It took a death to break the ice between Cork and Meath

Current Meath manager Andy McEntee never made it onto the field of play for the 1988 All-Ireland final replay win over Cork.

Andy’s sibling and assistant manager, Gerry, however, made the sort of impact, literally and metaphorically, that October day you simply don’t forget. Six and a half minutes into the contest, amid claims Meath were bullied around Croke Park in the drawn game, Gerry clashed with Niall Cahalane and was red carded.

That Meath beat a brilliant Cork team with 14 men for most of that game was overshadowed by events of the following days and months as the back-to-back All-Ireland winners were demonised for apparent roughhouse tactics. The next day, the Meath and Cork players broke bread at the Royal Hospital and were addressed by GAA President John Dowling who said he was ‘disturbed’ by the events and promised an investigation.