When Sean Boylan took over as Meath manager, Dublin were the focus.
When he left the job an astonishing 23 years later, Dublin were still the focus.
To get to where Boylan wanted to go, Dublin had to be taken down. Eventually, he succeeded.
When the Dunboyne man left after the 2005 campaign, Dublin were kings of Leinster but they hadn’t lifted Sam in a decade. They put that right six years later and haven’t looked back since.
There is a story that’s often been told of Colm O’Rourke and other senior players telling Boylan to shove his “shyness in his arse pocket’’ during his early years with Meath.
There’s still something to be said for that approach.
Too many teams are beaten before they even take the field against Dublin.
But Boylan knows there is no comparison to the landscape now as to when he took on Meath nearly 40 years ago.
“I remember Meath minors playing Kerry in 2013 and Dublin hurlers were playing Cork the same day in Croke Park. There were a couple of lads in the car with me and we were listening to the radio commentary on the way back,’’ he said.
“Eleven times the teams were level and I said, ‘this is amazing’. The lads in the car were football-mad but they were glued to the hurling. The following Saturday, curiosity got to me and, at 8.30am, I was out in Clanna Gael in Sandymount and there must have been 100 kids there.
“I went in towards Ranelagh and there was another pitch there with about 60 kids. I went from there to an Under-16 intercounty hurling match and from there to Dunshaughlin where Eamonn Moyles, the brother of Anthony, had a crowd of kids who hadn’t made the development squads — 13s, 14s and 15s.
“He had people brought in to play with them and coach them and so on. I then went to Summerhill where Meath Under-14s played two matches against Kildare. On the way home, I said ‘what was the most successful?’. The one in Dunshaughlin where you had the groups mixed together.
“It was extraordinary to think, ‘how many in the academy are going to keep playing?’
“The difficulty the Association has is that there are so many playing now in the country clubs — never mind in Dublin — and how are they going to get to play on an intercounty team?
“You think of the numbers playing in Dublin and they could maybe put out two or three teams. Now, I wouldn’t want to hear North Dublin, South Dublin, Fingal or whatever. Dublin is Dublin.
“You have to give credit to the people who are involved and the work they have done. People say that it’s the money that’s in it. Excuse me. The money has nothing to do with it. It’s voluntary service and people giving of their time. Full credit to them but we’ll get there yet.”
Meath are in Championship action this weekend against Longford, but the build-up has been disrupted by an internal row.
Bernard Flynn and his high profile Under-20 management team resigned en masse following a row over the availability of players with senior boss Andy McEntee.
Ultimately, Boylan feels Meath football is the big loser.
“When something becomes as public as that all round, it’s a sad situation.
“The manager of the senior team is Andy, Bernard is looking after the Under-20s but like, when Bernie got the job, we hadn’t the lockdown that we’ve had since,’’ he said.
“And all these things changed. Suddenly, Andy found himself in the situation against Kildare that he lost two players through injury and he lost two through suspension. You just only wish, and that’s all I’m saying, that there could have been a coming together beforehand — ‘Can you help me out?’ or whatever.
“It’s difficult for the young lads because this Under-20 team, they’re the team that were in the All-Ireland final a couple of years ago, and the three lads involved would have played in that.
“Unless you’re at the meeting you don’t really know what goes on but I know, and I’d like to think that if I was in the chair and the two lads came across the table and they were stuck, I’d say, ‘Listen lads, can we abandon the meeting now, can we sit down and try to sort this out?’
“You had two very strong willed men, two very good footballers, two great football brains. But at the end of the day the aim should have been whatever is going to be the best for the county. I don’t want to see Bernie Flynn lost from management in our county either.’’
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