Sam still looking for a home
in Mayo or Meath

GAA News 18 September 1996

John Melvin reports on an All-Ireland Final which saw Mayo reach for the Cup only to have it snatched from their grasp by Meath with a levelling point 24 secondS into injury time.

Mayo 1-9 ---- Meath 0-12

Home Wanted:
A loving home for Sam Maguire. Would like to go to either Mayo or Meath, but unsure if they will have him. Has a preference for a county near the sea which he hasn't visited in over 45 years on or before September 29th.
Apply Croke Park
Dublin

I hope John Maughan and Mayo read this ad this week and get their application in before it is too late.

At around 4.55p.m. on Sunday evening time stood still in Croke Park which broke into silence when referee Pat McEneaney signalled that he was unable to draw a conclusion in the 1996 All-Ireland Final.

Only over twenty seconds of injury time had elapsed when he waved the hands to signal that we would have another day out in two weeks time.

It took a while for it to sink in that it was over. Meath fans must have blessed themselves; Mayo supporters must have said a decade of the rosary as they watched a six point gap eaten into, and Croke Park must have been praying to the Patron Saint of draws as another crowd of over 68,000 will fork out in excess of £1 million pounds to see where Sam Maguire is going to rest his head for the coming year.

It was a fiendish ending to a compelling and engrossing final as Meath and Mayo stood shoulder to shoulder for seventy minutes as the battle raged as to who would take Sam home.

It surely looked as if Mayo had won the argument when Ray Dempsey stroked home a goal after the Meath keeper fumbled ten minutes into the second half. A six point lead, 25 minutes left and Meath struggling for air.

But if ever a team were specialists at holding their breath under water, it is Meath, who rose with the evening tide to almost wash Mayo's hopes up on the beach as they came at them with wave after wave of attacks until Pat McEneaney decided he could take no more.

Would Meath have won? Would Mayo have hung on? Academic really. Sam is still looking for a home and I'm still banking on his return to a county he has been too long an emigrant.

To do that Mayo will have to focus largely on all the positive aspects of their game, and there were many, as they look towards the re-play.

John Maughan will not only have to lift bodies to the same level but he will also have to stoke the spirit and get the flame burning as bright as it did for almost sixty minutes. But he will also have to tell his team that All-Ireland's now last seventy minutes and like so many Mayo teams in the past, this one almost fell into the same trap of failing to maintain their concentration and momentum for the ful game.

However, I am not going to go as far as to say that Mayo died in the last ten minutes. Limbs certainly tired and minds did become frayed. But the exertions up to that point had put a huge draw on their mental and physical resources. That is the kind of pressure you have to cope with to become champions and I very much subscribe towards John Maughan's sentiments expressed afterwards that these fellows should be given something for their efforts, not to mention the money they make for the G.A.A.

It is no nearing a profession sport but they must win first and they came oh so close that you could smell victory when Ray Dempsey got the goal and P.J. Loftus scored a superb pint to keep them four ahead with twelve minutes remaining-1-9 to 0-8. But it wasnÕt to be. At least not on the first trip.

Physical

They had played Meath at their own hard physical game, matched them stride for stride and pound for pound and blotted them out of the attack where, to a man, they hounded and harassed like terriers.

Mayo ruled at midfield with the majestic Liam McHale giving the performance of his life and for once and for all, burying the false accusation that his heart is in the wrong place.

He played brilliantly, linked superbly and strung around some very intelligent ball. It sounds like a formula for winning an All-Ireland. Unfortunately, Mayo did not get sufficient return from the amount of possession they enjoyed and that ultimately was their undoing.

Examined

It is an area that will have to be examined closely if they are to win the next day. Maughan will have to work out a formula of bringing his best forward division, the full forward line, into the action. Casey and Nestor were never allowed use their pace, partly because the service did not suit them and only Ray Dempsey's physical presence proved a threat in that sector.

However, the half forward line did come alive and James Horan's three points in the first half were as good as any points Spillane or Sheehy scored in such finals.

The interval lead of 0-7 to 0-4 could, and should have been a lot greater. Colm Mac had a bad wide, Liam McHale hesitated for the only time when he passed rather than went for a point. But it was Mayo who were firing the bullets in that first half as they matched up to Meath in every sense of the word.

I would never advocate violence on the field, but you have to look after yourself out there, and it was not surprising that Mayo would lose the cool when Kevin Cahill was taken out with a late and nasty challenge from Barry Callaghan. The challenge was bad enough, but when a Meath forward insisted, rather roughly, on getting the injured Cahill to his feet, it was the signal for a few slaps to be thrown and people to mind their manners. With that out of the system it was back to work.

And Mayo did work. Horan, Colm Mac had the opening points but Meath levelled with Geraghty getting a rare look at the posts in the first half, and Giles punishing CahillÕs indiscretion with an easy close-in free. But Dempsey earned a free for Maurice Sheridan to put Mayo back in front and then Horan was on hand to collect a breaking ball and put Mayo two points up.

And it was Horan who made it three as he left Colm Coyle in his shadow and Mayo were looking good.

But ever time Mayo threatened to pull away, Meath kept reeling them back in. Giles got a very good point from play but Sheridan responded with a free from the hands and then Geraghty forced a great save from Madden as he dribbled almost forty yards of the pitch to shoot from close range. Sheridan and Giles traded points to bring an untidy first half to an end, and Mayo looking the more in control and organised team at the interval leading by 0-7 to 0-4.

But there was a considerable wind factor to be considered. However, when Maurice Sheridan added an early second half point, Mayo couldn't have asked for a better start. A great point from Brendan Reilly, who found it hard to make a living in the first half, kept Meath hanging in.

It was a ball from Nallen which was messed-up by two Meath backs and the keeper which fell to the feet of the predating Ray Dempsey. He kept the cool, picked his spot and slotted it on the ground to the corner of the net.

It was the signal for Mayo to go for the jugular. It was ten minutes into the second half and it was a a time when difficult decisions had to be made by Sean Boylan who was watching his team sail perilously close to the rocks. I have no doubt another point or two for Mayo at that juncture would have done it. The killer punch should have come. It almost did, but both McHale, and Horan from the rebound, were denied by the upright. It didnÕt and in the and Mayo almost paid the ultimate price.

Giles kept picking away at the lead. Reilly added another great point, Giles had another free and the gap was down to three with fifteen minutes left.

Mayo supporters, and this reporter, were beginning to break out in a sweat. The cup was there. Or was it?

P.J..Loftus was sprung instead of David Nestor who got very little change out of the outstanding Martin O'Connell. High balls were being dropped to the wrong players, mistakes were being made. It was messy, but it was brilliant. Nerves were jangling, pulses racing.

Loftus cut through, and might as he has done in the past stuck it in the net, but rightly took his point. Mayo were back in front by four points and the clock was ticking down to twelve minutes left.

That was their last score. The Meath half back wall began to pressure forward. The ball was going past Mayo's midfield. Backs were becoming disjointed. Meath were on the scent of their quarry. Dowd was beginning to find room, McDermott was getting a few balls at last at midfield, Fay and O'Connell were taking everything in their stride and setting up the attacks. Mayo were in trouble

McDermott from play. Giles and Reilly each pulled back a point and the margin was at the minimum with just four minutes remaining. Eyes closed. Please God. But there was no reply. Geraghty came through for what looked sure to be the equaliser but shot wide. Holmes intercepted from Tommy Dowd with a Meath man lurking in the corner. Gripping stuff.

Then came that moment when the slow motion camera in the mind will picture for ever. Colm Coyle looks up. Sends in a speculative lob. In the dazzling sun it hops in behind a Meath forward and a Mayo defender. Madden rightly decides it is not his ball. It bounces the right way for Meath. An unkind hope for Mayo.

But the game is level and Pat McEneaney has had enough.

Sam is still looking for a home. On Sunday week I expect him to say: