Kinsella determined Meath footballers won't be a flash in the pan
Meath footballer Ruairí Kinsella poses for a portrait during the 2026 Dioralyte Leinster GAA pre season competitions launch at the GAA National Games Development Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
2025 was a year of renewal for Meath football.
The county senior team’s championship odyssey that saw them reach the All-Ireland semi-finals and beat teams like Dublin, Kerry, and Galway on the way had the Royal County dining at the top table again.
What gives the county’s supporters a lot of encouragement is the fact that the bulk of the team is still quite young so there should be room for further growth.
Ruairí Kinsella is one of those exciting young players who looks like he could raise his game another couple of levels in the coming years, and his New Year’s resolution is to build on the progress made in 2025.
"I suppose it's just about working hard now through these winter months and pre-season, getting hard work done so that we can reap the rewards then in the season,” said Kinsella at the launch of the 2026 Dioralyte Leinster GAA Pre Season Competitions.
“We want to prove that last year wasn't just a flash in the pan and it wasn't just a fluke. We need to put the foot down now and show everyone that we do have the talent and it wasn't just a once-off thing and push on even further.
“We think we can really look forward to the Leinster championship this year. You could probably say we are on the other side of the draw, away from Dublin and Louth, the previous champions.
“We will have Westmeath or Longford in the quarter-final and hopefully we will win that and push on again. I would like to think we will definitely be there and be competitive and ready to win a Leinster championship and hopefully multiple championships in next number of years.”
Ruairí Kinsella of Meath celebrates after the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final match between Dublin and Meath at Laois Hire O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, Laois. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Last year’s win over Dublin in the Leinster SFC semi-final felt like a watershed moment.
It was Dublin’s first defeat in the province for 15 years and you get the feeling it might usher in a more democratic era.
Certainly for Kinsella’s generation of young Meath players there isn’t the same fear-factor about playing Dublin that there would be been for previous Royal County teams.
"Yeah, I suppose for myself, we had a strong underage team,” he says. “We beat Dublin at minor level, won the Leinster Championship and we were always competitive with them at Under-20 level as well.
“I think for me and a few other lads my age now, we're kind of used to having that competitive edge and always being close in games. I think that's helped bringing that into the senior end since we've joined. I suppose with Dublin's reign over the last 15 years or so, obviously when you go to play them it's a big deal.
“But this year Robbie instilled that belief into us to say that we can beat these and we have the talent. It was about going out and expressing yourself and that's what we did."
It also looked like the new FRC rules suit the way this Meath team likes to play football.
Ruairí Kinsella of Meath during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Meath and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
In players like Kinsella, Eoghan Frayne, Keith Curtis, and Jordan Morris they have fast, skilful forwards capable of kicking scores from a variety of distances and angles, so the greater freedom to play attacking football that now exists really plays into their hands.
“Yeah, 100 per cent,” says Kinsella. “I think the whole team, we really, really enjoyed it. We really bought into it.
“For myself, I found you just get that bit more space to really get on the ball. You can take on a man or you can look for a pass to set up another man with a one-v-one.
“And, then again, the two-pointer, you can expand your shooting. You can really show that skill set on a wider range. So yeah, I've really, really enjoyed them so far.”
If Meath are to win major silverware next year and in the coming years, they’ll have to win it in Croke Park, so it’s probably no harm at all that they’ll be playing their home games at headquarters in 2026 while Tailteann Park undergoes redevelopment.
“Obviously, it's what you dream of as a kid, to be playing in Croke Park,” says Kinsella. “To have this chance now to play three games there, it's brilliant.
“Obviously, we'll miss Pairc Tailteann. We love playing there. With the crowd and everything, it's such a great venue. But we'll look forward to Croke Park. We'll get great experience from it, I suppose, going into the Championship and stuff like that, it's vital.
“It's a completely different pitch to any other pitch in the country. It'll be great to get the experience and hopefully, we'll make the most of it.”
Meath start their season on January 3 against Wicklow in the O’Byrne Cup and Kinsella says the plan is to use the competition to build up an early head of steam so they can hit the ground running in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League.
“We obviously aim to do that, hope we get a good start in the O’Byrne Cup, hope we get a few competitive games in there,” says Kinsella.
“Then Derry is the first game of the league and we hope to give that a good rattle. We know the quality that Derry will have coming down from Division 1. We will get our preparation right and will be ready to go from there.”
