Meath Football manager: The perennial question about Seán Boylan's future as usual won't need to be answered until next September when the county board considers the management of the county team. But many expect that Meath's long-serving manager will make up his own mind long before then.

The county's defeat on Sunday against Cavan meant a fourth successive exit from the qualifiers at the hands of an Ulster county. Previous to the weekend there had been defeats by Fermanagh last year and the year before, whereas in 2002 Donegal beat them at Croke Park.

It has been pointed out that since the 2001 annihilation of Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final - at the time seen to be one of Boylan's crowning achievements - the county's fortunes have collapsed. Since then, Meath have won just one match at Croke Park, last year against Wicklow.

Having concluded his 23rd year in charge, Boylan is currently experiencing the worst drought of a long tenure. By the start of next year's championship Meath will have gone five years since their previous Leinster title - a stretch equalled just once, between 1991-96.

Meath people will recall that Boylan broke that particular sequence in spectacular fashion with an All-Ireland victory, but whereas back then he had the resources of two All-Ireland minor victories and one under-21 title to help rebuild a challenge, at present the county's dry spell at senior has been paralleled at under-age levels.

In Meath the appointment has to be ratified each year and whereas some years there have been no challengers to the most successful manager in the county's history, the struggle of the past few years means that there is a more of a mood for change.

In recent years Boylan has been challenged by Eamonn Barry, who led Dunshaughlin to a Leinster club title in 2002, for the county management job and, whereas the first race was quite close, last year's saw Boylan returned with a stronger mandate. The most likely candidates to succeed Boylan should he step down are, apart from Barry, those who played on his teams in the 1980s and 1990s. But most are reluctant to declare an interest while Boylan chooses to remain.

Those associated with the successor role are current selector Colm Coyle who has inter-county experience with Monaghan, Colm O'Rourke, who withdrew his name from consideration last year after his blueprint for management was declined by the county executive, and Gerry McEntee, who led St Brigid's in Dublin to a Leinster title two years ago, but who has stated that he hasn't the time to consider inter-county management.