The Meath county football team represents Meath in men's Gaelic football and is governed by Meath GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the three major annual inter-county competitions; the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, the Leinster Senior Football Championship and the National Football League.
Meath's home ground is Páirc Tailteann, Navan. The team's manager is Robbie Brennan.
The team last won the Leinster Senior Championship in 2010, the All-Ireland Senior Championship in 1999 and the National League in 1994.
History 1895 The first notable Meath team was the Pierce O'Mahony's club from Navan that represented the county in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) final of 1895, in the days when the competition was played between the champion clubs from each county. O'Mahony's lost to Arravale Rovers of Tipperary by 0–4 to 0–3.
Meath achieved its first national success in 1933 by winning the League (NFL) title.
Meath had to wait until 1939 for another appearance in the All-Ireland SFC, this time losing narrowly to Kerry by 2–5 to 2–3 in the final.
1949–1983: Three All-Ireland SFC titles and first decline
Meath won its first All-Ireland SFC title in 1949, defeating Cavan by 1–10 to 1–6 in the final. This first great Meath team achieved a second All-Ireland SFC title in 1954, defeating by 1–13 to 1–7 Kerry in the final. In between the two, Meath played in two other finals, losing in 1951 — to Mayo — and 1952 – to Cavan. The team also lost to Cavan in the 1949–50 NFL final.
During this period, Meath had a Leinster Senior Football Championship (SFC) rivalry with Louth: in the six editions of that competition held between 1948 and 1953 the teams met each year. 1950 and 1951 were both settled after a replay, while the 1949 match required three games to separate the sides.
Meath's team of the 1960s had a chronic inability to score until after half-time, but might have reached the 1964 All-Ireland SFC final had a goal by Jack Quinn not been controversially disallowed in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final. Meath lost the 1966 All-Ireland SFC final to a Galway team that was winning its third consecutive All-Ireland SFC title.
After the 1966 final defeat, centre-back Bertie Cunningham declared that "next year, we will come back and win the All-Ireland". Sure enough, Terry Kearns helped secured the Sam Maguire Cup with a punched goal in Meath's 1967 final defeat of Cork.
Meath won a fourth NFL title in 1975. Defeat to Kevin Heffernan's Dublin, however, prevented Meath from winning any Leinster SFC titles. This was before Offaly emerged to deny Meath other Leinster SFC titles, as well as to become the only team capable of challenging Kerry's domination of football between 1975 and 1986.
13 consecutive All-Ireland SFC finals were contested by either Dublin or Kerry between 1974 and 1986, a period when one of either team always contested the decider, and 1982 was the only one of those 13 won by another team, which was Offaly.
Meath seemed further than ever from winning another All-Ireland SFC title when losing to Wexford in the 1981 Leinster SFC quarter-final, and to Longford in the 1982 Leinster SFC preliminary round.
1983–2005: Seán Boylan era 1983–1990: Fourth and fifth All-Ireland SFC titles By the time the 1983 Leinster SFC had begun, Meath had appointed Seán Boylan — the hurling team's masseur — as football manager, which marked the beginning of the most successful period in Meath's football history.
Boylan's appointment was initially greeted with scepticism; he was thought of as a capable hurler, but his role in football had been seen merely as repairing any players who were broken, not training them. His first task was to prepare team for a Leinster SFC quarter-final match against a Dublin side that was led by midfielder Brian Mullins. The game ended in a draw, after a fortuitous ricochet shot from Barney Rock struck new Meath half-back Colm Coyle. The replay also ended level; Dublin won in extra time, subsequently winning the All-Ireland SFC title that year.
In 1984, the GAA initiated a one-off competition — the Centenary Cup — to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the organisation's foundation. Despite a concerted effort by the then dominant Kerry (winner of four consecutive All-Ireland SFC titles between 1978 and 1981), the Centenary Cup final was contested by Meath and by Monaghan. Meath won, and — when Boylan was asked for comment — he replied that Meath intended to retain the title another hundred years later.
Meath missed full-back Mick Lyons for the 1984 Leinster SFC final (lost to Dublin), then Laois defeated Meath in the 1985 Leinster SFC semi-final. It was therefore not until 1986 that Meath won the first of three consecutive Leinster SFC titles. Then came consecutive All-Ireland SFC final victories over Cork in 1987 and 1988, the latter following a replay. Meath also won a fifth NFL title title, earlier in 1988. The Meath team of 1988 won three major titles: the NFL, the Leinster SFC and the All-Ireland SFC. Dublin defeated Meath's champion team in the 1989 Leinster SFC final, while Cork defeated Meath in the 1990 All-Ireland SFC final.
1991: Leinster saga and All-Ireland SFC final In 1991, the Leinster GAA Council abandoned the seeding system that had kept the previous year's finalists on opposite sides of the Leinster SFC draw. This decision led to Dublin and Meath — opponents in the previous five Leinster SFC finals — being drawn against each other in the 1991 Leinster SFC preliminary round. Meath caught up on a Dublin lead, with a long range shot from PJ Gillic bouncing over the head of Dublin goalkeeper John O'Leary; the result was a draw, so the teams had to meet again. The replay also ended in a draw; extra time was played, but this did not separate the teams either, so a third match was scheduled.
The third meeting of the teams was expected to be close, but — because the Dublin players were younger and more resourceful — as time went on, Dublin were expected to gain the upper hand. The third game, though, also ended in a draw, even after extra time, and a fourth match was required. In the fourth match — an unprecedented third replay, taking place on the same weekend on which the Leinster SFC final had originally been scheduled — Dublin built a better lead than what they had acquired in the previous games. However, an injury time goal from an unlikely scorer — defender Kevin Foley — brought Meath level. With the dynamics now favouring Meath, David Beggy scored a point directly from the restart to win the match, and bring the four-game saga to an end.
Having overcome Dublin, Meath then faced Wicklow in the Leinster SFC quarter-final; that game also ended in a draw, Meath emerging as the winner in another replay. Meath then defeated Offaly (without a replay) in the Leinster SFC semi-final, before overcoming Laois in the Leinster SFC final. Victory over Roscommon in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final set up a meeting with Down in the All-Ireland SFC final.
With each game, injuries to the first team (starting fifteen) were accumulating. Only three Meath players began the 1991 All-Ireland SFC final injury-free, hindering the team's game plan, which required at least eleven players in defined positions. Colm O'Rourke, Meath's star player, was incapable of playing a full seventy minutes. There were insufficient players for replacement. Meath fell far behind in the second half. Meath trailed by eleven points when O'Rourke appeared as a substitute with twenty minutes left to play. He immediately began helping his team to complete the necessary scores; entering injury time, the gap was reduced to two, before Bernard Flynn came within inches of scoring what would have been a winning goal. Down won by a scoreline of 1–16 to 1-14.
1992–1998: Sixth All-Ireland SFC title The 1992 Leinster SFC began (and ended) with a three-point preliminary round home defeat to Laois; many Meath players then retired from inter-county football.
Meath won a seventh NFL title in 1994, with Robbie O'Malley of St Colmcille's captaining the side to victory over Armagh in the final. However, Meath's season came to an end with a loss to Dublin in the 1994 Leinster SFC final, and the last of the team of 1986–94 retired.
For 1995, a new team — consisting of young players such as Trevor Giles and Graham Geraghty — was formed. A ten-point defeat to Dublin in the 1995 Leinster SFC final ended the team's season.
Meath unexpectedly advanced to the 1996 Leinster SFC final, where — again — the opponent was Dublin. Ahead by 0–10 to 0–8 in the driving rain at the death, a ball was lobbed towards the Meath goal. As the ball travelled through the air, the referee blew his whistle and awarded a free out because of pushing by Dublin players. The game concluded: Meath had won another Leinster SFC title. In defeating a consistent Tyrone side in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final, Seán Boylan led a team that had won nothing in 1995 to the 1996 All-Ireland SFC final. Meath came from six points behind to draw with Mayo. In the replay, the teams lost a player each — sent off after a brawl in the early part of the game; Meath came from behind again, defeating Mayo by a scoreline of 2–9 to 1–11 and winning a sixth All-Ireland SFC title. Captain Tommy Dowd, who was living in the Meath Gaeltacht, produced probably the longest victory speech ever given by a Leinster captain.
Meath started the 1997 Leinster SFC against a Kildare team coached by Mick O'Dwyer. Meath's previous record against Kildare had been excellent and Meath were expected to be capable of dealing with Kildare's superior fitness. O'Dwyer's appointment had brought about an enormous increase in support for Kildare, and ensured that the opening match had full attendance at Croke Park, with Kildare fans outnumbering Meath fans. A few years earlier Meath had been one of the best supported county teams, but the team's supporters had become accustomed to success under Boylan and no longer travelled to big games in large numbers. The match saw Kildare emerge displaying an unexpected quality of football. Kildare led for most of the match; the Meath forwards had difficulty negotiating the opposition defence and their team only drew level in the last minute.
The replay ended with the teams level after ordinary time, so extra time was necessary to decide a winner. In extra time Kildare running on the never-ending engine of Willie McCreery in midfield quickly brought about a six-point lead. It seemed as if Kildare's fitness had run Meath into the ground. Then came Boylan's tactical masterstroke, introducing substitute Jody Devine. Devine scored six points in rapid succession, helping Meath to a one-point lead. Kildare, however, grabbed a freakish point to end the match in yet another draw. The teams met in a third match. The weather had changed and the match was played in rain. Meath won; as in 1991 though, this sequence of matches had caused an accumulation of injuries. Meath did not have a meaningful defence in the Leinster SFC final, and the forwards of opponent Offaly took advantage, ending Meath's season.