Kerry along the way

and one defeat from five outings.

Meath were rank outsiders when they took on holders Kerry in a quarter-final tie at Croke Park. Indeed the Kingdom were not only putting their title on the line but were seeking a five-in-a-row after being crowned champions for the previous four years.

The Kerry line-up contained household names like Paidi O’Shea, John O’Keeffe, Jimmy Deenihan, Tadhg Kennelly, Ogie Moran, Pat Spillane, Mikey Sheehy and John Egan, but it was unfancied Meath who came out on top, 0-11 to 0-6.

In his analysis of the game in the Irish Press, sportswriter Peadar O’Brien said: ‘Perhaps it was complacency, perhaps it was over-confidence, but I’m more inclined to the idea that it was the brilliance of Meath playing some of their best football for years which knocked National Football League champions Kerry out of this year’s competition in this exciting quarter-final at Croke Park.’

Walterstown’s Ollie O’Brien top-scored for Meath with five points, while Mick Ryan (three),

Matt Kerrigan (two) and Cormac Rowe were also on target in a fully merited victory.

The win booked Mick O’Brien’s side a semi-final date with Mayo, and despite their heroics over Kerry they were still outsiders against their Division 1 opponents.

Once more, though, Meath turned on the style and three goals in a blistering nine-minute spell between the 38th and 47th minutes blew the Connacht men out of the water and left the Royals in their first NFL final in 19 years. It ended 4-6 to 0-8, with Ollie O’Brien, Matt Kerrigan, Ken Rennicks and Cormac Rowe all finding the net.

The sides were level - 1-3 to 0-6 - at half-time, but it was Meath who had more fuel in the tank for the second half despite the petrol shortage that was crippling the country at the time.

The following Sunday All-Ireland champions Dublin brushed aside the challenge of Tyrone, 3-12 to 1-7, to set up an all-Leinster decider.

And what a memorable and eventful day in Croke Park that proved to be as Meath produced a swashbuckling display to take the title at the expense of a star-studded Dublin.

Before the start of the game the President of the GAA Dr Donal Keenan arrived by army helicopter on the Croke Park pitch to mark the official opening of the 1975 Willwood Tailteann Festival.

There was another ‘invasion’ towards the end of the match when young Dublin supporters swarmed onto the pitch a minute from the finish.

With a flag-waving leader they swept from the railway end right down the pitch to the canal end, completely disrupting the play, to the boos of the crowd in the Hogan Stand.

But the referee Harry Reilly (Louth) blew the final whistle there and then instead of trying to clear the pitch, leaving Meath being crowned champions on a 0-16 to 1-9 scoreline.

Later in the evening one car was overturned in Gardiner Street by the disappointed hooligans but a Garda spokesman stressed: ‘Everyone went quietly home.’