Replying To bdbuddah: "If you want to 'let it be' stop dragging this sort of innuendo up. O'Rourke was Meath's best player so would have started if fit to start. I can't find the copy of O'Rourke's biography in the house so can't confirm what I think I can remember O'Rourke'1s quotes about him not starting the 91 final but I found an interview O'Rourke did in a newspaper. He talks about getting pneumonia 10 days before the 91 final and having to be brought in to hospital for tests. About his initial recovery and then his health taking a bad turn the Friday before the match and having to take to the bed. About medical advice (from team doctor Jack Finn as well as Gerry McEntee) being that it was dangerous for his health to play (he had lost a good bit of weight due to his bout of pneumonia). https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2017/08/23/news/colm-o-rourke-i-wish-the-ravages-of-time-could-be-slowed-down-so-i-could-still-play-1117737/"
Gerry McEntee's response to Tommy Conlon's article in today's Indo;
I think it is only appropriate to reply to Tommy Conlon's poisonous article in last week's Sunday Independent ('Enigma of Boylan goes unexplained') about our former manager and great personal friend Seán Boylan. There is no enigma Mr Conlon. What you see is what you get - a true gentleman. Conlon will no doubt be disappointed and a long time "waiting for a glimpse of the darkness behind this sunny façade" because there is no darkness. Seán Boylan only sees the good in everybody - Meath people or otherwise.
Never once did I ever hear him vilify any of the opposition and never once did he encourage "assault and battery" as Conlon suggested. If his players overstepped the mark, and at times they did (myself included), they did so of their own volition but never could it be attributed to the influence of Seán.
But let's take a look at Conlon's recollection of Gaelic football over the last 40 years and ask if his tainted memory is the same as ours. He says the Kerry team of 1975-1986 "elevated Gaelic football with charisma and class". They were truly a fantastic team but where was the "charisma" in Kerry's renowned corner-back dragging Jimmy Barry Murphy throughout at least one Munster final and highlighted by many reporters at the time, including Paddy Downey and Con Houlihan, two journalists quoted in his condemnation of Meath. And was it any different to Mark O'Reilly's approach in the 1996 Leinster final.
Where was the "class" in Kerry's renowned half-back's "assault and battery" of Dinny Allen in the 1975 Munster final that went completely unpunished by a referee standing within striking distance but lucky to have slipped at the appropriate time.
Mr Conlon also has a selective memory if he thinks the Meath teams of the 1980s and '90s were "the last incarnation of that long and ignoble era". Has he forgotten the carefully orchestrated cynicism of four - or was it five - Dublin forwards in the final minutes of the 2017 All-Ireland final when they dragged Mayo players to the ground to prevent them receiving a kickout in a match described on RTE.ie as "unsurprisingly ill-tempered"?
Has he suitably forgotten his very own criticism of Tyrone and Armagh on these pages, who he claims pioneered the "endemic" and "seriously disruptive" strategy of fouling opponents outside the scoring zone.
Conlon suggests that Seán Boylan inspired his "young men into doing things that have consequences for others". Never in the eight years that I had the privilege of playing under him did I ever hear him encourage or promote any negative activity on or off the field. Does Conlon, I wonder, feel that the inspirational qualities of Mick O'Dwyer, Mickey Harte, Joe Kiernan and Jim Gavin likewise "had consequences for players on other teams who felt cheated and deprived of justice" because of the cynicism of the teams these people managed or is he abusing his privileged position to vilify a person admired and respected throughout the country?
Gaelic football, like all contact sports, is a physical game, and as such, all teams aspiring to get to the top have to at least match the physicality of the other top teams of their day. This inevitably leads to some players overstepping the mark, but let's have a bit of balanced analysis here. Cynical play went on before the Boylan era and will continue long after the Boylan era. It is carried out by both the victors and the vanquished, as the very Meath matches referred to by Conlon will testify. But to suggest that somehow Seán Boylan promoted "macho cynicism" shows how unbalanced some analysts can be.
Seán is a wonderful human being, as anyone who knows him will verify.
Bit off topic, however an interesting article in todays Irish Examiner, excerpt from Larry Tompkins new book. Red tinted galsses but fair enough. https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40044236.html
A great manager that will always be admired and brought so much success to the Royal County, We will find it hard to get another like him in the future. We could do with another one like him in the near future but we'll see how well that goes in the next few years. Sean is a great role model for any young managers at the moment and his advice would be greatly appreciated by anyone looking into management as a secondary occupation or even a nice pastime.
Replying To seadog54: "Bit off topic, however an interesting article in todays Irish Examiner, excerpt from Larry Tompkins new book. Red tinted galsses but fair enough. https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40044236.html"
Nice piece but he sounds bitter. And McEntee hit Cahalane a box, he didn't kick him. Cork were no shrinking violets themselves on the day.
Considering Meath played with 14 for all bar a few minutes they deserve a lot more credit.
brian (Meath) - Posts: 1954 - 08/09/2020 11:38:02
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