Meath will meet Waterford for the first time in senior championship football in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers at Pairc Tailteann next Saturday evening. Although there have been only a handful of football clashes between the counties since the GAA was founded 125 years ago, there was a notable meeting at Jones's Road on May 26, 1912 when the Royal County representatives outscored the Deise men by 1-5 to 0-1 in the Croke Cup final. The Croke Cup, which was presented to the GAA by Archbishop of Cashel, Dr TW Croke, was competed for by the beaten provincial finalists between 1896 and 1915. In the 1911 Leinster SFC final Meath lost out to Kilkenny (1-1 to 2-4) and after being defeated by Antrim in the Ulster decider, Cavan failed to field for their 'semi' against Meath. Although well beaten by Cork, who took the Munster title on a 3-8 to 0-1 scoreline, Waterford went into the Croke Cup final as favourites. However, backboned by players from the fine Bohermeen team of the time, Meath were well in control. The winning team was captained by John Newman, who was an inspiring leader and went on to serve as county chairman from 1921 to '37, and the impressive park in Bohermeen is named in his honour. A press report of the time said the display of Jack Mulligan was a feature of the game. Mulligan's Navan Gaels clubman, Jimmy Hickey, scored the goal and it was 1-3 to 0-1 at half-time. Meath panel- S Rennicks, J Newman, M Newman, J Coogan, P Timmons, M Hynes, M Ward, J Mallon, M Keeffe, T Clarke, K Commons, J Daly, C Matthews, J Shaw (all Bohermeen), J Mulligan, J 'Dublin' Fox, J Hickey (all Navan Gaels), T Farrelly, W Donegan (both Castletown). After the Croke Cup tussle it was another 80 years before Meath and Waterford would meet again in football. That was in a National League Division D clash at Walsh Park, Waterford in November 1992 which Meath won by 2-9 to 0-6. The visitors fielded a good number of past and future All-Ireland winners and Brendan Reilly took the scoring honours with 1-4, the goal coming from a penalty. Colm Coyle also found the net. Waterford enjoyed their only football victory over Meath in the 1999 All-Ireland JFC final, winning by 2-12 to 2-11 in Portlaoise. The counties met in the NFL twice in the present decade, both clashes in Division 2B at Pairc Tailteann. In 2005 Waterford only trailed by a point at the break before Meath ran out 0-18 to 0-9 winners with Ray McGee top scoring with six points. It was much easier for the Royal County in 2007 when Colm Coyle's side won by 4-12 to 1-6, Brian Farrell starring with a contribution of 3-3. Tweet

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