All-Ireland final heartbreak still haunts versatile Nestor

Summerhill native, 15 year-old Cormac Thompson won the Con Houlihan Young Journalist of the Year Award at the Listowel Writers Week in 2019. Currently living in Shangaolden, Co Limerick, he spoke to All-Ireland winning SFC winning Meath footballer Nigel Nestor, now based in the US, on his years in the Green and Gold.

Nigel Nestor has been living in the US since 2007, but his Meath accent still shines through in his voice. He greets me with "this is the first interview I have done in 20 years!" which indicates that he has become a forgotten man since he left the GAA behind 13 years ago.

One place where he will never be forgotten is in his native county of Meath and home parish of Batterstown, where he played a part in bringing Sam Maguire back to the Royal County in 1999 and playing an influential part in Blackhall Gaels’ first Keegan Cup in 2003. But an unfortunate sending off in the 2001 All-Ireland SFC final is something that has overshadowed his successful career and years of loyal service to his county.

In 2001, Meath were on the back of a poor season which saw the defence of their 1999 All-Ireland title vanish at the hands of Offaly in the Leinster Championship quarter final. Players are chomping at the bit to get stuck into the action like when Nestor first joined the Meath panel in 1995.

"The way Sean Boylan used to do it was he would blood the new lads in," Nestor recalls. "I played a few O'Byrne Cup games that year, but to be honest I was too in awe of the players that were already there. I walked into the dressing room and Martin O'Connell, Colm Coyle, Bernard Flynn and Colm O'Rourke were still around and these guys not only were they big egos and figures but they were big men and I was thinking 'where am I going to sit in here?'.

"I remember my first championship appearance was against Dublin in 1997, we were All-Ireland champions the year before and Dublin were the 1995 champions, so it was as good as it gets in terms of crowd, atmosphere and the challenge in itself. I was probably blessed that I had a game like that to start off with because every game after that wasn’t going to go up a level, that was it".

In the early spring of 2001, Meath started the league with intent, but at this time of the year training stereotypically consists of a lot more running and a lot less ball, which was something Nestor was well used to in his inter-county day.

"We used to go up to the Hill of Tara a lot to do dogged running training, it was very tough but I was young and fit at the time and I loved it," he says.

"The actual training games were like in The Last Dance when the 1996 USA Olympic team played a training game. They were hounding each other, dogging each other, and that builds a comradery between you and you needed it because if you didn’t and you went out there to Croke Park or play any other inter-county games you’d be left with egg on your face.

"I remember this drill Sean used to have where he would kick the ball out 30 yards and it would be you against another guy trying to get the ball back to him - it was a simple drill until you come up against the likes of Martin O'Connell where you might get to the ball before him, but a man like that laying into you, it was like hitting a big solid farmer, there were a lot of fellows like that, just real dogged old school defenders".

In 2000, Nestor ended up on the wrong side of the side line after chipping his ankle in training.

"I thought I was playing really well in 2000, we got to the league final against Derry which went to a replay up in Monaghan, its funny because one of my friends told me you can watch some old footage on the GAA website recently so I went on and looked and the first game that came up was the Derry final and of course the two minute clip on it was me.

I remember vividly at the time thinking I did better with this shoulder on Tohill. I came up off the ground and he just flaked me off like I wasn’t there and not only did I not have an impact on him he actually went on to score a goal!.

"But then shortly after that I twisted my ankle in training, and I pulled a chip of the bone off and it was agony".

Nestor was not involved in the championship that year after Meath suffered a shock defeat to the hands of Offaly in the Leinster quarter final.

With many key players sidelined with injury it was a hugely frustrating year for the Royal County, who made sure they would put things right the following year.

In the summer of 2001, Meath scraped their way to becoming Leinster champions with wins over Westmeath, Kildare, and Dublin in the final, tight affairs which Meath could have ended up on the wrong side.

In the days leading up to the 2001 All Ireland final against Galway, Meath were on a high after their thrashing of Kerry in the semi-final, but Nestor reckons the media circus around the team definitely had a negative impact.

"The week leading up to the All-Ireland we had a few media days and there seemed to be a lot about us in the papers and not a lot about Galway at all and there were a lot of shy guys in the team who just weren’t comfortable with it".

All Ireland final day, 23rd September 2001, is a day that he doesn't like remembering, but it was also a day he will never forget.

"I unfortunately got booked very early that day, from memory I was going through and I initially thought I was fouled and my first reaction was to try and get the ball back.

I was probably agitated that I didn’t get the free and I went in to hit a shoulder. What ended up happening was he ducked and when your in full flight and your trying to tuck your elbow in because if you are going to go in and elbow a guy your going to get sent off.

"It was unfortunate because if he stood up it just would have been a ftackle but instead, I connected with his head and I got a yellow.

"It was something like what happened to Richie Hogan last year in the hurling final. I can feel for him because your genuine intent is to shoulder. I can’t speak for him, but I went in to shoulder".

Going in to the second half, Nestor is walking a tight rope after being already booked which is the last thing you need when you are marking Michael Donnellan, but then disaster struck and he got his marching orders after what he describes as a clumsy challenge.

"I went in to try hit the ball away and he just leaned into me knowing that I was going to foul him, and if I wasn’t on a yellow I might not have even been booked. I was gutted, I couldn’t believe it - you feel like your useless now because you are sent off. It was very lonely you know, the game was still going on so nobody is coming over to try and console you or talk to you.

"It’s an All-Ireland final and everyone just gets on with it. It wasn’t like the ref had his eye on me the whole game because I wasn’t that kind of player and there wasn’t much niggly stuff in the game or there weren’t any dangerous tackles that I got away with. It was a random yellow I thought. but someone else might say I deserved it".

Nestor’s dismissal left its mark on the game with Galway triumphing in the end and Meath left to rue missed chances.

Getting sent off in the biggest game of your life is a nightmare scenario, it is a long walk back across the whitewash with many things spinning in your head. It's situations like these that can linger with you for a long time and the more you try to forget about it the more you think about it.

But Nigel Nestor shouldn’t be portrayed as just being the man who got sent off in the All-Ireland final.

He was the most influential player in his club's first Meath SFC triumph in 2003 and he was a work man like wing forward on the Meath team who won Sam in 1999, storming up and down the wing, making tackles, running himself into the ground and popping up for the odd score. Yes, his role may go unrecognised, but it was a key role in the team and Nestor admirably sacrificed the spotlight for the benefit of his team.

A business owner at Building Envelope specialists, Nestor currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife, Ruth, and family of six. He has been away from home for 13 years, but his love and passion for the GAA still shines through.