'Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose ... ' as the lads around Nobber way in the county of Meath often remark after yet another exit from a championship match. 'De more tings change, de more dey remain de fuckin' same', would be a reasonable translation.

And in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Meath GAA how true those words are. The AFR Chronicle below was written more than a year ago, highlighting the the offhand approach of the county board to hurling clubs and county hurling teams. It could just as well have been written at any time over the past fortnight.

Meath hurling men and women are in a titanic struggle for respect and autonomy with a county board that is run 'by football, for football'. It's all about the obdurate refusal of the county board to make reasonable arrangements to accomodate dual players who want to represent the county while doing justic to their club's championship prospects as well. Apart from the high profile temporary refusal of hurling manager Michael Duignan to continue to manage the team for the recent game against Antrim, a number of senior clubs have refused to fulfil their 2003 championship fixtures until the situation is improved.

The tragedy in all this is that Meath - like Galway or Offaly, for example - has the talent available to field successful teams in both hurling and football, if the county board would only wake up and realise the hurling riches that are under the noses ....

Post Script
By a single point, a fancied Meath hurling team finished out of championship hurling for this year at a fine game in Páirc Tailteann in Navan ... Presumably, County Cathaoirleach Fionntán Mac Fhinnitigh will chalk this up as yet another major 'success' during his twenty-three years at the helm of Meath GAA. After all, the hurling men of Meath are well and truly back in their box for another year. Or are they?...

Chronicles of An Fear Rua:
‘Gev up da’ houl hurlin’ dere … an’ tog ouh’ with de fuhballers !!’.

Anyone privileged to have been in Páirc Tailteann, in Navan, on Sunday 11 February will have seen a decent man get his just reward – and enjoying it !

There was no mistaken the elation in the demeanour of John Davis as he celebrated Meath’s historic National Hurling League victory over Dublin by the clear margin of 1-12 to 0-11.

When GAA fans talk of Meath managers the focus, almost inevitably, is on the Ould Dunboyne Alchemist Himself, Seán Boylan. Indeed, Boylan’s RTÉ radio interview with Brian Carty after his side’s defeat by Cavan was a veritable tour-de-force and indicative of the attitudes that make him one of the – if not the – greatest manager of all time.

But you don’t get to become – and remain – Meath’s hurling manager without exceptional strength of character as well. And former Westmeath hurling star John Davis has character in abundance. He has nursed, cajoled, coached, trained and counselled this current Meath panel all the way up from Division Two to rubbing shoulders with the ‘bigger boys’ in Division One. He has had to do this in a ‘football’ county, where the county board is dominated by ‘football’ men who have little intuitive regard or understanding of the ancient and beautiful game. This manifests itself in promising young hurlers being snaffled away to concentrate on football, in the way hurling always plays second fiddle to football in the fixtures list and the selection of venues. The men who are doing this would see themselves as ‘GAA, through and through’ so their neglect of hurling is instinctive rather than studied on their part. Setanta may well have silenced Culann’s hound with a sliothar in the mouth on the Hill of Tara many years ago, but if he were alive today, the Meath County Board would be advising him to: ‘Gev up da’ oul hurlin’ dere … an’ tog ouh’ with de fuhballers !!’.

In some counties, including Davis’s native Westmeath, and in the likes of Offaly, Galway, Cork, Waterford, Clare, Tipperary, Kerry hurling and football co-exist a bit more peacefully because there is a clear geographical divide between the ‘hurling’ and ‘football’ part of the county and this reduces the element of competition for players. In Meath, unfortunately, there is no such clear-cut geographical divide. Hurling is strong in the South-Central part of the county around Trim, Kilmessan and Navan but this area is not distinctive enough geographically to be able to fend off the footballing ‘predators’.

To many in hurling strongholds further South taking two points off Dublin would hardly merit a mention. But to Meath people these first ever points in Division One of the National Hurling are ‘two small points for mankind, two giant steps for Meath hurling …’ And there may be more to come. Certainly, Laois would need to watch their step when they come to Navan to take on the boys in yellow-and-green. However, if further scalps are to be taken, this Meath panel will have to respond more generously to John Davis and make the commitment to training that’s expected of a Division One hurling team in other counties. In Division One, one night a week is not enough ! If they make that commitment, there’s no telling where they might go in the League or even in this year’s Leinster senior championship.

This being Ireland, of course, we can never get too far without a ‘split’. The late Brendan Behan once claimed it was always the first item on the agenda of any new organisation formed here. Unfortunately, Meath hurling today is not without its own ‘split’ arising from a convoluted row between the famous Kilmessan hurling club and the County Board. AFR, through certain circumstances, has been close – indeed, too close! – to this controversy. He has deliberately refrained from commenting on the issues involved on this web site because of his access to privileged information, out of respect for the people involved and to avoid adding fuel to the flames.

However, it must now be a priority for all hurling men and women in Meath, and all ‘football’ men as well, to find an urgent, workable solution to this dispute and thus provide a stable background for the hurling panel to prosper.

The team – and the people of Meath – deserve no less…