'Just a special talent' - 20 years on from Galway's 'Terrible Twins' brilliance in All-Ireland final

THE TONE WAS set after just 18 seconds.

Cathal Blake made the hard yards, Micheal Meehan provided the finishing touch to the net.

On All-Ireland final day for Galway it was the perfect start. By the eighth minute they had hit the net twice, they struck a third goal by half-time, and doubled that tally during the second half to finish with six.

They only raised five white flags but no one of a maroon persuasion minded that the goal total surpassed the point figure.

Two decades on as Galway and Down prepare to cross paths in the senior championship arena in Newry, the memories of a madcap and wildly entertaining All-Ireland U21 final between the counties in Mullingar come flooding back for those involved.

The end scoreline, 6-5 to 4-6, remains stunning to read, and in the Galway ranks there was too chief architects.

Meehan, an irrepressible talent, struck 3-2. Seán Armstrong, fresh out of the minor ranks, pushed him hard in the scoring stakes and finished with 3-1.

“Sometimes I feel sorry for Cathal Blake, he was full-forward beside the two lads and he was a brilliant footballer, still playing with his club,” recalls Barry Cullinane, a towering midfielder in that Galway team.

“He took the Down full-back out of it, and they followed him because they knew if they didn’t, he was going to cause problems and it just left to rake space inside for the lads.

“You’d don’t need to ask them twice to pull the trigger.

The exploits of famed Galway duo Sean Purcell and Frank Stockwell earned them the ‘Terrible Twins’ label, Meehan and Armstrong struck a partnership that year to rival them.

Before the final, they hit 15 out of Galway’s 17 points in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork, Armstrong swinging over seven from play.

Meehan’s talent was already advertised in bright lights. In 2002 he won the Hogan Cup with St Jarlath’s and an All-Ireland U21 medal with Galway. In 2003 he won the Sigerson Cup with NUIG. In 2004 he won the All-Ireland senior club title with Caltra.

By 2005, his last year as an underage footballer, his ability had been illuminated for all to see, but there was a confidence in the threat posed by his attacking colleague as well.

“I wouldn’t have played with Army up to that, but he had a huge reputation, even from like U14 in Salthill, they had a really, really good team,” says Cullinane.

“He came out of minor but was basically built like a 25-year-old.

“He could handle himself. He came out of Leaving Cert, went into the military, and didn’t take a huge amount of work on the physical aspect of it because genetically he was all there.

“We knew when we had him that that you definitely had a potent forward line. We’d been unlucky at minor level with that team, we lost in an All-Ireland quarter-final to Joe Sheridan’s Meath team, and probably maybe lacked a little bit of support for Mikey and Army was the extra bit of impetus that we needed.”

Delivering for Meehan fuelled the motivation of that Galway group.

“There was huge excitement around then because you saw that 2002 (U21) team and the performance they put in, they beat Kerry in a semi-final and Dublin in a final. That was off the back of the 2001 senior final and there was a huge positivity around Galway football at the time. Maybe it had dwindled a little bit.

“But for all of us, you know you’re playing with a generational talent when you’ve Michael Meehan. We knew that, we’d all seen him since Under-12 coming up through the ranks and knew exactly how good he was.

“I think there was a bit of a responsibility that we had to perform as well to make sure that he got the recognition that that he deserved. He was just a special talent.

“Not only as a brilliant footballer, he was a brilliant leader as well and demanded high standards. It was the responsibiliry for us all to get to the level that he expected.”

They delivered. Cullinane was one of a number who graduated to the senior ranks.

“We got a load of lads off that off that U21 team. Damien Dunleavy, Niall Coyne, Darren Mullahy, Alan Burke, Finian Hanley, Gary Sice, myself, Niall (Coleman), Mikey, Army, we got a load of lads went on to play senior.

“Only for injuries, I’d say a couple of them would have had a lot better (careers). Damien Dunleavy was an unbelievable talent. Like he had everything, he was athletic, brilliant footballer, but just ravaged by injuries.

“Darren Mulllahy was an exceptional wing-back and again kind of just got caught with injuries over the years. It was definitely a profitable team for the Galway seniors. We were lucky that Peter Ford at the time was over the seniors and he was over the U21s.

“That was the way it was done. John O’Mahony, God rest him, took the seniors and U21s, and then when he stepped aside and Peter Ford came in, he took that as well. So it was good for us in terms of like that transition to senior was was more seamless.”

Members of the opposition that day have progressed as well. Conor Laverty was a livewire, jinking forward that Galway needed to watch. Now he is the Down boss trying to mastermind the downfall of the Galway seniors.

“He was one of three lads we had pinpointed,” recalls Cullinane of Laverty.

“Joe Ireland, I think injury kind of caught him as well, he didn’t start the final and got a goal off the bench. Ambrose Rodgers in the middle of the pitch and Laverty, they were the three hot hot properties.

“At the time, like the whole analysis side of it wasn’t as as detailed as it is now. You were just getting snippets here and there, but we knew what he had done up to that.

“To see what he’s gone on to do for Kilcoo and Down, you have to have huge admiration for him.

He was a hard runner and I think he kind of has brought that into Kilcoo and brought it into Down. He’s obviously a good thinker of the game and he was a really, really good footballer.”

The 1959 was the first Galway-Down clash in championship, Galway winning that All-Ireland semi-final. They would meet four times in the space of 13 seasons, Galway edging the semi-final record 3-1, but Sunday afternoon will represent a first championship meeting in 54 years.

Since last Monday’s draw, memories of the 2005 U21 showdown have been stirred up again.

“Good days like that, you’ll always gravitate towards those memories and they were really nice,” says Cullinane.

“There was a great bunch of lads and the draw just makes you think about about them.

“It’s1971 since Galway played Down in the championship. I played them in the league a few times.

“But definitely there’s a connection between Galway and Down football. For myself, I’m from Claregalway. Patsy O’Hagan, who’s the former Down star of the ’60s, he moved to Claregalway and Danny Cummins, ex-Galway footballer, is actually his grandson.

“So in Claregalway there’s a big Down connection and that adds to it this week.”

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