Enjoyment, pure and simple, keeps Boylan at the helm

THOSE who saw the Colm O’Rourke feature on TG4 at the week-end would have seen a young-looking Sean Boylan around the dug-out area in Croke Park in footage of that epic Meath/Dublin marathon in 1991.

The Dunboyne herbalist the GAA's version of Peter Pan will be there once more on Sunday, pacing the line with that other giant of Gaelic Games, Mick O'Dwyer, when Meath face up to holders Laois in the Bank of Ireland Leinster semi-final.

Boylan has been guiding the fortunes of Meath since the winter of 1982, annexing two All-Irelands at the end of that decade and two more in the late nineties. There were a few times when his management came under serious pressure and even recently he had to fight off a few challenges to his leadership. If you ask him what has kept him going all that time, what sustains such amazing commitment, he will tell you it's because he gets so much enjoyment from it. "If you don't, you shouldn't be involved,'' he says in matter-of-fact fashion.