Meath's team of the 1960s was characterised by a chronic inability to score until after half-time, but might have reached the 1964 All-Ireland final had a goal by Jack Quinn not been controversially disallowed in the semi-final.

By the time the 1983 Leinster began, Meath had appointed the hurling team's masseur, Sean Boylan, as football manager, and few could have predicted the success that would come to the county under his reign.

Despite a concerted effort by the Kerry team (who had won four All-Irelands in a row from 1978 to 1981), the Centenary Cup final was ultimately played between Meath and Monaghan.

In the fourth match - an unprecedented third replay, taking place on the same weekend that the Leinster final was originally meant to have been played - Dublin built up a strong lead, above what they had managed in the previous meetings.

The dynamics now favoured Meath and David Beggy managed to score a point directly from the restart to win the fourth match, bringing a remarkable saga to a final ending.

The 1992 Championship started with a three-point home defeat to Laois which proved the final outing for many of the great side who then retired from inter-county football.

Meath supporters were delighted to hear the referee blow his whistle for a free out for pushing by Dublin players as the ball was in the air.

On 29 September 1996, with both sides having been reduced to 14 men following an infamous brawl early in the game, Meath again came from behind and defeated Mayo by 2–9 to 1–11 to claim their sixth All-Ireland.

In extra time Kildare running on the never-ending engine of Willie McCreedy in midfield quickly created a six-point lead.

Armagh played all the best football in the first half with two incisive moves that opened up the Meath defence and resulted in goals for the outstanding Diarmud Marsden and half-back Hughes.

However, from here on Meath took a firm grip on the game, and with superb performances from Graham Geraghty (who eclipsed Cork full-back Seán Óg Ó hAilpín in scoring three fine points from play) Trevor Giles, and John McDermott, Meath regrouped to outscore Cork by 0–6 to 0–2 in the final quarter, and win their seventh All-Ireland on a scoreline of 1–11 to 1–8.

Aided by some poor Meath defending and a somewhat fortuitous goal, Westmeath were on the brink of a three-point victory when in the dying moments of injury time Ollie Murphy got the ball in a melee of players at the Canal End goal and from fifteen metres out unleashed a rasping shot into the top right hand corner of the Westmeath net.

The strangest thing of all was that Murphy did not look at where he was kicking the ball - he literally shot based on where he assumed there was a vacant position in the goal.

Three superbly taken first half points from Ollie Murphy - who had given Kerry's Michael McCarthy a torrid time - and a well-taken goal by John McDermott helped Meath to at half-time lead of 1–6 to 0–4.

The scores were tied at 0-7 each at half time in what was a careful and cautious match, as Darren Fay held Galway's star full-forward Pádraic Joyce scoreless.

Coyle had previously managed the Monaghan county side - winning his very first match against then All-Ireland champions Armagh - and so there was renewed hope in the team.

Inspired by Graham Geraghty, Mark Ward, captain Anthony Moyles and Caoimhin King, Meath snatched an unlikely draw, raising hopes and interest in the county.

Meath met Cork in the semi-final while Kerry and Dublin renewed old rivalries in the other, raising the prospects of a number of mouthwatering potential All-Ireland final fixtures.

While Wexford went on to meet Dublin in the Leinster final, Meath suffered a heavy defeat to Limerick in the 1st round of the All-Ireland qualifier series and Colm Coyle resigned as manager.

The 2010 season began with the side beating Offaly despite poor performance before reaching the quarter-final to face Laois in a very rain soaked Croke Park which was dragged to extra-time but ended up in a replay the week after.

Irate Louth fans stormed the pitch and commenced a process of chasing and physically assaulting the referee,[2][3][4] who had to be led away by a Garda escort in scenes broadcast to a live television audience.

Other scenes of violence saw bottles being hurled from a stand, one striking a steward who fell to the ground[2][5] and Meath substitute Mark Ward was hit by a Louth fan.

In a poor game, marred by a high number of wides from both teams, Kildare emerged victorious by 0–16 to 0-10 which meant Meath entered the qualifiers.

The 2012 season began as a disaster during the league as Meath were hit by relegation to Division 3 despite a good start, losing to Louth at home.

2013 season saw a marked improvement during the latter part of the league despite making a poor start and The Roayls earned promotion back to Division 2 despite losing to Monaghan in the final.

The championship started with a repeat of the previous year Meath facing Wicklow this time at a very wet and windy Aughrim with The Royals running out winners by 5 points scoreline 1–17 to 1-12.

[15] Meath entered the fourth round of the Qualifiers against '2002 All Ireland Champions' Armagh at a rain-soaked Croke Park which showed little improvement from the Royal County, during which they trailed 0–8 to 0-2 after 8 minutes but managed to claw their way back and were behind 0–8 to 0–7 at half time.

The 2nd half however proved to be a real surprise as Black cards were dished to both Donnacha Tobin and Graham Reilly before The Lake County took control hitting 2-08 without reply defeating their neighbours for the first time ever meeting in a championship game with Meath ending with 14 men after goalkeeper Paddy O'Rourke was shown a straight red card for knocking Kieran Martin to the ground.

Failure to land promotion to Division 1 in the league yet again, resulted in huge pressure on O'Dowd and his players to have a successful championship in the summer of 2016.

1971: Pat Reynolds 1975: Ken Rennicks, Matt Kerrigan 1983: Colm O'Rourke 1984: Mick Lyons 1986: Mick Lyons2nd 1987: Robbie O'Malley, Gerry McEntee, David Beggy, Brian Stafford, Bernard Flynn 1988: Robbie O'Malley2nd, Martin O'Connell, Liam Hayes, Colm O'Rourke2nd, Brian Stafford2nd 1990: Robbie O'Malley3rd, Terry Ferguson, Martin O'Connell3rd, David Beggy2nd 1991: Michael McQuillan, Martin O'Connell3rd, Tommy Dowd, Colm O'Rourke3rd, Brian Stafford3rd, Bernard Flynn2nd 1994: Graham Geraghty, Tommy Dowd2nd 1995: Tommy Dowd3rd 1996: Darren Fay, Martin O'Connell4th, John McDermott,  Trevor Giles , Tommy Dowd4th 1997: Trevor Giles2nd, Brendan Reilly 1998: John McDermott2nd 1999: Mark O'Reilly, Darren Fay2nd, Paddy Reynolds, John McDermott3rd,  Trevor Giles 3rd, Graham Geraghty2nd, Ollie Murphy 2001: Cormac Sullivan, Evan Kelly, Ollie Murphy2nd 2007: Stephen Bray This is Meath's record in All-Ireland SFC finals.