Fay not yet ruled out of Meath plans as Boylan waits

DARREN FAY has refused to rule himself out of Meath's Championship plans for this year despite speculation that Sean Boylan was all but resigned to planning without the Allstar full-back.

The Trim defender informed Boylan late last year that he would be unable to give the required commitment for the O'Byrne Cup and National League after the birth of his second child before Christmas, plus the demands of a newly-established kitchen manufacturing business.

With nine seasons under his belt with the county, the 29-year old already has three Leinster and two All-Ireland senior medals to his credit. As a former Irish International Rules player and three-time All-Star on top of that, Fay could be forgiven for calling it a day.

However, the player himself has insisted, although he is still to come to a decision on whether or not to be involved this summer, neither he nor the Meath management have yet crossed his name off the team list.

"I've decided to take a break for a while because my family and the new business need my time more at the moment, but I haven't made up my mind about the championship one way or another yet. The door is still open," Fay said.

In his absence, teenager Kevin Reilly has filled the full-back slot in the county's O'Byrne Cup outings. Highly rated though the former St Patrick's All-Ireland Colleges winner is, the loss of Fay would leave a huge dent in the plans of a county that has already fallen alarmingly off the pace in Leinster.

With that in mind, it isn't all that surprising that Boylan is allowing Fay so much leeway before coming to a decision. However, midfielder John McDermott was persuaded to return to the fray for the 2001 championship having retired towards the end of 2000. As well as Fay, Meath are still awaiting decisions from last year's captain Paddy Reynolds and forward Evan Kelly as to whether they are prepared to make the required commitment for the championship.

Reynolds appears the more likely to return as Kelly has previously said he has lost the appetite required to give it his best shot at inter-county level.

The long-serving defender Donal Curtis is one player who will definitely not be appearing this year though Trevor Giles, Graham Geraghty and Ollie Murphy have all signed up for another campaign.

Meanwhile, Dominic Corrigan has completed compiling his backroom team in Sligo with the appointment of former St Mary's manager Tommy Breheny. The former Sligo player joins Paul Durcan and Neil Egan as the county side's selectors.