Meath manager Robbie Brennan believes his team were better than they showed in their heavy semi-final loss to Donegal and emphasised the importance of building on what has, overall, been a positive season.
After more than a decade largely spent in the doldrums, Meath had topped Dublin, Kerry and Galway over the course of a remarkable and uplifting campaign which had re-energised the county's football public.
However, the season ended on a bum note at the penultimate stage, Meath falling behind the eight-ball after a display of wildly errant shooting with the breeze in the first half.
Donegal hit three goals in the second half as Meath's challenge collapsed, with 20 points the sobering margin at the end.
"It's really disappointing when you have such a big crowd and a lot of atmosphere behind it and everything like that," Brennan told reporters afterwards.
"It's disappointing, the manner of the defeat I suppose at the very end.
"Listen, Donegal was always going to be a hard nut to crack. That's the reality, they're a fantastic team.
"It's disappointing for the lads really because I'm absolutely convinced we're better than that. What we left behind us in the first half didn't give us enough of a platform.
"And then to try and attack anything in the second half, with the rules the way they are, there's so much space.
"If that momentum -- that great buzzword now -- goes against you, it's very hard to wrestle it back. They're (Donegal) so good at controlling the game, it's nearly impossible."
While Brennan acknowledged that Donegal are a superb side, he stressed that his team had made things easier for them with their wastefulness and that their preoccupation with preventing two-pointers in the second half had perhaps back-fired.
"We made it easy for them at times too. That's the reality. We had plenty of chances in the first half and with that breeze, we should have taken way more.
"We said in the dressing room before coming out that it was probably going to come down to efficiency and ours was poor. Donegal's is exceptional.
"Probably our plan in the second half was really to push them on the twos (two-pointers). We assumed with the breeze that they'd go for twos.
"But they still worked it and worked it and worked it. It was nearly goals more than twos they were pushing for."
While the kickout battle had been a notable strength for Meath in 2025 - aside from the second half of the Leinster final - they were devoured at midfield for most of the first half, which Brennan blamed on poor movement.
"I said it there at half-time but after 15, 20 minutes, we stopped moving. Lads just stopped moving for whatever reason and that meant we had come short.
"But when you're not moving and obviously Billy goes long, then you're down numbers at the break."
This roughly coincided with the loss of the experienced Bryan Menton to injury after 20 minutes.
"Bryan is an exceptional leader for us," said Brennan. "But one of his key things is that he's so good at organising around that back line or the middle line for us.
"There's no doubt he was a loss but you're going to lose guys at this level and you have to be able to replace it again. I thought Conor (Gray) went in and battled really hard as well so it's not like we didn't have options there either. But it was certainly earlier than we would have liked."
One slight talking pre-match was Donegal's decision to break away from the parade prior to it coming around in front of Hill 16, where there was a sizable Meath contingent.
Meath followed their lead, something which Brennan regretted afterwards.
"I went back in to get a bottle of water and I came back out and I think at that stage Donegal had broken away.
"Now, to be fair, we didn't really address it. We did before the Leinster final but we just kind of assumed everybody would stay behind.
"But I think once Donegal broke, we just broke then as well. I'd rather we had stayed behind it and showed it its full respect."
Though the season ended a sour note, the Meath manager was adamant they had to keep building on what had been a re-invigorating year for the county, which saw a first win over Dublin in a decade and a half and a first All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 2009.
"The lads have helped to fill Croke Park because of the way they've played and the bit of abandonment and freedom they've played with.
"I hope we've reawakened that drive and love for Meath football in the county because I think we've been crying out for it and today showed it. It was a complete sell-out.
"But it's important we take that now and keep building that towards the future. You're not going to win every match, as we always know, but we can't drop off now.
"We have to keep pushing."
