Meath’s O’Connell stamped his class on football scene

NOBODY SETS out on an inter-county career in hurling or football with the aim of being immortalised on a postage stamp. However, that’s one of the claims to fame of former Meath great Martin O’Connell, who was chosen at left half-back on the Team of the Millennium.

An unusual perk of that selection was to have a stamp issued in his honour, and he recalls the thoughtful gesture of long-time colleague Bob O’Malley who congratulated him by using one to send him a card!

However, the ceremony itself left a lot to be desired, held on a week-day afternoon in Croke Park where the bar was closed before the recipients could even get into the swing of things on their trip down memory lane.

The low-key nature of proceedings was indicative of the time, and it was in keeping with the way things were throughout O’Connell’s glittering career.

There was nothing understated about his on-field prowess or his achievements though, because the Carlanstown man departed from the Meath dressing-room with six Leinster titles, three

All-Ireland medals and three National

Leagues to his credit.

He looks back on that career in ‘Royal

Blood - The Making Of A Football Legend’, and one of the most endearing aspects is the loyalty he showed to his club.

He captured two Junior championships with St. Michael’s 23 years apart, with the first - as a teen - propelling him to the attention of the Meath selectors, while the second came at the age of 42 and gave him as much satisfaction as any of his achievements in Croke Park.

O’Connell was a talented part of the favourite Gaelic football team of my mid-teens, and I made many pilgrimages on the train to Dublin in the late eighties to watch them in their prime.

There was a hard edge to that side that many people - this writer included - really admired, and there was no point messing with the likes of Liam Harnan, Gerry McEntee, Mick Lyons or Kevin Foley, who worked as a veterinary surgeon in New Ross at one stage.

They had the perfect blend though, because mixed in with that was the sublime skill provided by the likes of O’Connell, O’Malley, and the lethal full-forward line of Colm O’Rourke, Brian Stafford and Bernard Flynn.

It took a long time for O’Connell to nail down the number seven jersey, and he had stints at corner-back, full-back, wing-forward and even full-forward over the years.

At one stage in early 1987, he grew disillusioned with his treatment by Seán Boylan’s management team, and left the squad for a few months.

Happily, he returned, and there’s no denying that he was a vital cog in the two All-Irelands that followed, before he added a third with a largely re-built team.

One of the book’s more interesting revelations is that some of his colleagues weren’t impressed with his brief defection.

In fact, Gerry McEntee was so annoyed that he didn’t speak to O’Connell properly again until after the All-Ireland final replay of 1988.

The fair-haired wing-back had a reputation for being a nice guy both on and off the field, and that comes across in his memoirs.

Indeed, one of the most used phrases is ‘no disrespect to them’ when he is about to declare that an opposing team wasn’t particularly strong or didn’t give the Meath men a real rest. Some input on the man himself from former colleagues would have added to the narrative, because he is clearly too modest for his own good. ALAN AHERNE

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