Meath's Eoghan Frayne: People wrote us off but we knew we could trouble Kerry
Meath captain Eoghan Frayne admitted they were spurred on to beat Kerry on Saturday after being so readily dismissed in the build-up to their final round game.
For the first time in 15 years, the Royal County will feature in an All-Ireland quarter-finals courtesy of their surprise win over the Kingdom.
It is also the first time in the three years of this championship format that Kerry haven't automatically qualified for the last eight and Meath were full value despite being written off prior to the fixture.
'I suppose a lot of people probably wrote us off coming into the game but we had the belief, the same as the Dublin game,' said Frayne, 'and we knew we could trouble Kerry. It was just great to get over the line in the end and top the group.
"You try not to listen to it, to be honest. You obviously hear things and you can use certain things to give you a bit of fuel or whatever and things like that. We had to just focus on ourselves and keep it internal and do the best we could."
Meath have certainly responded well to their Leinster final defeat with two victories and a draw.
'We're really happy with that,' remarked Frayne. 'It was a tough week after the Leinster final. There's a good few young lads in the squad luckily so you don't really think too much about it.
'Maybe the older lads took it a bit tougher because they might have thought it might be their last chance. But we just kind of gathered the troops, put the heads down, got back to work and it's showing now."
Kerry may have been depleted but so too were Meath who didn't have in-form Matthew Costello and James Conlon who had kicked eight points in the previous two games and was man of the match against Dublin.
They also had to endure the loss of Jordan Morris for a period this year too. Frayne pointed to the resilience of the group.
"There's great competition within the squad. You can see, it's just the next man in, the same with every team.
'You have to back the depth in your squad to come through and everyone coming on has to know their role as best they can. That showed again so credit to the lads on the bench."
As Meath are sure to bring a big crowd to their quarter-final the weekend after next, Frayne is feeding off the buzz in the county.
"It's very exciting now for Meath football. It was great to see so many kids on the pitch after the game and hopefully we can keep going."
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