy and Paul Garrigan have been very good in letting use use the development lads in games to give them a proper chance."

While confirming that Ryan and Walsh are leaving the panel Brennan did reveal that along with O'Connor, Na Fianna's Oran Smullen, Meath Hill's Gary Breslin, Ballinabrackey's Conor Ennis and Castletown's Killian Smyth are all included.

Once the club provincial campaigns Brennan revealed that Ross Ryan and Adam McDonnell will link up from Summerhill, while Josh Harford and Conor McWeeney will also get a chance from Kilbride.

As well as new faces on the playing panel Brennan also confirmed that Aaron Kernan's new role will primarily be as a defensive coach, while he has also brought in a new Strength & Conditioning coach.

"Aaron Kernan is in. He's a great character and I'm looking forward to unleashing him on the lads, he'll be working on the defensive stuff," confirmed Brennan.

"Conor Gillespie and Shane Supple are still there. They are two incredible people and incredible coaches and I can't wait to see what they're going to bring because we do have to add to what we did last year.

"The challenge is to replicate what we did well last year and then add in little layers, little one percenters which obviously Suppy (Shane Supple) will look at.

"We have a couple of other pieces added to the jigsaw. Conor Scully is coming in to look at some of the transition stuff for us.

"We have someone else from the basketball side of things coming in to help out, not all the time, but dropping in and out to bounce a few ideas off us, so that should give us another layer to what we are already doing in attack and defence.

"Our S & C team has changed. Conor Laverty in Down came and got the boys (Phil Campbell and David Drake), which is understandable given where the two lads live. We were really disappointed they headed off, but we wish them well.

"We are very luck in the replacement we got in PJ Wilson. He has a phenomenal record with Mayo and a professional background with Bath Rugby and soccer teams in England.

"We've put a good squad together and I think if we can marry it all together it should be a good management ticket for next year."