Inside Track: Referee Deignan had his clubmates to contend with in 1950 All-Ireland final

An interesting fact: When Louth played Mayo in the 1950 All-Ireland final, clubmates faced each other and another of their colleagues was referee.

Louth goalkeeper, Seán Thornton, transferred to Civil Service in Dublin when his career with Cooley Kickhams was over, and while there he teamed up with Mayo midfielder, Éamonn Mongey.

It might have come as a surprise to the lads when they heard that Simon Deignan would be taking charge of the final.
The Cavan official was still playing club and county football at the time, and had, in fact, played in the three previous All-Ireland finals, collecting two medals.

It wasn’t unusual at the time to have a current player refereeing a final.

Peter McDermott, “The Man with the Cap”, was on the first All-Ireland-winning Meath team in 1949, and won another Celtic Cross in 1954 (Deignan had charge of this final as well.)

In between, he refereed the 1953 final, in which Kerry proved just too strong for first-timers, Armagh.

These and many, many more interesting facts are included in the recently-published ‘Chasing Sam Maguire’ the story of every All-Ireland played between 1928 – the year in which the most famous of Ireland’s sporting trophies first went on offer – and 1977. The club teams of each player are listed.

Kildare-based Dermot Reilly and Irish Independent GAA writer and former Meath midfielder, Colm Keys, are the joint-authors.
As a very minor contributor to the hardback 464-page tome, I have a fair idea of how much work went in to bringing this classy publication to fruition.

Along with the story of each of the 50 finals, and, also some of the games the counties had to play to get there, there are some wonderful pictures, one of them showing the aforementioned Seán Thornton, along with Jimmy Tuft, Tom Conlon and Seán Boyle, in action in the 1950 final.

Another piece on the 1950 final, taken from an Irish Press preview: “My impression, having watched both teams in training, is that neither relies too much on the work done in camps.

Overtraining has become such a bogey, that neither will endanger themselves by it.”

The Louth camp was at the former St Michael’s College, in Omeath.

These gatherings would go on for a fortnight or so before the final and would have the players boarding in.

The practice was outlawed in due course by the GAA, but compared with what goes on now in preparation for even the most minor of games, it was all very simple.

Another piece: The Dublin team beaten by Kerry in the 1955 final had an all-St Vincent’s defence except for the goalkeeper, Paddy O’Flaherty.

Five from the same club were in attack, with yet another, Cathal O’Leary, playing at midfield.

Published by O’Brien Press, Dublin, ‘Chasing Sam Maguire’ is on sale in all bookshops.