As last year's controversial Leinster final demonstrated, Meath and Louth fans have very different opinions when it comes to football, but one thing supporters of an older generation agree wholeheartedly on is that former Mattock Rangers and Seneschalstown star Ollie Geraghty was a seriously good footballer.

It seems fair to say that Ollie Geraghty is a legend of both Meath and Louth football. Born and reared in Collon where his rare talent first came to notice in the colours of the local Mattock Rangers club, he transferred to Seneschalstown in the mid-1960s after moving to Beauparc and was part of the Meath squad that captured the Sam Maguire in 1967.

Now 71 and 14 years retired from Irish Cement where he had worked for 25 years, Ollie keeps himself fit and hearty by getting in a few rounds of golf in Navan Golf Club every week. And while he's no longer actively involved in the GAA, he has maintained a keen interest in the games. Indeed, his youngest sons Alan and David have both played for Seneschalstown, and David was goalkeeper when they lifted the Keegan Cup in 2007.
When Graham Geraghty first came on the scene with Seneschalstown, many assumed that he was Ollie's son, but much as he admires him as a footballer, the two aren't related.
"I used to get phone calls from someone involved with Meath - who I won't name - asking me to pass on information to Graham about when training was on," Ollie chuckles.

"He just assumed I was Graham's father. In some ways, it was an easy mistake to make because I had blond hair one time, was of similar build and was from the same club. But we're not related."
In his prime, Ollie was one of the best midfielders in Leinster. In the latter part of his career, he played at either centre forward or full forward. He was a tremendous servant to his adopted Seneschalstown in particular, lining out for them until the age of 44 when he finally decided to call time on an outstanding and decorated career.
Mattock Rangers was founded in 1952 and in those early years the Geraghty brothers backboned their team. Paddy, Larry, Jim and Ollie all played for Louth and also had the distinction of having never been sent off. Another brother, Kevin, didn't play, but was an active member of the Collon club nevertheless.

The Geraghtys were to the fore as the fledgling Rangers won back-to-back Louth JFC and IFC titles in 1960 and '61. They also contested the SFC final in 1962, only to lose to an emerging Newtown Blues side. Mattock had to wait a further 40 years - 2002 - to finally get their hands on the Joe Ward Cup when they were captained by Ollie's nephew, Donal Geraghty. They've since won it four more times, including in 2009 when Seneschalstown also won the Meath SFC.
"That was a special year for me - to see the two clubs I played with win senior championships. And the same double nearly came off again last year when Mattock retained the Louth championship, but Seneschalstown lost the Meath county final to Skryne," he says.

Ollie worked in Manchester for two years (1963-65) where he played for the St. Brendan's club. He also represented Lancashire in a tournament in which they played the great Down team of that era. At the same time, he continued to commute back to Ireland to line out for Mattock Rangers in important championship games.

Ollie's marriage to Evelyn Woods in 1965 (she sadly passed away in '93) saw him return to Ireland for good and take up residence in Beauparc (his home is just a stone's throw away from Seneschalstown's current pitch). Ollie, who now enjoys the company of Anne, continued to play for Mattock Rangers and Louth (whom he won a Leinster JFC medal in '66) before deciding to throw in his lot with Seneschalstown and Meath in '67. His first game for Seneschalstown was against Syddan in the Castletown tournament, while his Meath debut came against Down in a challenge match at Stamullen.
"I was thrown in at the deep end," he recalls.

"The Meath selectors started me at full back, which wasn't my usual position, where I was given the task of marking none other than the great Sean O'Neill. I couldn't have asked for a tougher start to my Meath career, but I did better than expected by holding him to a point, and that was obviously something I was happy about."
Ollie's first season with the Royals was the stuff of fairytale. They went on to beat Cork in the All-Ireland final to land the Sam Maguire for only the third time and, while Ollie's only appearance came as a substitute against Offaly in the Leinster championship, he still got a huge thrill from being part of such a successful squad.
"I went straight onto the Meath panel after joining Seneschalstown and played in all the challenge games as well as the championship game against Offaly. I was very lucky to win an All-Ireland in my first year with Meath. Other players could be trying for 20 years and never win one. I was in the right place at the right time," he says modestly.
The following March, Meath became the first team from Ireland to tour Australia in what was a forerunner to the International Rules series. It proved to be a highly successful trip for the then reigning All-Ireland champions who won all five of their games.

"It was a trip of a lifetime," remembers Ollie, who has the distinction of winning O'Byrne Cup medals with both Meath and Louth .
"Peter McDermott did all the groundwork and to win all our games, including one which was played under lights in Sydney, was a fantastic achievement when the warm weather and fitness of the Australians was taken into account.
"A lot of friendships were developed during our time out there. I roomed with David Carty and Ollie Shanley, and have remained friendly with them ever since."

Towards the end of the 1960s, Ollie was struck down by knee trouble and was forced to take a complete break from football.
He remembers: "I used to suffer chronic pain in both knees and couldn't train after playing a match. It got so bad that I had to take a year out. But then I got a cure from Mrs Woods in Ardee and haven't had problems with my knees since."

In 1973 at the age of 33, Ollie was recalled to the Meath team and was appointed captain on the back of Seneschalstown's historic Keegan Cup success the previous year. Rotating between centre forward and full forward with Mattie Kerrigan, he helped the Royals to Leinster championship victories over Westmeath and Laois before losing heavily to reigning All-Ireland champions Offaly in the provincial decider. It proved to be Ollie's last game for the Royals. However, his club career still had another 11 years to run.

As with his Meath career, Geraghty enjoyed instant success with Seneschalstown who defeated Bohermeen to claim IFC honours in 1967. The Yellow Furze outfit had also been boosted by the arrival of Ollie's midfield partner Terry McDonagh from Walterstown and Tommy 'Pop' Collins from St. Mary's, Donore that season.
That success heralded a successful period for Seneschalstown which culminated in them capturing their first SFC title after a replay victory over Navan O'Mahony's in 1972. Ollie, who doubled up as a selector (the late Eddie Finnegan, Billy Boland and trainer Fr Seamus Mulvaney were the other members of the management), was joined on the team by a host of talented youngsters, who had helped Seneschalstown to a hat-trick of U21 championships in the preceding years.
"I was made feel very welcome by everyone in Seneschalstown. The late Conor Brennan, Pat Carter and Fr Seamus Mulvaney, who trained us in 1972 and was a driving force behind the development of the club's pavilion - they were all great men who I had the height of respect for," he recalls.

Unfortunately for Seneschalstown, Summerhill also had an outstanding team at that time - winning a four-in-a-row of Keegan Cups between 1974 and '77 - and the men from the Yellow Furze had to wait until 1994 for their next senior success.
Whereas Ollie had been Seneschalstown's sole representative on Meath's 1967 squad, the club has a much bigger representation by the mid-1970s with the likes of Billy and Mickey Collins, Plunkett and Pete Cromwell, and Tommy Finnegan regularly featuring for the county side.

Ollie, who put his longevity as a footballer down to the fact that he never had a serious injury, has four sons, Mark, Paul, Alan and David, and one daughter, Sharon. All five played underage for Seneschalstown, but only Alan and David graduated to the senior ranks. Alan still lines out for the juniors and is a member of the club's committee, while David won SFC medals in 2007 and 2009 (he was understudy 'keeper to Davy Lyons in the latter year).

Ollie describes the fallout from last year's infamous Leinster final between Meath and Louth as "unfortunate" and, while he considers himself more of a Meath supporter these days after living in the county for the past 46 years, he believes Louth should have had the game won before Joe Sheridan's last-gasp 'winning' goal.

"I still get plenty of slagging whenever I play golf in Ardee over what happened last year," he laughs.
"It was unfortunate what happened. It wasn't Joe Sheridan's fault that the goal was awarded - it was the referee's fault. Joe just played to the whistle. It was very tough on Louth, and my brothers are big Louth supporters, but they should never have found themselves in that position. They should have been out of sight by then."

Commenting on this year's championship meeting of the sides, Ollie continues: "I expected Meath to win to be honest. Louth had lost to Carlow and weren't going well beforehand. Meath were very good on the night, but how Louth let Cian Ward in for four goals is beyond me. He wouldn't get that sort of room at club level I can tell you."
Ollie's last big game for Seneschalstown was the 1983 JFC final which they lost to St. Michael's. He hung up his boots the following year, thus bringing the curtain down on a remarkable career.

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