OBITUARY: Brian Smyth - Meath stalwart who captained 1949 All-Ireland winners

Sean Boylan reckons it was about 3am when he and Brian Smyth finally cleared the tea-cups from the kitchen table.

Smyth in 2005 receiving the Leinster Hall of Fame Award from then Leinster chairman Liam O’Neill.

It was autumn, 1982, and Meath football was flagging. They’d lost to Longford in the first round of the Leinster championship and Boylan, with 20-odd years of service to Meath hurling behind him, was the unlikely choice to take over as manager.

So unlikely, in fact, that even Boylan himself presumed he was being offered the hurling job when the county secretary rang to sound him out.