Geraghty's goal bookended golden era of Meath football

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 Irish Sun's chief GAA correspondent Gordon Manning who recalls the day Graham Geraghty's flying visit to Navan broke Louth hearts

Gordon Manning is originally from Kells and played with the Gaeil Colmcille club. He has worked in sports journalism for almost 20 years and is currently the GAA Correspondent with The Irish Sun. He is co-author of The Boylan Years.

MY MEMORY likes to believe the closing scene played out with a flight of green and gold paper hats dancing across the sky, silhouetted against the falling sun that had toasted Navan all day.

Ecstatic red-faced men in white string vests bouncing up and down, while small kids with oversized coloured rosettes on their chests wildly wave Meath flags as plaited headbands dangle around their necks.

By the summer of 2002, the practice of wearing crepe hats and garish safety-pin badges had all but disappeared, but nostalgically that evening in Páirc Tailteann still feels like it was a throwback to another time.

It would ultimately prove to be one last glorious comeback by the comeback kings - the never-beaten Royals of the eighties and nineties defying the sand clock once again, at the outset of a decade preparing to move on without them.

Meath should never have beaten Louth in that 2002 All-Ireland SFC round two qualifier, but they did.

Louth led by four points as the clock ticked towards the 70th minute. Then it happened. Richie Kealy. Goal. Graham Geraghty. Goal. Just like that. Game over. 3-8 to 2-9.

Most of my standout childhood memories supporting Meath are from Croke Park, for that is where they chiefly played then.

Victories over Dublin were always sweetest, but there were also unforgettable days against Tyrone and Mayo in 1996, and Kerry in 2001.

Still, there was something unique about that sunny Saturday evening in June, 2002. For a start, it was the first time Meath had played a championship game in Navan since 1995.

It was also Meath’s first ever qualifier. It was a local derby and, truth be told, there was a belief they could get back to another All-Ireland final.

So Páirc Tailteann was wedged, and with thousands of supporters streaming up Brews Hill it was little surprise throw-in was delayed, which was no harm as Graham Geraghty arrived by helicopter as he was best man at his friend’s wedding in Wexford that day.

A group of us from Kells stood on the packed terrace opposite the stand, constantly needing to creep up on our tippy toes when the ball went down the hospital end.

Deep in injury-time, just moments after Kealy’s goal, Ollie Murphy dashed along the end line, passed the ball across a crowded square to Geraghty, who could have taken a point, but instead calmly rolled the ball home for a match-winning goal. The terrace shook. Bedlam.

Geraghty spun away in celebration, somehow already topless and swinging his jersey above his head as if trying to take off. The best man, no better man.

All around him erupted a juxtaposed scene of unbridled joy and utter heartache. The final whistle went. Paddy Carr, in disbelief, fell to his knees.

Despite the euphoria, or perhaps because of it, you could not but feel a tinge of sympathy for Louth. Not that it lasted long, mind. Because for Meath fans, the badge of honour we carried then was that our team was never ever beaten.

It was a reputation largely born out of the lashing rain at Croke Park in 1986 when Seán Boylan managed the county to a first Leinster final win since 1970.

Between 1986 and 2001 Meath won eight Leinster Championships and four All-Ireland titles - and during that era they became the most stubborn and resilient team in Ireland.

And while there have been a couple of occasions since 2002 when Meath staged late comebacks or went deeper in the championship, that evening in Navan 19 years ago bookended an illustrious chapter in the county’s football history. If it started in the rain, at least it ended in the sun.

It would prove to be the final time Seán Boylan managed Meath for a championship game in Navan - his team fittingly saving perhaps their greatest ever comeback for a last dance in front of their own people.

The Dunboyne man would manage Meath for another three seasons, but the empire he had moulded was already starting to crumble.

However, for those 70 odd minutes in the summer of 2002, all of the attributes Seán Boylan had instilled in Meath football teams for over two decades were on show again.

As we floated out of Páirc Tailteann that evening it felt like we, Meath, would go on like this forever.

As Jim Carney said of Meath in his RTÉ match commentary: “You can’t beat them, they never die.”

However, what we had seen was not what we were actually witnessing.

We thought it was a triumphant homecoming, but it turned out the Meath team of our youth were actually bidding us farewell. If only we’d known.