Geraghty was in

SHANKEY TALKS MEATH’S PRIME AND DEISE’S FUTURE

PAUL Shankey played on a Meath minor team that did that most ‘Meath’ of things.

It was the 1992 All-Ireland final and Armagh looked to have the game in the bag.

Shankey — who is in his first year as Waterford boss and has been in the county longer than he lived in his native Kilmainhamwood — recalls what happened next.

“We were getting well hammered by Armagh, but just hung in there and got an injurytime goal again,”he says.

“It was a thing that was just in the DNA at the time. Maybe a bit of luck.

“It definitely used to frustrate a lot of opposition. You got a sense playing against other teams that if it gets tight or difficult, there are certain fellas you can rely on.”

The scoreline of 2-5 to 0-10 says it all and probably still haunts some of those Armagh players.

Shankey was one of three Meath minors who went straight into the Under-21 squad the following year, that landed an All-Ireland title.

Trevor Giles was still a minor and came on as a sub in the decider victory over Kerry, who had Seamus Moynihan and Mike Hassett. Darragh O’Se came in off the bench.

Scoreline

Graham Geraghty was “in his pomp.”

The scoreline, 1-8 to 0-10 as Meath found a way again.

A new wave was coming to back-up what Shankey’s clubmate Brian Stafford — “He put Kilmainhamwood on the map” — had achieved with Meath in the 1980s.

And to take over from the side that won the Dublin four-game saga in 1991.

The “secret sauce” applied by Sean Boylan, according to Shankey, was making players “mentally believe they can compete”at the highest level.

The redoubtable Boylan is part of Colm O’Rourke’s Meath backroom team for this evening’s encounter with Louth at Inniskeen in Round 1 of the AllIreland series.

Shankey can see Boylan acting as “a warm blanket” for a youthful Meath squad.

“It’s brilliant isn’t it?”he says. “It’s great to have it.

“It’s great to have that history and tradition around the place. Obviously, Colm as well and the rest of the backroom team were great footballers.

“Sean is eternally young anyway, the way he communicates.

“He has a brilliant way about him. He would be a massive addition to them young lads, to take confidence.”

Shankey was a sub when Meath landed the 1999 All-Ireland title, a fourth Sam Maguire in 13 remarkable seasons for the Royals.

He’d claimed a county title with his club in ‘96, on a side that boasted a full-forward line of Stafford, who was captain, Ray ‘Smoothie’ Magee and Raymond Cunningham, who won an Ulster title with Cavan the following season.

Year

The last hurrah for that Meath team came in 2001, when they lost the All-Ireland final to Galway after spanking Kerry in the semi-final.

But there was a sting in the tail the following year after they got “a good beating”from Dublin at Croke Park, on the day the new pitch at GAA HQ was opened.

Typically, as with the 2010 Leinster final and Joe Sheridan’s late winning goal that should have been disallowed, it was neighbours Louth on the receiving end at Navan in 2002.

“Those games in provincial towns are great — you fill the place up,” said Shankey. “Louth played really well and didn’t allow us to play well.

“It looked like we were out, well down in injury time, but we snatched two late goals. I think a point would have brought it to extra-time, but Geraghty decided he’d had enough.

“The joke back then and I think it’s pretty true is that he was in a rush to get back to a wedding that night and they couldn’t fly at night. He was best man. He was dropped off before the game in a helicopter.

“Extra-time wasn’t on his radar. He went for it.

Great

“Navan was bouncing. It was a great night. Louth felt aggrieved, again.

“It’s hard to get the secret behind that. It just came from no matter what happened, we just kept going. It’s a very hard ingredient

MEMORABLE MO Geraghty celebrat minute goal to be to get into a club or county team.

“It doesn’t mean you are going to win but it just makes you competitive.

“Those days we were just used to playing flat and bad and keeping ourselves in it and doing enough to win.

“Or coming back from five or six points down was a pretty common theme back then.

“Around then, there was this thing, ‘You’ll never beat the Royals,’ but there definitely was a sense that once you got a run at teams, you felt we are back in it now.

“Every Meath player back then felt that — just keep going.

“But obviously then it’s no accident that you would come