Trevor Giles happy to look back as well as forward in Meath

​By Paul Keane

The 30th anniversary of the drawn All-Ireland football final of 1996, between Meath and Mayo, occurred earlier this week.

Trevor Giles top scored in that game, firing six points for Meath, though it was Royal County colleague Colm Coyle's point that bounced over the bar for the equaliser that lodged in most people's memory banks.

Giles was a classy operator back in the day and was that season's Footballer of the Year, and again in 1999, though when he harks back to the '90s and shows his two sons old footage and highlights reels, they're rarely impressed.

"They kind of say, if the year starts off in 19, as in 1995, you're losing straight away!" smiled Giles, who was speaking at a Beko Club Champion event. "They look back and think the game was terrible in the '90s."

Giles can understand why, through a younger person's eyes, it might seem that way, like things have moved on so much.

"The standard was poor, fellas just kicking the ball, no-one was passing the ball, the accuracy wasn't brilliant, the game was lower scoring, you know," he shrugged, echoing what they'd typically say to him. "But that's life. In 30 years' time, people will look at Mayo beating Kerry this year and say, 'Oh that was terrible stuff'. It'll be, 'The skill level is terrible'.

"And it's not, but that's just the way life goes on. When we were playing in the '90s, you looked at the '60s and said, 'It's terrible football that'. So it's looking dated now, what we did, unfortunately. But it was a great period for football. It was competitive and it was great for that reason. You beat a team one year, they beat you the next."

By Giles' estimation, only four or five teams had genuine All-Ireland aspirations in the 1980s. It was probably double that when he was at his peak in the 1990s with eight different counties claiming the Sam Maguire Cup in that decade alone.

And now?

"I was actually trying to count it out, I'd say you'd have 14 teams next year that will be thinking, 'We could win this'," claimed Giles. "You have Kerry, Cork, you have Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Dublin, Louth, Meath, Westmeath, then you have the Ulster teams, Armagh, Donegal, Tyrone and so on. Derry have the footballers, Monaghan too. So, you know, it's up at 14 teams I think."

For Giles, Mayo making their big breakthrough this year, after 75 years of hurt, combined with the success stories enjoyed by Leinster champions Westmeath and All-Ireland semi-finalists Louth, will have given everyone fresh energy.

And yet if you were to push him for a prediction for Sam in 2027, he'd probably still have to go for the old reliable, Kerry.

"I'd say it's most likely that Kerry will win it next year alright but you'd be licking your lips waiting for the challenge to unfold," said the Skryne man.

Giles had a couple of spells in Meath senior backroom teams and was in charge of the county's minors this year, taking them to a Leinster final and an All-Ireland quarter-final. He has stepped down from that role as there is a decent chance that one of his sons, Oisín, will be part of the 2027 panel and a local rule in Meath prohibits a father from managing his son at that level.

"It's a good rule," said Giles. "You could be too hard on your own kid, or too easy on him. These players, county players, minors, they'll be in their own WhatsApp group as well and I'm sure on the group during this year someone was saying, 'Jeez, Trevor Giles is being hard on me' or 'What was he talking about last night?' And if your son is on that group, it's awkward for him. So no, it's a good rule."

Even with a little more free time, Giles, who runs his own physiotherapy practice from his home at Tara, is unlikely to find himself at any loose end. A keen golfer, he was a notable face in the crowd at nearby Killeen Castle last month as South African Justin Harding ground out a narrow victory on the final day of the Irish Challenge. The former centre-forward was in Lahinch for GB&I's Walker Cup win too and he even got across to Birmingham for the European Athletics Championships.

None of it could top the football championship that played out throughout the summer here though, and how it all ended with Mayo's landmark triumph.

Giles got a big kick from Wicklow's Tailteann Cup final win too and found it to be a summer of fun in what was the second season of the new rules.

Back in Meath, Giles is hoping for a big year for the county's senior team in 2027. Between returning to Division 1 and the scheduled reopening of the new Páirc Tailteann, there's a lot to look forward to.

And yet any conversation with the Meath great inevitably ends up back in the 1990s, when he got the opportunity to play for the legendary Seán Boylan.

"We were just lucky, just lucky we were there at the right time, great players, great manager," said Giles, who explained exactly what made Boylan so special.

"I've never heard him say he couldn't help someone. Myself and Caroline were going to America one year and we flew to London, then we were flying to America, and Caroline forgot some important thing that she needed. What's the first thing you do? You ring Seán! 'Seán, I'm in London, I'm missing something', whatever it was I was missing. And he says, 'Oh, I have a good friend, he's a pilot in Aer Lingus, I'll give that to Jim and he's flying tonight and he'll get that to you'. And the job is sorted! Otherwise you mightn't have got to America. And there could be 500 more examples of that I could think of."