Foley’s goal highlight of wonderful summer in Dublin

FLASHBACK Thirty years on from the greatest comeback in GAA history

Almost 30 years on and the words still roll from the tongue like poetry from the pen of one of the greats.

O'Connell to Lyons, Lyons to McCabe, McCabe to Harnan, Harnan to Dowd, Dowd to O'Rourke, O'Rourke to Beggy, Beggy to Foley, Foley to Gillic, Gillic to Dowd, Dowd to O'Rourke, O'Rourke to Dowd, Dowd to Foley....GOAL!!!

Nine men were involved as Meath moved the ball from the Canal End endline to the back of the net in front of the horrified Dublin supporters on Hill 16. 37 seconds of pure football, 37 seconds of genius, an excellence of execution and heart that summed up Meath football in a golden era.

Dublin had dominated a contest that appeared destined to end only one way. However, Meath never believed they were beaten and Dublin never believed they could put them away. Once that doubt remained so to did the Royal powers of recovery.

Foley's goal will be forever immortalised on the minds of the 61,543 who witnessed it live in Croke Park and the millions who watched a GAA on a Saturday match live on RTE for the first time, but there was still more drama - and why wouldn't there be.

After all, the three previous meetings in that most mesmeric of summers couldn't determine a winner, so why should a fourth game be any different.

As Dublin licked their wounds, stunned by the 37 seconds of madness that had pegged them back to parity in a game they should have been out of sight, Meath pounced again, delivering a knockout punch that no one saw coming, but that everyone expected.

As RTE showed replay after replay of Foley's close range finish Mattie McCabe was winning John O'Leary's subsequent kickout. A quick release to Liam Hayes who picked out Gillic had Meath on the attack again.

The mis-spoken words of Mick O'Dwyer "the right man has it now, Flynn", just after Gillic had offloaded to David Beggy still ring in our ears. As many closed their eyes, more in prayer than fear of what the enigmatic O'Mahonys man might do, Beggy aimed his erratic right foot towards the posts and guided what is surely the greatest winning point in any sport of any time over the black spot.

Cue pandemonium.

"I suppose you have to be remembered for something, so scoring the winning point in the four-in-a-row against Dublin in 1991 isn't a bad thing to be remembered for, particularly as it was probably the worst game I ever played against Dublin," recalled Beggy.

"There was never any doubt in my mind about taking on that shot. Nothing I did that day went right, I had a terrible day, but I still kept in my mind that if I got a chance I was going to take it.

"If I reflected on the match at the time I would have wanted to have been taken off because I was that bad, but I stayed with it and I kept my head in the moment and got my chance in the last minute of the match," concluded the O'Mahonys man.

Feeling obliged to give broken Dublin one last chance, referee Tommy Howard, who was as worn out by the whole experience as any of the players, gifted them one last free.

Jack Sheedy, a relative newcomer in '91 who became almost a veteran in front of our eyes, stepped up over 55 metres from the Canal End target. Confident he could find the range, but less sure of his accuracy and so it transpired as his kick sailed harmlessly wide and from Mickey McQuillan's next kickout the curtain fell on the greatest drama the GAA has ever known.

The indomitable Meath spirit had prevailed, Dublin's doubts crept in and took them over. Foley and Beggy, with their names in lights, forever lauded as the men who turned the 1991 Leinster SFC preliminary round in Meath's favour.

That game had everything. An almighty collision between Eamonn Heary and Colm O'Rourke that knocked the Skryne man out cold. A second-half Keith Barr penalty that was driven wide as Mick Lyons whispered in his ear and all the drama that unfolded in the closing stages.

After three previous games that had drawn people back to the GAA after soccer had teased the imagination at Italia '90 the year before, Sean Boylan had taken his players away to Scotland for the weekend before the fourth meeting. He wanted to get them out of the glare of the ever brightening spotlight and allow them some much needed rest and relaxation.

That R & R must have included plenty of G & Ts because Meath enjoyed an almighty session that weekend, burning off the excesses with a heavy training session or two.

Whether that trip offered an explanation for Meath's lethargy in the fourth game is still up for debate, but there can be no denying the weekend away certainly built morale and belief and played a huge factor in keeping Meath in a game that had long since looked lost.

The scorer of Meath's glorious equalising goal that day, Kevin Foley, recalled the passage of play that saw him on hand to convert from a couple of yards out.

"On my way up the field as I was following the play I passed Mattie McCabe around the middle and he told me to keep going forward," recalled Foley.

"Time was running out quickly at that stage, so you'd be inclined to drift forward anyway and if you happened to arrive in a place where you got the ball that was well and good, if you didn't get it you just dropped back.

"We won that ball on the endline, so they had clearly pushed up and left space some where out the field and it was up to us at that stage to go and find that space.

"As the play moved on I was just inclined to drift forward. I just kept drifting forward and when I met Mattie in the middle of the field I was thinking that he should be the one to move forward and that I'd head back to defence, but Mattie was taking one of their defenders away from their defence and he told me to keep going.

"I was involved in the middle of the move and then kept going, I had to be conscious that I didn't end up in the square. The play kept moving down the far side, the Cusack Stand side, where Tommy Dowd gave it to Colm O'Rourke and he gave it back to him all very quickly.

"Not that I was famous for scoring goals, but I was still conscious of not ending up inside the square and I tried to make sure I was just arriving, running onto the ball rather than getting it standing still.

I'm sure Tommy got a surprise when he got through and saw me at the edge of the square, but he passed it to me anyway because there wasn't anybody else he could give to and that is basically how it happened.

"I never saw John O'Leary in my vision at all as I kicked the ball, to me I was kicking into an empty net as far as I could see," said the Trim man.

There were sequels that year of course. After all the trials and tribulations of those four dramatic games Meath went out in the next round and drew with Wicklow. Some of the hierarchy started to fear they might not get the '91 championship finished before Christmas!

However, Meath prevailed in the replay, 1-12 to 1-9 and then beat Offaly with ease, 2-13 to 0-7, to book their Leinster final spot where they cruised past Laois by 1-11 to 0-8, almost on autopilot.

Tiredness and fatigue started to take its toll. Roscommon proved a tough nut to crack in the All-Ireland semi-final, but again when the chips were down Meath prevailed 0-15 to 1-11.

However, the All-Ireland final against Down produced too many obstacles and proved to be a bridge too far.

A bout of pneumonia in the days leading up to the final limited Colm O'Rourke to a late cameo from the bench. Robbie O'Malley missed out altogether with a broken leg and an early injury to Mick Lyons left Meath bereft of their defensive rock.

There's no denying Down were good, good enough to open up an 11 point lead with 20 minutes remaining and while O'Rourke and Bernard Flynn inspired a brave Royal rally that saw Meath outscore Down by 1-8 to 0-2 in the closing stages, their efforts fell short as Down held on to claim the crown and prevent would should have been a fairytale ending to the most remarkable year.