Meath complete the great escape twice

On the national scene Meath are very well represented with many high-profile and well-regarded journalists plying their trade in sport, politics and current affairs.

In a series of features over the last few weeks FERGAL LYNCH asked some of those national journalists to take time out from their hectic schedules to pen a few words recalling their favourite sporting memory.

Today we feature the Virgin Media's Political Correspondent and Meath Chronicle columnist Gavan Reilly who recalls the drama surrounding Meath's Christy Ring Cup success in 2016.

GAVAN REILLY (Virgin Media News & Newstalk)

Gavan Reilly’s mother is from Rathmolyon; his father is from Kiltale - neither, as the man says, a football stronghold. After getting into journalism through the college press in UCD, he joined TheJournal.ie before becoming political correspondent at Today FM in 2013, then moving to the same role at Virgin Media Television (then TV3) in 2017. He also somehow finds the time to be a Sunday presenter at Newstalk, a weekly columnist with the Meath Chronicle, a husband to Ciara and a dad to Doireann, whose status as a Dub-in-waiting causes him much regret.

BEING A Manchester United fan from Meath, you get accustomed to extraordinary comebacks. Dublin 1991, Mayo 1996, Liverpool 1999, Juventus 1999, Bayern Munich 1999, Westmeath 2001, Tottenham 2001, Louth 2002, Louth 2010 (ahem), it almost becomes second nature to expect a result to be turned on its head just before full time.

But not included in this litany is maybe the greatest Meath comeback of all - a comeback so great that it literally happened twice. And it’s probably not the Meath team you’re thinking of.

For about an hour on 4th June, 2016 the Meath senior hurlers were the kings of the world. Getting to Croke Park is a rare enough spectacle for any Meath hurling team, but they were in dogged combat against Ulster’s sleeping giants Antrim in the final of the Christy Ring Cup. The Royals were definite underdogs, a status confirmed when the Saffrons led by nine points after 19 minutes.

And then, akin to divine inspiration (as opposed to Jody Devine inspiration - Kildare 1997, that’s another comeback), the gears began to click.

With 15 minutes to go Meath were still down by six, but earlier rallies had instilled a sense of belief. James Toher, Joey and Kevin Keena, Keith Keoghan, Neil Heffernan and Adam Gannon now seemed unable to miss. It felt like Meath were scoring points quicker than anyone could count.

Suddenly Sean Quigley equalised with a bullet of a goal on 70 minutes, then added a clinching point in stoppage time. That was that: Meath might have been more used to welcoming All-Ireland trophies named after a different Corkman, but the grown hurling men of Meath were crying in the Hogan Stand and the Christy Ring Cup was coming home.

Or was it? It turned out the scores were, after all, faster than anyone could count. Such was the pace that even when Antrim broke the flow and scored a point of their own with 10 minutes to go, the stadium scoreboard operator had awarded it to Meath. Eventually the error was ‘corrected’ and Antrim’s point awarded, but Meath’s phantom score was never removed. Thus, Quigley’s injury-time winner - Meath 2-18, Antrim 1-20 - was actually an equaliser.

Then the recriminations. Antrim asking for a replay on the basis of a wrongful scoreline; Meath plunged back into Louth 2010 territory, blamed nationally as opportunist beneficiaries of someone else’s mistake; the GAA, flailing. First, to replay at all? Secondly, where? Newry was mentioned, a neutral venue in name only. Thirdly, when? The Meath players had rightly gone on the tear after their ‘victory’, thinking the season was over. The captain was heading for America only a few days later.

Eventually the fair decision: a replay three weeks later, back in headquarters, in which lightning struck twice. It was a rollercoaster. Antrim led by five before Meath could score at all; the Saffrons led by eight at half time; a 12-point turnaround in the third quarter left Meath leading by four; an Antrim goal in the fifth minute of added time forced 20 more, in which two more goals were exchanged, the last of which left the Ulstermen two in front with 89 minutes on the clock, only for Toher and Steven Clynch to level it again as extra time wound down.

It was like Ali and Foreman, a titanic seesaw between two sides simply refusing to lose. But there was one final Royal revenge. Clynch was awarded a late (harsh) free, and from the '65' on the Hogan sideline, split the posts with the final puck of an epic. 4-21 to 5-17.

Pleasing proof that United aren’t the only ones who can win in the 93rd minute. A result so improbable, a comeback so great, a win so sweet, that only a Meath team could possibly do it twice in the same fixture.