Meath overcame Offaly in late January 2006 to claim their eighth O'Byrne Cup title in front of a large crowd at Pairc Tailteann. The Royals travel to Faithful Fields (Offaly GAA Centre of Excellence) for a quarter final meeting on Wednesday night.

Here's a look back at that successful 2006 campaign.

Meath won four games and the O'Byrne Cup in January when the wonderful weather brought the supporters out in big numbers. 

The first competitive game under new manager Eamon Barry was on the second Sunday of the year with Dublin City University providing the opposition at Pairc Tailteann in a game which the county outfit won by 1-13 to 1-10. The college side had Kevin Reilly at midfield and Brian O'Reilly at corner back as well as other county players like Stephen Cluxton, Bryan Cullen, Conor Mortimer and Seanie Johnston. Meath put out an unfamiliar team with newcomers including Ricky Nolan, John Donoghue, Barry Lynch, Peter Curran, Stephen McAnarney and Mairtin Doran. Seven Meath players got among the scorers with Daithi Regan the top marksman with 1-5 from play. 

After the win there was the first of numerous press meetings with boss Barry under the stand in the Navan stadium. The new manager spoke about "putting the pride and the passion back into Meath football" and said "this is a new era for Meath football." 

Three of the four O'Byrne Cup games were at Pairc Tailteann and seven days later there was a 0-18 to 1-11 win over Westmeath. Again seven players got on target for Meath and this time Mairtin Doran did best with five points from play. The home side had a numerical advantage after Joe Fallon was sent off 11 minutes into the second half and Nigel Crawford came on with Anthony Moyles dropping back into defence. Westmeath were two points in arrears when losing a man and still only trailed by that margin until Joe Sheridan and Barry Lynch shot over to double the advantage at the end. 

Meath captain Nigel Crawford raises the O'Byrne Cup

Then it was off to Parnell Park for a clash with Dublin while a near full house at the north city venue lending itself to a special atmosphere. Hopefully most of the Dubs supporters who were at this game and saw their side lose by two points were not left out in the cold for the bigger matches later in the year. Although only a third of the Dublin team would be there in the championship, Meath had good reason to be pleased with the 0-16 to 1-11 victory. They had just four starters from the clash of the previous June while Dublin had one less. This time it was Meath's turn to finish with 14 men, Seamus Kenny having picked up a second yellow card. Daithi Regan was forced to go off with a hamstring strain after kicking three good points from play. Graham Geraghty came on and two late points from Peter Curran, who scored nine in all, eight frees, were decisive. 

Meath were scoring well in those early season game and the 3-14 against Offaly, who hit 0-14, in the O'Byrne Cup final was their best of the year so far. 

Eamonn Barry had emulated Sean Boylan's feat of lifting the trophy not long after being elected to the position. It was 1-10 to 0-4 at the break, Joe Sheridan netting the first goal, and after the Midlanders rallied to get the deficit down to four points, substitute Ger Robinson and Sheridan added late goals. It was the eighth time for Meath to be presented with the O'Byrne Cup and Nigel Crawford, who was impressive at midfield and hit three points, received the trophy. Manager Barry once again made reference to the pride and passion being back in Meath football. Although delighted with the success, he spoke of the need to keep their feet on the ground as they looked ahead to the league. 

The O'Byrne Cup winning team was : Ricky Nolan; Paddy Nugent, Tommy O'Connor; Caoimhin King; Niall McLoughlin, John Donoghue, Seamus Kenny; Barry Lynch, Nigel Crawford; Peter Curran, Joe Sheridan, Shane McAnarney; Rory Maguire, Graham Geraghty, Mairtin Doran. Subs - Ronan Kearns for O'Connor, Tadhg Brosnan for Maguire, Ger Robinson for Doran, Wayne Reilly for Lynch, John L. McGee for McAnarney.

Tweet

Most Read Stories