Boylan’s restoration job

At the end of Kerry’s ‘Golden Years’ era in 1986, the next four All-Ireland football championships were shared by Meath and Cork — the significance being that the Royals had been as good as wiped out in Leinster over the preceding 15 years, while the Rebels managed to escape the clutches of Kerry just once in 12 Munster final meetings.

Notably, in the case of Meath — honoured in Croke Park yesterday as the Jubilee teams were recognised for their twin successes of 1987 and 1988 over Cork — they went from losing the 1970 All-Ireland final to Kerry to 1986 before gaining their next provincial title. And they again lost to the Kingdom that year in the All-Ireland semi-final.

So, from a situation of contesting a mere five out of 15 Leinster finals in the interim period, winning the Centenary Cup in Leinster in 1984 represented a major step forward for new manager Sean Boylan and ‘old stagers’ such as Gerry McEntee, Colm O’Rourke and Joe Cassels. Boylan was coaching the Dunboyne camogie team before taking over from Mick O’Brien in 1982 and stayed in charge for 23 years.

“The enthusiasm he had for the whole thing was infectious. Club football had been very dominant in Meath until Sean came along,” explained O’Rourke.

“He was able to weld all the different factions together and get them organised into a cohesive county force, which hadn’t been done for about a decade before that. We would not have won All-Irelands without him.”

In his book The Final Whistle, O’Rourke wrote that his ‘football life’ only began in 1987 at the age of 30, at which stage he had been playing for 12 years — with McEntee having begun his career in 1975 and Cassels a year later.

After “a close shave” with Laois in Portlaoise and “playing well” against Dublin, a “comfortable” win over Derry brought them through to a final meeting with Cork.

“Cork had much the better of it for the first 15 or 20 minutes, but we had begun to take control coming up to half time and very dominant for the third quarter.’

The game went off without incident but their two meetings in the 1988 final were acrimonious, with O’Rourke pointing to a “few incidents” in the draw. “Brian Stafford got a wallop and I got a wallop and I think Mick Lyons got a wallop...It was so unlike Cork from the previous year,” he said.

Cork had the better chance of winning the ’88 final, three points ahead nearing the end but unable to see out the game, which ended with Meath securing a draw when Tommy Sugrue awarded them a controversial free.

Meath were in a different class the second day, despite having McEntee sent off after just six minutes.

Bernard Flynn was one of the younger players who made his mark, coming on to the team in ’84 after playing with the minors the year before. He says they learned a lot from the manner of their defeat to Kerry in 1986.

“They were a really experienced side and we were a little bit naive, not as strong physically or mentally,” he said. “They taught us a few lessons that we put to good use in ’87.

“We learned fast. Under Boylan there was a great core group of leaders, good solid men, down to earth, honest and great team-mates. When you were a young lad, you couldn’t have had better — the likes of McEntee, O’Rourke, Cassels and [Mick] Lyons.

“We played well and beat the teams that were in front of us — with a little bit to spare and a bit of authority. But, we were lucky in ’88. In the Leinster final Charlie Redmond missed a penalty near the end [when Dublin trailed by two points] and in truth, we shouldn’t have drawn the All-Ireland final. We were probably very lucky with the free at the very end.”

Whatever bad blood was there after the replay [and the 1990 final between the counties] was all forgotten when Meath players travelled to Cork in numbers for the funeral of goalkeeper John Kerins, who died from an illness in 2001 at the age of 39.

“That broke the ice,” said Flynn. “Fellas talked and chatted, fellas who had never even talked. They downright disliked each other.

“Mick McCarthy had also died [killed in an accident in 1998]. Two guys that we played against — that did touch a lot of the Meath guys.”

Boylan felt that ill-advised newspaper comment stirred up the disharmony. He said: “An awful lot written at the time shouldn’t have been written. There were all sorts of rumour and innuendo around the place and of course everything was supposed to be gospel.

“When John Kerins died, that changed everything for everybody and before that you had poor Mick McCarthy. I never had a problem with Billy Morgan in my life, nothing but respect and for the lads.

“And I said in 1990, to be beaten in two All-Ireland finals and to come back and win two — what a sign of a team!’

Stressing the support of selectors Tony Brennan and Pat Reynolds, he says that the old guard helped him to stamp his authority, explaining: “In ’85 after being beaten by Laois by 10 points in the championship, the senior players came to see me and told me to put my shyness in my ‘back’ pocket. I would have been of a shy disposition, even though people mightn’t realise that.

“From then on we put the chairs around in a circle and we just talked to each other. We married into the thing together. There was a lot of harmony there and that was very important.”

Losing to Kerry in the ’86 All-Ireland semi-final — when Ger Power scored a vital goal after the goalkeeper collided with two team-mates — was a serious learning experience, as Flynn suggested.

“We realised after that day we had to be seven or eight points a better team to get any further.”

Meath proved that in winning the ’87 final 1-14 to 0-11 they demonstrated their mental strength in retaining the title in the second game the following year.

“In the drawn match, physically Cork were far too powerful for us. We were getting pushed all over the place and so on. And for lads who had won an All-Ireland and the National League after a replay it was a huge wake-up call.”