The 1996 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final was the 109th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1996 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

tournament for the top teams in Ireland. It went to a replay and was eventually won by Meath, with

Mayo Mayo often refers to: * Mayonnaise, often shortened to "mayo" * Mayo Clinic, a medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, United States Mayo may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Mayo Peak, Marie Byrd Land Australia * Division of Mayo, an Aust ...

losing. Neither team was expected to make the final as the competition got underway; Meath were expected to lose to

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The River Barrow flows through the town and forms the historic bounda ...

in their first game of the

Leinster Senior Football Championship The Leinster Senior Football Championship, known simply as the Leinster Championship and shortened to Leinster SFC, is an annual inter-county Gaelic football competition organised by the Leinster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA ...

. However, it would be for the most significant breach of on-field discipline in the sport's history that the 1996 All-Ireland final would be remembered.

The brawl

Tommy Dowd got a goal and Brendan Reilly got the winning point but none of this matters: all is forgotten now apart from the infamous brawl which broke out over by the Cusack Stand in the shadow of

Hill 16 Hill 16 – officially called Dineen Hill 16 and sometimes referred to as The Hill – is a terrace at the Railway End of Croke Park, the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is located on the North ...

. Every man on the pitch soon found himself in the middle of the melee, apart from Meath's Brendan Reilly, Mayo goalkeeper

John Madden John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pla ...

and his full-back

Kevin Cahill Kevin Cahill (born November 5, 1955) is an American politician who has represented District 103 in the New York State Assembly. Cahill is a Democrat. Cahill graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1977 with a BA in politi ...

. Almost 30 players joined in a brawl that will go down in history as one of the worst ever seen at a GAA match. Referee

Pat McEnaney Pat McEnaney (born 1960/1961/1962/1963) is a Gaelic footballer and referee from Corduff in County Monaghan. He officiated many high-profile inter-county matches, including four finals of the All-Ireland SFC. Many would rate McEnaney as the bes ...

sought to punish those he deemed the worst offenders. He decided he would send off Mayo's Liam McHale and Meath's John McDermott. "When it all settled down my gut instinct was to send off McDermott with McHale. I had my mind made up on that", McEnaney later said. Then he consulted with umpire Francie McMahon, who had witnessed something dreadful. "Pat," he said. "You're going to have to send off

Colm Coyle Colm Coyle (born 26 February 1963), is a former Gaelic footballer and former manager from County Meath, Ireland. He was manager of the senior Meath county team from September 2006 to July 2008, having previously played for the county. Playin ...

. He's after dropping about six of them". One of the linesmen, Kevin Walsh, intervened to also highlight Coyle's indiscretions. McEnaney sent off McHale and Coyle. McHale has never claimed ''not'' to have been involved in the brawl that day; indeed, he is on record as saying: "I was right in the middle right from the start". Coyle had arrived later.

The games

Ray Dempsey's 45th-minute goal gave Mayo a lead of six points; however, a Meath comeback, culminating in a last-minute Colm Coyle long-range point, saw the game end in a draw on a scoreline of 1–9 to 0–12. The final ended in a draw, Meath getting last-minute point when Colm Coyle pumped the ball in that was allowed to bounce and ended up over the bar. As is customary, a replay followed. Meath won by a point, with goals by Trevor Giles (

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

) and Tommy Dowd. Meath's Mark O'Reilly was just a boy that day. Brendan Reilly scored the winning point. It was the first of two All-Ireland football titles for Meath that decade, followed by success in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

. This was the second consecutive All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay in which at least at least one player sent off;

Gerry McEntee Gerry McEntee (born 19 October 1955) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for the Meath county team. He played club football for Nobber GFC. Career During his playing career he helped his club Nobber to rise from Junior "B" to th ...

was sent off in the 1988 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final replay.

Drawn game

Details

Replay

Details

Post-match

Inaccurate stories spread afterwards that McEnaney had received

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at his home, but, McEnaney later said, the only letter he received (from a Meath supporter) praised McEnaney for how he had handled the brawl. The teams did not meet again the championship until

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. McHale and McEnaney had not spoken, as of 2009.

References

External links

Balls Remembers Mayo's Thrilling But Doomed All-Ireland Bid In 1996

Pat Spillane's "slow waltzes" analysis
of the brawl on ''

The Sunday Game ''The Sunday Game'' is RTÉ's main Gaelic games television programme. It is shown on RTÉ2 every Sunday during the Football Championship and Hurling Championship seasons. It is one of RTÉ2's longest-running shows, having been on air since 197 ...

'' {{All-Ireland Senior Football Championship All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, 1996

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Finals All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) refers to all of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Ireland" is most frequently used to refer to sporting teams or events for the entire islan ...

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Finals Brawls in team sports Gaelic football controversies Mayo county football team matches Meath county football team matches