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SCANNAL

Ger Canning 10/5/2014 Image Name: Ger Canning 10/5/2014
Geansai garry-mac-donncha-croke-park Image Name: Geansai garry-mac-donncha-croke-park

 

The 1996 All-Ireland Football Final Replay between Meath and Mayo will go down as one of the most controversial in the history of the GAA. Barely 5 minutes had elapsed when 27 players became involved in a mass brawl in front of Hill 16. With TV coverage being beamed around the world this was not the type of behaviour the GAA would have wished for from its players, especially on the most important day of the year for Gaelic Football. Referee Pat McEneaney might have sent off any of the 27 players involved but decided on just two – Liam McHale from Mayo, who had been Man of the Match in the drawn game, and Meath’s Colm Coyle who had kicked the equalising point that day from inside his own half.

The game was eventually won by Meath who claimed their 3rd All Ireland title in 8 years, but the talk afterwards was not so much about the Royal County victory, as about the fracas which was soon dubbed ‘The Mill by the Hill’. The Sunday Game programme that evening discussed the brawl at length with Pat Spillane giving running commentary on every punch and kick, while the incident was even debated on Questions and Answers.

There was further controversy the day after the Final when the players and officials met in Croke Park for lunch. Meath captain, Tommy Dowd, who had the Sam Maguire Cup in his hands, and team manager, Sean Boylan, were refused admission because they didn’t have the required tickets. At one stage an irate Boylan threatened to remove his players from the lunch en masse. But tempers calmed and the lunch proceeded though in a rather strained atmosphere.

The GAA was under considerable pressure to deal with the unsavoury scenes from the Final and decided to hand out bans to 15 players, 8 from Meath and 7 from Mayo. Both county boards also received hefty fines. That Meath team went on to win another All-Ireland in 1999 while Mayo have lost 7 Finals since that infamous day in 1996.

This episode of SCANNAL looks back at the brawl and its fallout through the eyes of people involved and those who were in Croke Park on that blustery September day.  We hear from former Mayo player Anthony Finnerty, who still finds it hard to talk about that match and also from Meath’s John McDermott, who says he would have had no complaints had he been sent to the line that day instead of Colm Coyle. There are also contributions from Ger Canning who commentated on the match for RTÉ and from Mártan Ó Ciardha who was in the Press Box working for Raidió na Gaeltachta.

 

Presenter / Reporter              Garry Mac Donncha

 

Producer / Director                Frank Hand