Hunger as strong as ever for veteran Dubs

Dublin manager Paul Casey believes the hunger within his side is as strong as ever as they prepare for battle with Meath in Sunday's TG4 Ladies Football Championship final at Croke Park.

The Dubs, winners of five of the last eight editions of the competition, most recently two years ago, take on the Royals in an all-Leinster battle that will see many previous winners take to the field at Headquarters.

Meath came out on top in the last final between the sides in 2021 and followed it up a year later against Kerry, so pedigree is not a question when it comes to this decider.

However, Casey feels the veterans of his team remain as ambitious as the first day they donned the blue shirt.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he said: "The hunger with those players is still there. We've Sinead Goldrick back from Australia and Hannah Tyrrell is still going very strong.

"Carla [Rowe], Leah [Caffrey], Martha [Byrne], lots of girls with multiple All-Ireland medals, but they still have a hunger just like any of the younger girls and it's great to see.

"They're really looking forward to it because they wanted to be back on the biggest stage of the year and hopefully they can do themselves justice now on Sunday.

"You see the experience and we have so many natural footballers and players that always play full of heart, but they're well able to play football as well.

"Their skills execution is brilliant, they're a fit team and do that jersey proud every single time they pull it on.

"They will fight to the very, very end as we've seen a couple of times this year and the team that goes out plays it like it's their last game

"We've had young players come into the squad and they've stepped up to the mark and they've been looking at the older players and learned lots from them.

"The older players have only been too happy to pass on their knowledge to those younger girls."

Hannah Tyrrell scoring Dublin's first goal against Galway from a penalty

The Dubs have not had it their own way this year, coming out on top against Galway by a goal in the semi-final and drawing with Waterford in the group stages.

Two matches with Meath in Leinster have given some indication of what to expect this weekend, with close games between the sides.

Casey feels the way his side have progressed through the year has been hugely beneficial: "We've had a tough route along the way. We went down to Dungarvan to play against a very good Waterford team.

"Obviously, we've beaten Meath in the Leinster final before that, but then after the group stages, we played an old enemy in Cork and gladly got over that.

"Then we had the win a couple of weeks ago against Galway which obviously came down to the last kick of the ball.

"We've been delighted with the progress we've made.

"Meath really put it up to us in the Leinster final. We were in a bit of trouble and thankfully we pulled it out at the end.

"But we were impressed with Meath, and even watching them since, they've improved massively as the championship has gone on.

"We know the challenge that lies ahead. We've made lots of improvements along the way as well so I think you're going to see a really, really good game and there's not going to be much in it at the end of the 60 minutes."

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Follow a live blog on the All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship final, Meath v Dublin, on Sunday from 4.15pm on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

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