Meath manager Jenny Rispin said the TG4 All-Ireland champions are under no illusion about the scale of the task facing them when they head to Kerry for a quarter-final showdown against the side they defeated in last year's final.
The two-in-a-row champions are on the road for their last-eight tie after going down at the weekend to Donegal in Navan.
"A trip down to Kerry is never easy," said Rispin. "We’re starting anew now and we’ll be looking for a bit of a kickback after that game today.
"Kerry and ourselves are getting to know each other well now at this stage. There’s not much between the teams. They’re getting to know each other too well at times!
"Kerry had a good win against us in the league. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to that. We need to look at ourselves now and how we can improve all aspects of our game."
The clash in Kerry on the weekend of 15/16 July will be a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland final which Meath won by 3-10 to 1-07.
Elsewhere, Galway will host Mayo in a repeat of the Connacht final while the only two teams in the last eight who have never won the All-Ireland title, Armagh and Donegal, will both enjoy home advantage in the quarter-finals.
Donegal will face five-time champions Dublin, while Armagh will take on a Cork side who booked their place in the last eight with an impressive 8-12 to 2-03 win over Tipperary.
Meath and Donegal served up a tight affair in Navan with late points from Susanne White and Karen Guthrie securing an invaluable 1-10 to 0-12 win for the Ulster side. The only goal of the game came from Niamh Hegarty after eight minutes which helped them lead by 1-06 to 0-06 at the break and they did enough in the end to set up a quarter-final showdown with Dublin.
This is the third year in a row that the sides have met at the quarter-final stage, with Dublin winning in 2021 and then last year Donegal triumphed by 3-07 to 1-07 to bring Dublin’s run of eight All-Ireland final appearances in a row to an end.
Donegal manager Maxi Curran expects another close encounter with the Dubs this time round.
"They caught us in Carrick-on-Shannon two years ago, we managed to catch them last year," said Curran.
"You can rest assured Mick Bohan is sitting licking his lips at the thought of playing Donegal again because we've had such good battles.
"They will be gunning for it, but the one thing about Dublin is, we don’t fear them either. We’re able to get toe-to-toe with them most times and it will be a real testy one."
Cork, searching for their first crown since they won their 11th in 2016, had seven different goalscorers in their big win over Tipperary. Anna Ryan got a couple and Eimear Kiely, Máire O’Callaghan, Orlaith Cahalane, Daire Kiely (penalty), Dara Kiniry and Bríd O’Sullivan also found the net. Aishling Moloney got both Tipperary’s goals.
"We were very disappointed after the Galway game," said Cork manager Shane Ronayne. "We had a very good two weeks of training, everything was positive. Players knew they hadn’t executed what they should have done against Galway. We as a management looked at ourselves as well. Everything we put into practice and wanted to do, we did that in the first 15 minutes against Tipperary. We are very happy with that."
Kerry, also All-Ireland champions 11 times, wrapped up home advantage for their showdown with Meath with a 2-21 to 2-05 win over Cavan in Tralee. Cáit Lynch was outstanding and a full-forward line of Siofra O’Shea, Caoimhe Evans and Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh who hit 1-9 between them, ensured a convincing win with Ciara Murphy getting their other goal.
"We kicked 1-10 in the first half into a very strong breeze and that laid a huge foundation coming out in the second half," said Kerry joint manager Darragh Long. "We’re in with the top eight teams in the country now and looking forward to the All-Ireland quarter-final. We played really well and we’re in a good place at the moment."
Cavan will play Laois in the relegation battle and manager Gerry Moane is hopeful they can regroup and preserve their senior status. "We’re a very young side and a developing side," he said. "Not making excuses but we’ve had quite a number of injuries coming into the last two games but now we’ll have to dust ourselves down and prepare for our relegation game."
A haul of 2-09 from Sinéad Cafferky and Sinéad Walsh was enough to book Mayo’s passage to the quarter-finals as they saw off Laois by 2-15 to 0-08 in Castlebar. They will now face neighbours and old rivals Galway in a repeat of the Connacht final which Mayo won by 3-13 to 2-09 in May.
"There are areas there to still clean up but we’re really happy with the win," said Mayo manager Michael Moyles.
"I’m really happy with how we used the ball. We left a good few chances behind us too as well."
Meanwhile, in the TG4 All-Ireland Junior Championship there were wins for Fermanagh, Down, Limerick and Carlow against London, Kilkenny, Sligo and Derry respectively.
