Mick Lyons (Gaelic footballer)

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Mick Lyons
Personal information
Sport Gaelic football
Place of birth Summerhill, County Meath , Ireland
Club information
Club Summerhill
Position Midfield
Inter-County
County Meath
Position Full Back
Inter-County(ies)**
County Years Apps (scores)
Meath 1979-1992
Senior Inter-County Titles
Leinster Titles 5
All-Ireland 2
All Stars 2

* club appearances and scores
correct as of {{{clupdate}}}.
**Inter County team apps and scores correct
as of {{{icupdate}}}.
For the English soccer player of the same name, see Mick Lyons (English footballer).

Mick Lyons is a famous former Meath footballer. His Club is Summerhill, with whome he won the Meath Senior Football Championship in 1986. For his club Mick has usually played at Midfield. Always a fans favourite, He was known as a determined & tough player and was also known as a great fielder of the ball.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Meath career

He made his Championship debut for Meath in 1979 against Kilkenny, playing at centre back. He became well known playing Full Back for Meath, following other notable Meath Full Backs Tommy "The Boiler" McGuiness, Paddy O'Brien & Jack Quinn. He was one of the central figures of Seán Boylan's great Meath teams of the late eighties & early nineties. Legend has it that on Seán Boylan's first training sessions as Meath Manager Mick told Sean to 'put your shyness in your a*se pocket'. He has won 2 Senior All Ireland medals in 1987 & 1988, captaining the team in 1987 (Meath's first win for 20 years), as well as 5 Leinster medals and 2 National League medals. Mick also played on the Meath teams which lost the All Ireland finals of 1990 & 1991. In 1984 he was part of the Meath team which won the Centenary Cup, a competition which was contested to celebrate the GAA's 100 year anniversary. He has won 2 All Star awards for the full back position in 1984 & 1986. Surprisingly, despite enjoying most of his success after 1986, he failed to get another All Star. Some put this down to his reputation as a 'hard man' on the football pitch. During Mick's playing career, Meath's greatest rivals were Dublin & Cork, with Meath playing Dublin in the Leinster Championship most seasons, including 4 times alone in the famous saga of 1991, and playing Cork in the All Ireland finals of 1987, 1988 (final went to a replay) and 1990. He retired from the Meath Senior team in 1992 after Meath suffered a surprise defeat to Laois. This marked the end of an era in Meath football with many older players not featuring on the Meath team again. Mick served as one of Seán Boylan's selectors of the Meath Team in 1994 and 1995.

[edit] Injuries

During Mick's career injuries have had an impact. Hopes were very high for Meath for the 1984 season; in 1983 Meath had run Dublin, the eventual All Ireland Champions, very close, being beaten in extra time in a replay and they had won the Centenary Cup at the start of 1984. Meath were geared up for the Dublin game in 1984, but Mick was missing due to injury (broken wrist) and Meath went on to lose. Again in 1989 Meath faced Dublin without Mick. He had broken his leg playing club football and missed the season. Meath lost to Dublin and their '3 in a row' All Ireland dreams were gone. Between 1984 & 1991 Dublin & Meath met in the championship 8 times, of which Dublin won twice, both of these times Mick was injured, in all the remaining he was guarding the square. In the 1991 All Ireland final Mick had to leave the field with a knee injury, his injury compounding an injury crisis for Meath that day. Meath lost the final to Down.

[edit] Compromise Rules

During his Meath Career Mick was picked to play in the first 3 Test Series ('84, '86 &'87) for Ireland in Compromise Rules. In the first Compromise Rules match (First Test, 1984 Series) to be played Mick had to be taken from the field after a tackle from an Aussie Rules player. In subsequent matches Mick was involved in quite a few disagreements with Australian players.

[edit] Also

  • In recent years Mick & his cousin Austin Lyons have been involved in developing a Golf Course in Rathcore in Co. Meath.
  • On that Meath Team of the late eighty's & early ninety's Mick played alongside his brother Padraig (corner back) & cousin Liam Harnan (centre back).
  • Mick is from an area in Meath close to the Kildare border & his father Paddy actually played against Meath in the 1949 Leinster Championship for Kildare.
  • Mick's grandfather Captain Pat Giles was a long serving TD for Meath.
  • Mick is a cousin of another Meath football great Trevor Giles.
  • Mick can be said to have left his mark on the football pitch. In the last game of Meath's 4 game saga with Dublin in 1991, Dublin were awarded a penalty, which Keith Barr took. Mick ran alongside Keith while he was taking the penalty, Barr missed the penalty. The penalty was never retaken as it should have been. This incident got much coverage at the time. Shortly after this the the GAA decided to mark their pitches with a semi circle exclusion zone around where a player takes a penalty from. No players other than the penalty taker are allowed inside this zone while the penalty is being taken.
Preceded by
Tommy Doyle
(Kerry)		 All-Ireland Football Final
winning captain
1987		 Succeeded by
Joe Cassells
(Meath)

[edit] References

  • [1] Summerhill GFC Website

[edit] External links