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.