Five things they learned on replay day down the years
Kerry 0-14 Galway 0-14
Kerry 0–17 Galway 1–10
Laboured all year? Win a replay and prepare to have your toil now charted on a learning curve. As Mick O’Dwyer wrote in the ‘Examiner’ the day after Kerry’s stylish triumph the second day out, “To date Kerry have been charged with blowing leads (hung jury), lacking bottle (acquitted), not being able to play over 70 minutes (acquitted) and having a full-back problem (no case to answer). There is another answer too - a huge piece of silverware somewhere in Killarney this morning.”
Meath 0-12 Mayo 1-9
Meath 2–9 Mayo 1–11
As we saw this week, a narrative easily takes hold between final dates. In 1996, Meath were cast as villains and in the winners’ dressing room, Sean Boylan delivered a slightly cryptic paean to the value of keeping your counsel. “You carried the mantle of favourites well. It wasn’t an easy mantle, lads. It wasn’t easy for a team that hadn’t yet won what it had set out to win, you understand. But as I said to you before, horses don’t talk. Horses don’t talk and it’s you who has to go out and play the game. We have a lot of talking to do with each other, we have a lot of celebrating to do with each other. But we’ll do it with honour lads, and we’ll do it with dignity.”
Meath 0-12 Cork 1-9
Meath 0–13 Cork 0–12
As Michael Fortune put in in the Irish Press: “In the opening game, we saw a rather strange Meath side. They tried to change their style of play whether by accident or design. Gone was the bruising, physical side of their game. Before the replay, Meath made no secret of the fact that the approach was going to be much different. The game was about 15 seconds old when we realised they weren’t bluffing.”
The lack of secrecy was such that Gerry McEntee was sent off after seven minutes for throwing a box. But Meath had found themselves and glory again.
Offaly 1-13 Kerry 1-13
Offaly 1–19 Kerry 0–13
One of only two replays Kerry have lost out of seven reprises. Offaly midfielder Willie Bryan told Paul Rouse in this paper recently, “We probably should have beaten Kerry the first day. Then we were kind of written off by everyone. Kerry had never been beaten in a replay and we had two big losses early in the game when Eugene Mulligan and Johnny Cooney got injured. But we didn’t panic.”
Cavan 2-4 Meath 1-7
Cavan 0–9 Meath 0–5
A sodden Croke Park and a tricky wind heaped the bulk of the stress on two men’s shoulders.
In the ‘Irish Press’, Tony Myles summarised, “A game which, in the long run, depended on the free-kicking of the Cavan and Meath captains. In the first-half, Meath’s captain Paddy Meegan lost the scores from frees which Mick Higgins got for Cavan and Mick got them sweetly and well.”
Higgins kicked seven to Meegan’s one and Cavan shook off their own replay hoodoo.
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