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Proud captain in '49, later Chairman of the Meath County
Board - Brian Smyth will always be linked with Meath G.A.A.
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Meath's captain fantastic
Before this year’s
Bank of Ireland Football Championships national newspapers and GAA magazines
will carry extensive previews, looking at the prospects of all teams, listing
past records, managers and captains.
It was so different 50 years ago when Brian Smyth led Meath to All-Ireland
glory for the first time.
Picture the scene at a Leinster championship first round game against Kildare
at Croke Park. The two teams are taking part in the pre match parade and Royal
County supporters are wondering why there are only 13 players walking around
in green and gold.
In one of the dressing-rooms Meath were deciding who would captain their team!
Skryne were county senior champions and the honour would go to either Brian
Smyth or Micheal O’Brien.
Both had contributed to Meath’s All-Ireland junior hurling triumph of
the previous year. It was touch and go as to whether the Royal County would
make the breakthrough in the ball or small ball game at the time. After a
National League success in 1946 and a Leinster success in ‘47 Meath football
had dropped to the doldrums before the great triumph of 1949.
Players weren’t exactly queuing up, wanting to be the captain of the
Meath football team at the time. A team which a few months earlier was trounced
to the tune of 3-10 to 0-3 in the National League at Breffni Park. The 1948-49
NFL campaign certainly did not inspire confidence with Westmeath receiving
a walk over in a Kells fixture after a travelling mix up left the home side
with only eight players.
Mattie Gilsenan, the only surviving selector from that wonderful era in Meath’s
football history, recalled: “The county champions supplied the county
captain then and in 1949 it was left to the Skryne club to decide. They left
it between the two players to sort out the matter. Michael O’Brien was
a very shy man and preferred to let Brian Smyth have the honour and, of course,
the rest if history.”
Before 1949 Meath were among the also rans of inter county gaelic football.
In 62 years of GAA competition the Royal County had won just four Leinster
titles, there were two unsuccessful All-Ireland final appearances and two
National League victories.
Kerry (with 16 triumphs) and Dublin (15 titles) were clear leaders in the
All-Ireland roll of honour. Dublin were well ahead in the number of Leinster
titles gained with 23 outright successes. Kildare and Wexford were next with
10 apiece.
In the 1940s, like in the ‘90s the honours were well distributed in Leinster
with six different provincial kingpins in as many years between 1942 and ‘47
with Dublin, Louth, Carlow, Wexford, Laois and Meath qualifying for the All-Ireland
series in that period.
Meath captured All-Ireland honours against all odds in 1949 and Mattie Gilsenan
is of the opinion that three games against Louth ‘made’ the team
and hardened them for the tough against highly fancied Mayo and Cavan in the
last two rounds.
The first time champions had legendary figures like Paddy O’Brien, Peter
McDermott, Brian Smyth, Paddy Meegan, Frankie Byrne etc. According to selector
Gilsenan, Smyth was ‘a great leader whom team mates looked up to’
and also ‘a very unassuming player.’
“Brian was very clever, as clever as a fox. He was great at pulling at
a dropping ball near the goals. There was no hesitation with him and I remember
him scoring a wonderful goal in Drogheda when lashing to the net with half
a chance. He was often at his most dangerous when appearing to be out of a
game,” added the Moynalty veteran.
Fr Packie Tully played a big part in Meath’s first All-Ireland triumph
of 50 years ago. The Sam Maguire Cup was annexed in the Moynalty curate’s
first year as county chairman. The late prelate also trained the team and
rated his captain of ‘49 as one of the best to have worn the green and
gold.
In a Meath GAA Yearbook article over 20 years ago Fr. Tully paid the following
tribute to Brian Smyth:
“One who has been laughed at but who always had the last laugh is none
other than Brian Smyth. In his time Brian played in all forward positions,
at midfield and even at centre half back, but his best position was on the
‘forty’.
“He was a natural leader. He was laughed at for apparent stumbling or
slipping or half falling as if he could neither walk or run. He had the last
laugh because when he was in that innocent looking mood he was most dangerous
and in a flash produced something brilliant from the bag.
“To this day former Cavan players of the late 40s and early 50s talk
of him as the most dreaded of opponents. At times he might be subdued for
59 and a half minutes but in the other 30 seconds the stroke of genius would
strike to make all the difference.
“After the 1956 National League semi-final against Armagh in Casement
Park Michael O’Hehir suggested that Armagh would have won if they had
a Brian Smyth.”
The man who played club football with Batterstown, Skryne and Dunboyne was
one of the craftiest forwards of that era. Of course, there were no All Star
awards then but Smyth was selected on two Ireland teams, in 1950 and ‘51,
for the annual representative games against the Combined Universities.
In 1950 he was centre half forward and captain when Ireland won by 1-12 to
2-3. That year Smyth was one of three Meath players on the national side,
Kevin Smyth and Paddy O’Brien being the other two.
That was the first of such representative games and famous names of the time
like Sean Flanagan (Mayo), Jackie Lyne (Kerry) and the Cavan trio of Tony
Tighe, Victor Sherlock and Peter Donohoe were among the team mates of Smyth.
Padraig Carney and Peter Solan (Mayo) and Jim Brosnan (Kerry) were notables
on the Universities team.
In 1951 Ireland won by 0-10 to 0-9. Paddy O’Brien was again at full back
and Brian Smyth was at right forward with the great Cavan attacker Mick Higgins
on the ‘40. Although lining out a few times for Leinster, Smyth never
managed to win a Railway Cup medal.
Brain was on five Royal County senior football winning sides, in 1947, ‘49,
‘51, ‘52 and ‘54, starring in a second All-Ireland success
in the last of those years. He was also part of Meath’s 1950-51 National
League triumph as Meath became the first team to win that title in New York.
As well as being an exemplary captain, Brian Smyth notched a number of important
scores in the march to glory in 1949. He sent over four points in the final
victory over Cavan.
A press report of Meath’s 1-10 to 1-6 victory on September 25th, 1949
said: “Probably the cleverest display was given by Brian Smyth. Giving
a scintillating display from the first minute, the Meath captain was a captain
par excellence. His uncanny anticipation, impeccable judgement, shrewd eye
for an opening, speed on the ball, ability to lap up punishment, intelligent
backing up of the man in possession, superb fielding, talent for giving a
well timed pass and accuracy in scoring efforts were the hallmarks of a classic
display of centre forward football.”
Even though gaining so much honours in football, hurling was Smyth’s
first love. He was also in attack for Meath’s All-Ireland junior success
in 1948 and went on to play at senior level for the county, sharing in four
National League Division 2 victories. He played club hurling for Flathouse,
Obestown and Dunboyne.
Even though famous for being the first Meathman to lift the Sam Maguire Cup
in the Hogan Stand, Brian has been better known as “a hurling man”
in latter years. He has had two long stints as secretary of the Meath Hurling
Board, first for 20 years and then for 15 years after taking a break from
the position.
He was chairman of the County Board from 1979 to ‘85 and Meath’s
most notable success during those years was the annexation of the Centenary
Cup in 1984. The Dunboyne clubman was in the ‘hot seat’ when another
‘hurling man’, Sean Boylan, became the Meath senior football team
coach.
Brian Smyth has also represented Meath on the Leinster Council over the years
and enjoyed a career as a football and hurling referee. His biggest honour
was handling the 1961 All-Ireland junior football final between Louth and
Yorkshire in Leeds.
Overall Brian Smyth has contributed very generously to the GAA in Meath and
on a wider scale. Undoubtedly one of the classiest football forwards ever
to represent the Royal County, he would also be a contender for a place on
an all time hurling team. After his playing days ended he left few stone unturned
in the promotion of the games he loves.
It is great to see Meath’s first All-Ireland winning captain still so
actively involved in the running of our national games 50 years after his
greatest hour. Happy anniversary, Brian.