For me championship football is absolutely magic, the anticipation of big games, the sunny days, road trips, exhilerating wins, crushing defeats, they're all part of it and getting to share these moments with family and friends creates priceless memories.

With this in mind and given we're unlikely to get a championship this year for obvious reasons I'm curious to know, what are your favourite 3 Meath wins and most painful 3 Meath defeats? preferably from games you've attended.

Specifically how the games made you feel immediately afterwards, not with the benefit of hindsight or post game analysis etc. Also please give a reason for your selections.

My Top 3 favourite wins (I attended all 3 games):

1. Beating Cork in the All-Ireland final 1999, it was the first AI final I'd attended, I got to share it with my dad and one of my best mates so this one will be hard to knock off top spot for me, I'm very lucky to have experienced this game, it was dreamland stuff.

2. 5 past Cluxton 2010. We'd waited 9 years to beat the Dubs, which felt like a lifetime for someone who was 13 when we last beat them in 2001. So to do it by smashing 5 goals past your arch enemy in a sun soaked Croker was only short of an AI win feeling.

3. Leinster win v Louth 2010. Ok ok, this is the cuckoo in the nest and I certainly don't look back on this as an occasion to be celebrated but when the green flag went up and we were champions for the first time in 9 years I felt ecstatic and that's what what this is about = 'how I felt at that moment'. Myself and my my oldest mate hugged each other and started jumping up and down when the flag went up, must have looked like a right pair of wallies :-)


My 3 worst defeats (again I attended all these ganes):

1. Galway 2001, devasted wasn't the word, I was 13 and had unwavering, blind confidence in Meath, I never even considered we could lose, nevermind would lose!

2. Dublin 2002, by no means is this the worst defeat Meath have suffered to Dublin, but I didn't really remember 1995, so essentially I'd only ever seen Meath defeat the old enemy and this was a seismic blow.

3. Wexford in 2008, this is the one that finished me off taking defeats to heart so much. I was stunned after the game, it was a brilliant comeback and must have been a thrilling watch for neutrals but I was incredibly down after it, I thought we were on the way back up and this felt like a killer blow. I literally decided on the Monday after the game that while I love Gaa and Meath, it is just sport and I shouldn't be getting so upset by defeats. Now I savour the wins and move on quickly and calmly from loses and it's serving me much better.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 14/05/2020 11:03:25    2278112

Best-

1987 all Ireland v Cork - o rourkes goal...bang.game over
Class . Will never ever forget that feeling

2010 v dubs - had a rake of pints before game and was in great company among a bunch of dubs. The sweet silence of a packed hill 16. Shock and awe.

2001 semi v kerry - meaths greatest ever performance in croke park in my opinion. Unfortunately its been mostly downhill ever since...

bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1790 - 14/05/2020 13:11:27    2278123

2010, best ever meath win and it was V's louth.
Go on big Joe. To be found and out, colm Judge to do what he did, same with JP Rooney. They were the cause of the free that was brought up and subsequently ended in the back of the louth net. Big Joe doesn't get the credit deserved for the right man in the right place like he should!
96 allireland final v Mayo. Blood sweat and relations. Half the County was supporting mayo because their cat
91 4 in a row. Epic battle against some of the finest Dubln greats.

aces (Meath) - Posts: 162 - 14/05/2020 15:10:46    2278139

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 14/05/2020 17:51:17    2278159

Wins

87/88. Any of our wins against Cork in 80s. Lived and worked in Cork and was involved with local club, great to turn up at training with my two young lads decked out in their Meath jerseys.

91, To finally get over the line, have never experience the hype and excitement that surrounded that series. Great boost to Leinster Council and GAA in general after Italia 90.

99 As above, just loved beating Cork

Defeats

90 Finall lost to Cork, it was a long few weeks.
91 Down: After all the excitement in early rounds, this was a real comedown
2019 Dublin: Did not expect to win, but to score only four points was a shocker. Things were looking a little brighter after promotion, however turned out to be another false dawn.

seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 2144 - 14/05/2020 18:52:30    2278166

This is tough. I need more than 3!.
Most memorable wins
1) Third replay against Dublin in 1991. Sitting in Hogan with friend and neighbours. Being lifted up after Folys goal, then repeated for Beggys point. Best season ever going to Meath games, so many comebacks.
2) 1987 All Ireland final. Seeing my father jumping around the goal posts when we got on the pitch after match, super memory.
3) Geraghty turning in the best performance I have ever seen a Gaelic footballer put in live v. Tyrone in 1996 where we hammered them. We bet Dublin but there was a feeling that it was a once off and we were total underdogs in this game. We really knew we were back after this.

This is even harder to pick than the best wins.
1) Westmeath loss in 2015. It was just a loss that showed exactly how far we had falling. Embarrassment to collapse physically and mentally to gift Westmeath their first ever win against us (that a collapse could happen against a weak team made it much worse) In work hearing people who did not even know I was from Meath laughing at how bad Meath had got in conversations was humiliating.
2) Could have put this first just as easily. In preceding years we had always been competitive against them no matter how bad we were going into the games. Despite everything I always thought this would be the case and on a good day we could put it up to the top teams. This really made all of us realise how far behind we really were. This marked the end of the Meath/ Dublin rivalry. This, along with the Westmeath loss the following year really is when people stopped taking us seriously as a football county.
3) 1990 All Ireland final. We had a toxic rivalry with Cork that time, played them in many big games, even regular league matches turned ugly.

(1991 All Ireland loss was hard to take also, to come through so much and not win was very hard)

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1354 - 14/05/2020 19:55:56    2278171

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 785 - 15/05/2020 17:53:50    2278277

aces (Meath) - Posts: 162 - 15/05/2020 19:23:21    2278294

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 785 - 15/05/2020 20:11:24    2278300

1999 leinster Final, 86 Leinster final and 96 replay

Some great days

Galway 2001 and Offaly where we were depleted in 1997 were hard to take

Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1467 - 15/05/2020 20:33:13    2278304

aces (Meath) - Posts: 162 - 16/05/2020 10:10:46    2278343

Thanks lads, some very good replies and some great memories.

Saldy we've had nothing really great to talk about over the last decade and we need to put that right.

In fairness last year we made great strides by getting promoted and making the super 8s (although I'm not a fan of the super 8s at all) but this year's been a write off in more ways than one.

We never got a proper stab at Div1 because of all the injuries (was it 11 players unavailable at one stage!), and the championship almost certainly won't go ahead this year either.

Htaem (Meath) - Posts: 8657 - 16/05/2020 13:13:32    2278373

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 785 - 16/05/2020 15:06:12    2278385

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 16/05/2020 16:43:26    2278394

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 785 - 16/05/2020 17:50:06    2278401

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 16/05/2020 19:36:46    2278410

Ollie2 (Louth) - Posts: 785 - 16/05/2020 22:01:14    2278427

Plenty of Bevtive lads won championships, with O Mahoneys

Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1467 - 17/05/2020 13:48:49    2278472

Young_gael (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 17/05/2020 15:00:22    2278486

summerof09 (Meath) - Posts: 315 - 27/05/2020 09:48:26    2279309