Michael Meehan

Michael Meehan is a Gaelic footballer from County Galway. Meehan plays his club football with Caltra and played county football for the Galway senior football team.^[1] He announced his retirement from inter county football on the 21st of March 2014 due to injury

Career

Michael attended the famous St. Jarlath's College in Tuam, playing in three consecutive Hogan Cups in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Although they lost the 2000 semi-final to St. Patrick's Navan and the 2001 final to the same opponents they were unstoppable in 2002 to claim their 12th title with a 3–13 to 0–06 victory against St. Michael's Enniskillen. He was an inspirational figure at full-forward, scoring 1–06. Future Galway team-mates, Darren Mullahy, Gary Sice, Damien Dunleavy, Alan Burke and Niall Coleman were also on the team. James Kavanagh a future Kildare senior also played on the side. Michael captained the team in their victorious 2002 campaign.

Michael won a Connacht MFC medal in 2002, and made his first inter-county Championship start in 2003, the Connacht Senior Football Championship 1sr round clash against Roscommon. Since then, he has been a key part of the Galway set-up, having been consistently been picked by four different managers, John O'Mahony, Peter Forde, Liam Sammon and his current boss, Joe Kernan. Michael has 3 Connacht medals to his name, coming in 2003, 2005 and 2008.

In 2004, Michael was part of the Caltra team that enjoyed a memorable run to All-Ireland Club Championship glory. After coming through the Galway and Connacht club finals, which first time triumphs for the club, Caltra met An Ghaeltacht of Munster. In a close exciting encounter, Caltra prevailed by one point, 0–13 to 0–12. Michael was named Man Of The Match for his performance, scoring 6 points. His brothers, Declan, Tomás, Enda and Noel, who captained the team, were all starting players on the team.^[2]

For several years, Michael was also a part of the Galway Under-21 set up. He was a key part of both of Galway's Under-21 All-Ireland triumphs in 2002 and 2005. He formed a devastating partnership with Seán Armstrong in 2005 as they scored 6–03 between them in Galways' 6-05 to 4–06 victory over Down.

So far in the 2008 Championship, Meehan has scored 0–12. He won his third Connacht senior medal on July 13 as Galway defeated Mayo by 2–12 to 1–14 in MacHale Park. In their quarter-final clash against Kerry, Michael scored an amazing 10 points and seemed to be carrying the Galway side in the first half against the reigning All-Ireland champions. However, despite leading by 2 points early in the second-half, they could not capitalise on their advantage and Kerry won out in the end by 5 points. Michael finished the 2008 season with 0–22, one point short of his personal best.

Michael Meehan was due to captain the Galway Senior Footballers for the 2010 Championship but sat out due to injury. 2011 prove to be difficult as Meehan continued to battled a troubled ankle injury that almost derailed his career. In 2012 Michael made a dramatic recovery but did not return until The Connacht quarter Final as a sub against Roscommon. However, on the 21 st of March 2014 Michael announced his retirement from inter county football due to on going injury trouble.

Personal life

Michael is the youngest of the Meehan brothers. Both Declan and Tomás have won All-Ireland medals for Galway, in 1998 and 2001. Tomas retired from inter-county football in 2006. The passion of football in the Meehan family was clearly evident when 5 brothers started on the successful All-Ireland Club Championship Caltra side while eldest brother Seamus was a sub on that day. Michael's sister, Mairead, was a sporting star in her own right. She was a very useful camogie player. A teacher who graduated from DCU, she gained an All-Ireland junior camogie medal with Holy Rosary College. Mairead died in 2007 from osteosarcoma.^[3]

Both Michael and Declan continue to play inter-county football for Galway.

Meehan has participated in a marketing campaign for Ireland West Airport Knock.^[4]

References