Seán Boylan has spent most of his life turning weeds in to medicines that benefit people with ailments of all kinds, An Fear Rua notes …

Seán's father did it before him, and his father before him again. Indeed, some of the older people in his picturesque native village of Dunboyne, in the county of Meath, fondly recall the gallant efforts of Commandant-General Seán Boylan, who grew tobacco to sate the longings of poor people who were 'dropping for a fag' because of shortages during the Emergency years of 1939-45.

While other people see foxgloves along the road as a bit of a weed with a purple flower on it, the likes of Seán know that foxglove is a natural provider of digitalis, one of the most important medicines for treating heart conditions. Then again, for thousands of years the Chinese - those inscrutable masters of alternative medicine - have known that nettles can be boiled to make a most tasty and nutritious soup. And some of the fanciest French restaurants in places of culinary excellence like the city of Lyon use dandelion leaves to decorate their dishes, not merely because they look well, but because they have beneficial medicinal properties as well.

Turning weeds into medicine may be a bit slower, but it surely must be rated up there on a par with the Divine Master's turning of water into wine that time in Cana of Galilee.

Seán has taken a similar approach to building and maintaining successful Meath football teams over his twenty-one years as their manager. Sure any goddamn eejit can spot a nice fragrant rose in a garden or a tulip and work it into an attractive floral arrangement for a table or the altar of a wedding. But it takes a real genius to see that plucking a wild poppy or a bluebell may create similar stunning effects.

Never for Seán the easy road of picking the fifteen best-known players in the county and sticking Meath geansaís on them. Instead, he patiently scoured the highways and byways, listened to reports from distant parts, and so his real forte was in taking relatively obscure players from smaller clubs - sometimes graded as Intermediate clubs - and turning them into All Ireland winning stars. Using all his renowned skills as a herbalist, he was skilful too at blending new ingredients into an existing team judiciously, so that sometimes it has was difficult to tell where an old Boylan team left off and a new one began.

Now, as the championship draws to a close, difficult questions are being posed about the future of Meath football. Dunshaughlin's Eamon Barry has confirmed that his Garda cap will be in the ring when the County Board come to make a decision on the manager's job. Eamon stood unsuccessfully for the job last year. But that was then, and this is now. Last year, many in Meath felt Boylan was entitled to one more shot at it with his present panel and that argument counted heavily against Barry at the time. The latter has earned his shot at the job again. He has managed the black-and-amber of Dunshaughlin to three successive senior county titles during one of the most competitive eras in Royal county football and taken this year's Leinster club championship. Not just the third round defeat by Fermanagh, but the dispirited nature of Meath's entire championship campaign, has somewhat dented the 'give Seán one more try' argument.

AFR would argue that the Meath troubles that surfaced in their performances this year have been latent in the panel since 1999 and the side has been trading on reputation and borrowed time. For example, they have been plagued with difficulties at midfield and have lost games as a result. Yet, the obvious solution to these midfield blues has been sitting unused on the subs' bench for most of the past three or four years, in the person of Dunshaughlin's Niall Kelly. Although his club exited this year's championship at the semi-final stage, Kelly's midfield performances - but more particularly his high scoring rate - have been outstanding. Many are mystified as to why he was never given a proper role in the championship. Could it be that, for once, Boylan's aversion to taking the easy option in selection led him to ignore the flower that was blooming under his nose all the time?

In AFR's view Seán Boylan still has a major contribution to make to GAA in Meath as a manager… but this time with the county's hurlers.

While all the national 'meeja' focus, and much of the local, is on Meath footballers the senior and junior hurling panels have been making enormous strides in recent years. Michael Duignan of Offaly did a fantastic job in building on the foundations laid by his predecessors despite enduring enormous difficulties with County Board 'offeeeshals'. The influx of new population into this prosperous county is bringing in new hurling blood and this is augmenting the existing strongholds like Trim, Kiltale, Kilmessan, Rathmolyon and Navan. There is a rich crop of talent to be nurtured and harvested. But the Meath County Board is run by footballers for footballers with hurlers only barely tolerated. One sure way to break through this barrier, at a stroke, would be to appoint Boylan as the county hurling manager. Here is the man who would command the respect and resources Meath hurling needs to make the breakthrough.

A switch to the hurlers would offer Boylan an opportunity to end his footballing time with dignity intact rather than have it involuntarily ended by a vote of either delegates, a sub-committee or the full County Board. And, with a major job to be done in Meath hurling, it would be a classic 'win win' outcome.

Boylan has the background and experience for it, having represented Meath in junior hurling himself. More importantly, he has the right attitude. An Fear Rua had the privilege of hearing Seán Boylan a few years ago at a meeting in Trim called to revive hurling fortunes in the county. He brandished a yellowing newspaper clipping from the early Fifties describing how a Wexford team studded with Rackards, O'Donnells and other stars of the hurling firmament had counted themselves extremely lucky to escape from Trim with a draw. Boylan made it clear he could never accept the proposition that Meath hurling teams were fatalistically predetermined to lose games to counties like Kilkenny, Offaly or Wexford. After all, as he pointed out that night: 'They don't eat any better potatoes than we do!'

And surely leading Meath hurlers to win a Leinster senior championship couldn't be much more difficult than turning oul weeds into medicine? …

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Following their Exit from the Championship,Should Meath Manager Seán Boylan Resign?