In the GAA generally, legends are not easily forgotten. Wherever a ball is kicked or a sliothar struck the names of Larry Stanley, Joe Keohane, Lory Meagher, Mick Mackey and Christy Ring still live on. In Co Meath it is no different and despite the fact that green men like Paddy O'Brien, Peter McDermott, Paddy Meegan, Jack Quinn, The Red Collier, Colm O'Rourke and Trevor Giles have all won All-Ireland medals in the last 50 years, the names of two footballers who "soldiered" for the Royal County over 60 years ago (and indeed some of it over 70 years ago) are still referred to throughout the county with a certain amount of Fionn MacCumhaill or Cuchulainn reverence. Recently I attended a GAA Quiz across the border in Co Cavan where one of the Rounds was entirely devoted to Nicknames. Throughout the evening there were expressions of shock at the severity of the questions - yet it is fair to say that questions on the identity of Meath players called The "Buller" and The "Boiler" didn't even raise an eyebrow. I would venture a suggestion that all 50 tables present got both of these correct. Yet the Buller Rogers ended his intercounty career in 1937 with the Boiler McGuinness about three years behind. Both men have passed to their eternal rewards during the 1990s but their deeds live on. There ain't many around now who saw either of them playing but the story of their CVs has been passed down from generation to generation and hopefully will continue to be passed on during the 21st century. Matty (The Buller) Rogers first came to prominence with Navan Gaels in the mid 20s. The town side won three Meath Senior championships in succession between 1924 and 1926 and went on to win a further six up to 1938. Prior to then the strong clubs had been Castletown, Bohermeen and Rathkenny mainly due to the exploits of two other legends Joe Curran and John Newman - legends on the field and later as administrators, who played a major role in the purchase of Pairc Tailteann. Although Buller is on record as saying that his career with Meath began in 1923 the earliest I can find him mentioned is in the Leinster Junior championship of 1926 when he starred in a draw and replay against Wexford but Meath were beaten. He was on the Senior team for the following National League (the competition had only started in 1925/26) so this was only the second League. Buller, who incidentally got his nickname from a Christian Brother at school who compared his ability to "shoot" for scores with that of a British General in the Boer War, a famous Rifle Marksman with the surname Buller. From then on he was never known as anything else and even now nine years after his death the area out beyond Boyerstown where he lived for most of his life is still known as "The Bullers". He had of course spent his childhood in Navan town. Buller must have impressed in that league as he was selected for his 1st championship match on 22nd May 1927 when from the right half forward position he helped to beat Louth 2-7 to 0-5 at Pairc Tailteann. Six weeks later Kildare knocked out Meath at Drogheda on a score of 1-6 to 1-2 but a new star had been born. Incidentally Kildare went on to win the All-Ireland and they repeated the feat in 1928 - they have never won it since. For the record the Meath team beaten by Kildare on that day in Drogheda was: P Browne; C Sheeran, T Clusker, P Coffey; C Cudden, P Keelan, J McLoughlin; C Ratty, C Doran; M Rogers, Ike Madden, J Curtis; P Ratty, P Colclough, P Kearns. Incidentally goalie Paddy Browne who was from Donaghmore was known as "The Wheasel" while left back P Coffey was from Martry and was known as "The Frog". From that day in 1927 Buller never missed a championship match and indeed very few league matches until his retirement after losing to Wexford in Croke Park in June 1937. The successful highlights will be noted as a National League Title in 1933 and three Railway Cup successes with Leinster in '30, '32 and '33 (the last as a sub) but there were also great matches in defeat particularly against Kildare and Dublin. In 1928 Longford surprised Meath in Mullingar but in 1929 there were two great matches (Draw and Replay) at Drogheda against All-Ireland champions Kildare led by Jack Higgins, Matt Goff, Paul Doyle and Squires Gannon. Meath stars were "M Fahy" (who was really Rev Michael McManus), Charlie Cudden, Ted Meade, Mick Keogan and The Buller. Kildare won the second day and went on to win their fourth Leinster title in a row. They surrendered their All-Ireland title to Kerry in September of that year. 1930 is an important milestone in Meath GAA history. The big two in Leinster over many years had been Kildare and Dublin: 1929 had indicated that Meath were coming close and the display against Dublin in the Leinster Semi-Final at Drogheda in June 1930 proved they were coming closer still. A brilliant victory of 3-6 to 1-4 made the whole country sit up and take notice. Meath had many heroes but none more so than "Donoghue" at midfield and in attack the mighty Buller. "Donoghue" was of course Fr McManus and over the next few weeks one of the most bizarre stories in Meath's GAA history unfolded. Fr Mac, as he was known, had won a junior championship with Drumconrath in 1928; had played midfield under the name "Fahy" in 1929 and was so good that he attracted huge attention. Rumour has it that he was about to be picked for Leinster in Spring of 1930 but declined so everyone in Meath looked forward to his selection for the championship again. The official position of the Church and the Bishops was that priests were not allowed to play but that didn't seem to have mattered in '29 or against Dublin in the semi-final. Whether it was the attention this Meath midfielder was receiving from the Media (was there such a word 70 years ago?) or not I don't know but the Co. Board officials decided to approach the Bishop in Mullingar for official permission to pick Fr. Mac for the Leinster Final. They were flatly refused and all down the years since there have been Meath supporters who insisted that they (the officials) should have left well enough alone - a sort of "if its not broken don't fix it". Now that they were turned down officially, they couldn't include him even under an assumed name and so the Buller and Co set out to play Kildare in Croke Park without their key midfielder. The match ended in a draw Meath 1-3, Kildare 0-6. Joe Loughran and Ike Madden played at midfield with the Boiler McGuinness in the full forward line and the Buller as usual at No12. For the replay the selectors seemed to put all their eggs in the half forward basket as McGuinness, Loughran and Buller all lined out there. Centre field was "Claudy" Duffy and Ike Madden with Mick Keoghan at top of the right. The switches mustn't have worked as Kildare held on to their title 2-6 to 1-2. Fr Mac was sorely missed. This was Buller's first and last appearance in a Leinster final (well actually two appearances in one year) but of course he had seven good years left. Isn't it remarkable that there have been other players down the years who played in a couple of Leinster finals but their memories have long since faded while The Buller only reached one final but 70 years later the legend still lives on. For the record the team which lost the 1930 final to Kildare was - P Browne; M Nulty, W Dillon, T Clusker; C Cudden, T Meade, M Russell; P Duffy, I Madden; T McGuinness, J Loughran, M Rogers; M Keoghan, P Colclough, T Smith. In 1931 Meath beat Offaly in first round, again drew with Kildare and lost the replay - this time in the semi-final. Kildare held on to their title beating surprise packets Westmeath in the final. In 1932 although Meath had most of the same team (Joe Loughran was absent) they went down heavily to Dublin in Newbridge 3-6 to 0-4. The Kildare bubble seemed to have burst at least temporarily and the Dubs won three in a row 1932-1934. Kildare came back to win the title in '35 and then came the great Laois team of the Delaneys in the second half of the '30s. Despite the continued brilliance of The Buller, Meath couldn't reach the Leinster final in those years. Dublin in 33-34, Louth by a point in '35, Kildare in '36 and eventually Wexford in '37 knocked out the Royals. There was however the glory of the National League in '33 and in winning this title, the first of any kind in football, the Meath team of the time made their own piece of history which in turn led to greater things in later years. In late '32 Meath had an easy league victory over Dublin at Navan; in Spring of '33 they beat Laois and Kerry but for some reason the competition didn't reach a conclusion before the championship commenced. Dublin then beat Meath in the championship, went on to beat Wexford in the Leinster final and lost to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final. Galway were in turn beaten by Cavan in the All-Ireland final - the Breffni county's first All-Ireland. Cavan had also qualified for the postponed league final. Just before the All-Ireland final, Meath played Mayo in the league semi-final in Navan and had a great win 2-7 to 1-3. So as soon as the Cavan men had the Sam Maguire Cup in their possession, all Meath looked forward to meeting them in the final of the league. In the meanwhile the All-Ireland champions were invited to America and accepted so the league final wasn't played until 22nd October. Fr McManus who was training the Meath team for the final brought them into a 'camp' at Ringlestown Kilmessan to prepare. A strong team was selected. Buller was as usual at left half forward and on the opposite wing was an 18 year old minor in his first major intercounty match. His name was Tony Donnelly and he went on to become one of the all time greats. Conspicuous by his absence was Tom (Boiler) McGuinness, who of course had been ever present since 1929 - some sort of dispute with Fr Mac and the Co Board. The teams were level 0-9 to 1-6 with a few minutes to go when Billy Shaw of Summerhill scored Meath's winner from a free awarded for a foul on Buller. The victorious team was - P Browne; R Cassidy, W Dillon, W Clynch; P Geraghty, T Meade, T Smith; J Loughran, P Durkin; T Donnelly, W Shaw, M Rogers; M Brennan, P McEnroe, P Mooney. Apparently Mick Kenny of Enfield was selected at midfield but had to cry off and be replaced by Paddy Durnin of Donaghmore. (Paddy's nephew Ned won an All-Ireland title with Meath 21 years later). Top of the left was Packy Mooney who's grandson Trevor Giles is such a modern day superstar. So the Buller got his National Award at last. Over the new few years as already stated Meath's championship position didn't really improve and hopes of that Leinster medal were beginning to fade away. In Spring of '37 the Buller played in his second league final against Mayo. This time he was at top of the left but Mayo were on a roll at the time and won the title 5-4 to 1-8. In the Leinster championship Wexford beat Meath 3-7 to 1-8 at Croke Park. Buller was again at No 15 and that is the last record I can find of him on the Meath senior team. He wasn't on for the championship against Carlow and Laois in 1938 and he didn't play any part in the great campaign of 1939. Indeed that was always a sore point with Buller and long years afterwards he liked to think that had he been on the bench (as they say nowadays!), he could have proved useful even if only for 20 minutes. Remember Meath only lost the All-Ireland final by two points and one of Kerry's goals was seen as being of doubtful variety - was the ball over the line when it was cleared? The Railway Cup Competition began in 1927 and by 1933 Leinster had won the title five times and been losing finalists once. From 1930 to 1933 Buller was on the panel each year. Top of the left in 1930 and '32, left half forward in '31 and a sub in '33, he won three of the precious medals. Rather ironically the only year he lost was when he played in his normal position! In 1930 he was the only Meathman on the team. By 1932 he was joined by Matt Nulty, Ted Meade and Boiler McGuinness. In '33 Billy Shaw and Ted Meade were with him on the successful team. For the record this is the victorious 1932 team which gives some indication of the company the Buller enjoyed - Johnny McDonnell (Dublin); Matt Nulty (Meath), Matt Goff (Kildare), Paddy Hickey (Dublin); Ted Meade (Meath), Jack Higgins (Kildare), Danny Walsh (Laois); Paddy Martin (Kildare), Jack Delaney (Laois); Tommy McGuinness (Meath), Danny Douglas (Laois), Paddy Byrne (Kildare), T O'Dowd (Dublin), Dermot Burke (Kildare), Matty Rogers (Meath). Amongst the subs were Paddy Browne (Meath) goalie, Frank Malone and Paddy Loughlin of Kildare. On the club scene the Buller started his football with a team called Pioneers. He then joined Navan Gaels where he won nine Senior Championships in 1924, '25, '26, '29, '30, '33, '34, '35 and finally in '38. In recent times Joe Cassells with eight came close but subject to correction I don't think anyone else won nine. He played in a local street league in Navan as late as 1946 and in the early '50s he came on as a sub for Dunderry in a Junior Tournament in which his son was also playing. Only recently I heard a discussion about a match in 1930 where the Referee stopped the game and demanded a private demonstration of how the Buller was flicking the ball from the ground into his hands at full speed. The fellows in the discussion were not around in 1930. Neither was I but we all believe that it did really happen. The referee in question was Tom Burke of Drogheda. I personally knew a son of Tom Burke and he often told me that same story about the Buller Rogers and how his father told him about the way he could pick up the ball. A man before his time but never to be forgotten. In 1980 Matty "Buller" Rogers received the Meath Hill of Fame Award and in 1984 Centenary Year he was invited to throw in the ball on the occasion of the Senior Championship Final. Needless to say he accepted and enjoyed the tremendous ovation he received from the capacity crowd. Buller died in July 1992 when approaching 87 years of age and is buried in Boyerstown Cemetery. He got a great send off as thousands flocked to his funeral on a beautiful Summer's day. He may be gone but the legend still lives. Tweet

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