JOHN MCDERMOTT CAN still hear the ironic cheers. Twenty-four years have passed but the sound remains locked in his memory, marring everything they achieved that day. He regrets that he didn’t do something at the time. A gesture, a signal – anything to implore the fans to stop.
What should be a highlight of his football career is forever entangled with the roars of disrespect for what was otherwise a great Kerry team. It was a rare win for Meath and an even rarer day of poor form for the Kingdom, a world away from this weekend’s final All-Ireland series meeting between the two counties.
Kerry’s 15-point beating in an All-Ireland semi-final was humiliation enough. The jeering from Meath fans that came with it in Croke Park was needless, and it certainly wasn’t appreciated by the team they were supposedly there to support.
In the final five minutes, McDermott, a two-time All-Ireland winner with Meath, turned to his teammate Trevor Giles. They both agreed that they should slip into neutral gear from here. No further trashing required. Their place in the 2001 All-Ireland final was assured. Not even Kerry, the reigning All-Ireland champions, could conjure a comeback from here.
But still, the jibes continued to pour down from the stands, inviting bad karma before the All-Ireland final against Galway. And karma never forgets an address.
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“If I had my time over again,” McDermott recalls, “I would have got the ball, kicked it into the Hogan Stand and said, ’Stop that bloody rubbish.’
“It did us no good in the final.”
****
Players contesting for a ball in the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final. INPHO
INPHO
McDermott was supposed to be retired at this point. At 31, and with a decade of service banked, he felt it was time to make way for the younger pups. Three All-Stars along with his two Celtic Crosses felt sufficient at the time. But by June of 2001, reports of the midfielder’s return were starting to circulate. He was back in the number nine shirt in time for their Leinster final victory over Dublin.
There were a few strides left in his system. The longing wouldn’t go away either.
“Probably missed it,” McDermott explains about his retirement u-turn. “The first year, you miss it terribly. And after that, not at all. I was still going well with the club. I thought I could contribute.”
Interestingly, both Meath and Kerry played in All-Ireland quarter-final replays that year.
Seán Boylan’s side were fortunate to get a second bite against Westmeath after a bizarre drawn game which saw Meath concede three first-half goals. They were nine points down after 21 minutes. Ollie Murphy rescued the draw with a late goal and the replay produced a 2-10 to 0-11 win for Meath.
Kerry accounted for Dublin after a quarter-final odyssey in Thurles. The drawn clash is the one that is best remembered for its dramatic conclusion, and a beautifully struck sideline kick from Maurice Fitzgerald in the face of a testing wind, and the close attention of then-Dublin manager Tommy Carr.
Between them, Meath and Kerry had won the last two All-Ireland titles, but Kerry were hotly tipped to win this semi-final even without key defender Tomás Ó Sé who was ruled out through suspension.
“There weren’t too many flat tyres,” as McDermott recalls of that Kerry team which was still packed with All-Ireland winners and generational talents across every line.
Séamus Moynihan was their resident full-back and standing just in front him in the six jersey was Éamonn Fitzmaurice. Darragh Ó Sé and Donal Daly were a powerful force at midfield while their forward line included Aodán Mac Gearailt, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Mike Frank Russell and Johnny Crowley.
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Páidí Ó Sé and Jack O'Connor at the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final. INPHO
INPHO
Of course, the iconic Páidí Ó Sé was their manager while current Kerry boss Jack O’Connor was a selector at the time.
What puzzled McDermott about that Kerry team, though, was the omission of Maurice Fitzgerald. And even though he wasn’t in the starting line-up, Meath still had a plan for his introduction.
“Probably the best forward in my generation, and he wasn’t starting the game.
“Before the game, we said, ‘He’s going to come on. And nobody touch him. Don’t shoulder him. Just shake his hand and say you’re a big admirer of his.’ Kill him with kindness.
“We used to see him coming on against other teams and before he got to his position, he’d have been jumped three or four times. And that’s only putting the blood up in Maurice Fitzgerald.”
****
There were no early signs of a Kerry demise as the game unfolded. In fact, it was the Sam Maguire holders who made the brighter start. Michael McCarthy was winning the battle with Ollie Murphy and Moynihan claimed every ball that was meant for Meath’s towering full-forward, Graham Geraghty. Long deliveries were bearing no fruit in Kerry’s maximum security prison.
But while the door was locked for Meath at the Hill 16 end, Kerry were failing to make their advantage count. They were just 0-2 to 0-1 in front after 15 minutes when Meath equalised through Richie Kealy. Murphy started to wrangle free and kicked three first-half points. Geraghty won a tussle with Moynihan to create a shot at goal. Kerry lost defenders Mike Hassett and Tom O’Sullivan to injury and the bat signal went up for Maurice Fitzgerald when they were four points in arrears.
Meath forward Ollie Murphy. INPHO
INPHO
Just before half time, Meath raised a green flag and McDermott was the provider.
“It’s very seldom you see me bearing down on goal and then halfway there, I said, ‘I’m going to drive this.’ I was going to drop kick it and it just went in.
“It just clicked. It used to be a saying on the Meath team, when we’d be in the dressing rooms kicking and beating the table and that, we’d win nothing – we’d start great and then fade away. If we walked out calm and cool and calculated, we were lethal.”
The premature sight of Fitzgerald was further reassurance that Meath were dictating the terms of this battle.
“We took that as a badge of honour, that the sooner he came on, the better we were going,” McDermott adds. “He came on to Cormac Murphy, who was the cornerback. Cormac took out his hand and said, ‘You’re welcome on to the pitch,’ and knocked Maurice Fitzgerald for six. It just completely bamboozled them.”
Johnny Crowley kicked Kerry’s third point of the first half, some 29 minutes after their last score. Captain Eoin Brosnan swung over another shortly after. A five-point difference might not seem like much, but it was clear they were already taking on water.
Just before the break, McDermott picked up a nasty facial injury after an accidental collision with Moynihan. It was a pain he could happily endure considering Meath’s commanding position on the scoreboard.
“I went for a ball with and got busted in the mouth. I had to get seven stitches inside my mouth at halftime. And they went. So I had to get another seven. And by the day it was out, I had 21 stitches in my lower lip, in the inside.
“My bottom teeth drove into my gum on the inside. We were talking at halftime and nobody could understand me because my mouth had swollen up. Maybe that was why we did so well in the second half, because nobody was listening.”
****
Meath won by 15 points but it could have been more. They were 11 clear by the time substitute John Cullinane struck their second goal in the closing minutes. Murphy was also found the net with a palmed effort but was denied by a square ball decision.
It was simply an extraordinary result. A headline in The Kerryman aptly described the event as “A Total Capitulation” in the aftermath. A report in the Sunday Independent wrote of a “dressing room bust-up at half-time” as well as discord in the Kerry camp due to issues with the captaincy.
“Manager Páidí Ó Sé has emphatically denied the charge that some players effectively withdrew from battle because they were disgusted at the way the armband had been transferred from Séamus Moynihan to Eoin Brosnan,” the report read.
A great Kerry team was being carved up and devoured in the most public way. It was almost unsettling to see it. For once, Kerry were the ones on the receiving end of a hammering. They were the ones rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, praying for the mercy of the final whistle. But for McDermott, there was still no justifying the way they were treated by the crowd in Croke Park.
“Kerry have a rich and deep history in football and it was deeply disrespectful to both teams. You just don’t do that. They were beaten, fair enough, don’t rub their nose in it. Don’t humiliate them. Remember lads, we’ve another day out here.”
And on that next day, karma came back around. Meath lost the All-Ireland final to Galway 0-17 to 0-8. The Meath team was working with a psychologist at the time, but as much as the players tried to dial things down and sidestep the hype, it was always going to be difficult to rinse out the elation of that Kerry victory.
Few players can relate to what Meath achieved against Kerry, but McDermott could never savour it, knowing what was to follow just a few weeks later.
“Exact same scenario,” McDermott remembers of the circumstances of the All-Ireland final. “The teams were pretty close at half time and the next thing, Pádraic Joyce ran riot.
“Probably the worst thing that ever happened to us was winning by so much against Kerry.”
****
McDermott retired a second time after that, and this one was permanent. He’s confident that he would have departed even if he did win that third All-Ireland. He drifted away from the scene completely from there, refraining from attending games until recently for his county’s famous Leinster semi-final win over Dublin.
“Talking to most of the guys [former teammates], very few of them go to games on a regular basis. You don’t want to be on the side of the pitch, you know, some eejit of a supporter telling you the way football should be played, or that you were no good and you just don’t want that rubbish.”
He’s on the coaching beat these days, working with underage teams and trying to emphasise the importance of keeping shots low when you have a shot at goal. He’s living proof of the reward.
Kerry and Meath meet again this weekend in the final round of the All-Ireland series. They were in the same group last year too, where Kerry were convincing 2-18 to 0-9 winners in Round 2.
McDermott, however, thinks there could be another Meath win over Kerry in the offing if some of the Kingdom stars are rested for their long trip to Tullamore.
“I’d be wrapping David Clifford up and cotton wool. Meath have a chance, especially in Tullamore.”
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21 stitches in Croke Park - and the curse of ironically cheering a 15-point beating for Kerry
JOHN MCDERMOTT CAN still hear the ironic cheers. Twenty-four years have passed but the sound remains locked in his memory, marring everything they achieved that day. He regrets that he didn’t do something at the time. A gesture, a signal – anything to implore the fans to stop.
What should be a highlight of his football career is forever entangled with the roars of disrespect for what was otherwise a great Kerry team. It was a rare win for Meath and an even rarer day of poor form for the Kingdom, a world away from this weekend’s final All-Ireland series meeting between the two counties.
Kerry’s 15-point beating in an All-Ireland semi-final was humiliation enough. The jeering from Meath fans that came with it in Croke Park was needless, and it certainly wasn’t appreciated by the team they were supposedly there to support.
In the final five minutes, McDermott, a two-time All-Ireland winner with Meath, turned to his teammate Trevor Giles. They both agreed that they should slip into neutral gear from here. No further trashing required. Their place in the 2001 All-Ireland final was assured. Not even Kerry, the reigning All-Ireland champions, could conjure a comeback from here.
But still, the jibes continued to pour down from the stands, inviting bad karma before the All-Ireland final against Galway. And karma never forgets an address.
“If I had my time over again,” McDermott recalls, “I would have got the ball, kicked it into the Hogan Stand and said, ’Stop that bloody rubbish.’
“It did us no good in the final.”
****
McDermott was supposed to be retired at this point. At 31, and with a decade of service banked, he felt it was time to make way for the younger pups. Three All-Stars along with his two Celtic Crosses felt sufficient at the time. But by June of 2001, reports of the midfielder’s return were starting to circulate. He was back in the number nine shirt in time for their Leinster final victory over Dublin.
There were a few strides left in his system. The longing wouldn’t go away either.
“Probably missed it,” McDermott explains about his retirement u-turn. “The first year, you miss it terribly. And after that, not at all. I was still going well with the club. I thought I could contribute.”
Interestingly, both Meath and Kerry played in All-Ireland quarter-final replays that year.
Seán Boylan’s side were fortunate to get a second bite against Westmeath after a bizarre drawn game which saw Meath concede three first-half goals. They were nine points down after 21 minutes. Ollie Murphy rescued the draw with a late goal and the replay produced a 2-10 to 0-11 win for Meath.
Kerry accounted for Dublin after a quarter-final odyssey in Thurles. The drawn clash is the one that is best remembered for its dramatic conclusion, and a beautifully struck sideline kick from Maurice Fitzgerald in the face of a testing wind, and the close attention of then-Dublin manager Tommy Carr.
Between them, Meath and Kerry had won the last two All-Ireland titles, but Kerry were hotly tipped to win this semi-final even without key defender Tomás Ó Sé who was ruled out through suspension.
“There weren’t too many flat tyres,” as McDermott recalls of that Kerry team which was still packed with All-Ireland winners and generational talents across every line.
Séamus Moynihan was their resident full-back and standing just in front him in the six jersey was Éamonn Fitzmaurice. Darragh Ó Sé and Donal Daly were a powerful force at midfield while their forward line included Aodán Mac Gearailt, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Mike Frank Russell and Johnny Crowley.
Of course, the iconic Páidí Ó Sé was their manager while current Kerry boss Jack O’Connor was a selector at the time.
What puzzled McDermott about that Kerry team, though, was the omission of Maurice Fitzgerald. And even though he wasn’t in the starting line-up, Meath still had a plan for his introduction.
“Probably the best forward in my generation, and he wasn’t starting the game.
“We used to see him coming on against other teams and before he got to his position, he’d have been jumped three or four times. And that’s only putting the blood up in Maurice Fitzgerald.”
****
There were no early signs of a Kerry demise as the game unfolded. In fact, it was the Sam Maguire holders who made the brighter start. Michael McCarthy was winning the battle with Ollie Murphy and Moynihan claimed every ball that was meant for Meath’s towering full-forward, Graham Geraghty. Long deliveries were bearing no fruit in Kerry’s maximum security prison.
But while the door was locked for Meath at the Hill 16 end, Kerry were failing to make their advantage count. They were just 0-2 to 0-1 in front after 15 minutes when Meath equalised through Richie Kealy. Murphy started to wrangle free and kicked three first-half points. Geraghty won a tussle with Moynihan to create a shot at goal. Kerry lost defenders Mike Hassett and Tom O’Sullivan to injury and the bat signal went up for Maurice Fitzgerald when they were four points in arrears.
Just before half time, Meath raised a green flag and McDermott was the provider.
“It’s very seldom you see me bearing down on goal and then halfway there, I said, ‘I’m going to drive this.’ I was going to drop kick it and it just went in.
“It just clicked. It used to be a saying on the Meath team, when we’d be in the dressing rooms kicking and beating the table and that, we’d win nothing – we’d start great and then fade away. If we walked out calm and cool and calculated, we were lethal.”
The premature sight of Fitzgerald was further reassurance that Meath were dictating the terms of this battle.
“We took that as a badge of honour, that the sooner he came on, the better we were going,” McDermott adds. “He came on to Cormac Murphy, who was the cornerback. Cormac took out his hand and said, ‘You’re welcome on to the pitch,’ and knocked Maurice Fitzgerald for six. It just completely bamboozled them.”
Johnny Crowley kicked Kerry’s third point of the first half, some 29 minutes after their last score. Captain Eoin Brosnan swung over another shortly after. A five-point difference might not seem like much, but it was clear they were already taking on water.
Just before the break, McDermott picked up a nasty facial injury after an accidental collision with Moynihan. It was a pain he could happily endure considering Meath’s commanding position on the scoreboard.
“I went for a ball with and got busted in the mouth. I had to get seven stitches inside my mouth at halftime. And they went. So I had to get another seven. And by the day it was out, I had 21 stitches in my lower lip, in the inside.
“My bottom teeth drove into my gum on the inside. We were talking at halftime and nobody could understand me because my mouth had swollen up. Maybe that was why we did so well in the second half, because nobody was listening.”
****
Meath won by 15 points but it could have been more. They were 11 clear by the time substitute John Cullinane struck their second goal in the closing minutes. Murphy was also found the net with a palmed effort but was denied by a square ball decision.
It was simply an extraordinary result. A headline in The Kerryman aptly described the event as “A Total Capitulation” in the aftermath. A report in the Sunday Independent wrote of a “dressing room bust-up at half-time” as well as discord in the Kerry camp due to issues with the captaincy.
“Manager Páidí Ó Sé has emphatically denied the charge that some players effectively withdrew from battle because they were disgusted at the way the armband had been transferred from Séamus Moynihan to Eoin Brosnan,” the report read.
“Kerry have a rich and deep history in football and it was deeply disrespectful to both teams. You just don’t do that. They were beaten, fair enough, don’t rub their nose in it. Don’t humiliate them. Remember lads, we’ve another day out here.”
And on that next day, karma came back around. Meath lost the All-Ireland final to Galway 0-17 to 0-8. The Meath team was working with a psychologist at the time, but as much as the players tried to dial things down and sidestep the hype, it was always going to be difficult to rinse out the elation of that Kerry victory.
Few players can relate to what Meath achieved against Kerry, but McDermott could never savour it, knowing what was to follow just a few weeks later.
“Exact same scenario,” McDermott remembers of the circumstances of the All-Ireland final. “The teams were pretty close at half time and the next thing, Pádraic Joyce ran riot.
“Probably the worst thing that ever happened to us was winning by so much against Kerry.”
****
McDermott retired a second time after that, and this one was permanent. He’s confident that he would have departed even if he did win that third All-Ireland. He drifted away from the scene completely from there, refraining from attending games until recently for his county’s famous Leinster semi-final win over Dublin.
“Talking to most of the guys [former teammates], very few of them go to games on a regular basis. You don’t want to be on the side of the pitch, you know, some eejit of a supporter telling you the way football should be played, or that you were no good and you just don’t want that rubbish.”
He’s on the coaching beat these days, working with underage teams and trying to emphasise the importance of keeping shots low when you have a shot at goal. He’s living proof of the reward.
Kerry and Meath meet again this weekend in the final round of the All-Ireland series. They were in the same group last year too, where Kerry were convincing 2-18 to 0-9 winners in Round 2.
McDermott, however, thinks there could be another Meath win over Kerry in the offing if some of the Kingdom stars are rested for their long trip to Tullamore.
“I’d be wrapping David Clifford up and cotton wool. Meath have a chance, especially in Tullamore.”
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