THERE has been a hapless symmetry to Sean Boylan's week in the lead up to tomorrow's Division One relegation play off between his Meath team and Tyrone.
On Tuesday, the GAA's director general released his annual report which vented Liam Mulvihill's displeasure with the scenes that marked last year's All Ireland football final replay.
By Thursday, it was announced that Peter Canavan would be making his intercounty comeback for Tyrone after six months' absence caused by an injury sustained in controversial circumstances against Meath in last August's All Ireland semifinal.
That match typified Meath's season achievement - their best football was played against Tyrone - distracted by controversy. As well as John McDermott's foul on Canavan, there were two incidents which resulted in Tyrone players requiring head bandages.
In the better known of the two, Martin O'Connell - Meath's veteran corner back was caught on camera standing on Brian Dooher's head. O'Connell denied intent and the GAC accepted this, although others, notably in Tyrone, were more sceptical.
Tomorrow's meeting at Clones between the teams has been defused somewhat by their previous, meeting in December, although neither team was at full strength. Last season and its aftermath, which saw the GAC suspend eight Meath and seven Mayo players for their role in the All Ireland replay brawl, is a subject of which Boylan is heartily sick.
Although protesting a serenity of sorts about the matter, he is clearly angry at how the events of August and September rinsed through the achievement of taking an All Ireland against all pre season predictions and form.
"I don't feel resentment but it doesn't let up. I heard Brian Carthy (RTE Radio GAA correspondent) on the radio the other morning going on about the state of football and the Meath Mayo final. And I thought the lads'll keep it going, they'll wait in line just like in 87 and 88. I don't bother about it. I sleep in bed at night.
"Now you hear all the provincial reports about the state of football, it'd give you a pain in your face. I have to laugh when I keep reading about how awful football is, that it's gone to the dogs. There'll be nearly 70,000 people packing into Croke Park for a first round match in June (Meath's Leinster championship meeting with Dublin on June 15th).
"It brings me back to Congress in 1989 in Portmarnock. There was all sorts of discussion about the state of football - of course we were All Ireland champions then as well. At the same time I was up in Belfast with Bernard Flynn coaching lads in O'Donovan Rossas.
"For free.
"We didn't even get expenses.
We wouldn't take them.
Does he worry about any problems arising when his team take on Tyrone tomorrow, given the stakes are higher than before Christmas and that the matter has left a bitter residue in Tyrone, where county secretary Dominic McCaughey criticised Meath in his report to convention in January?
"I never look at potential problems like that. The only thing I will concentrate on is the game. The football in our match against Tyrone was great. It was our best display and some of Tyrone's football in the first half was great.
"Some of the things that happened since and some of the things that were said by those unable to distinguish between an accident and a non accident. I still get personal letters - and so does Marty. They're not signed of course".
Liam Mulvihill's Congress report makes several references to the problems in football.
Recent incidents at colleges and under 21 level have deepened the sense of unease about the direction of football. Boylan remains largely unmoved.
"The games have never been as, competitive as they are now. At every level. They're taken so seriously, maybe too seriously. You look back at all the talk about Kerry and Dublin. Jimmy Deenian, Tim Kennelly and Paidi O Se would take your sacred life in the backs. So would Gay O'Driscoll. Big Sean (Doherty) and Pat O'Neill. They'd take your life as well.
"Players nowadays are so fit. There's no comparison (with the 19705). Maybe you shouldn't say that. It sounds like you're belittling great people but that's not the intention. They brought new levels of fitness to it - without doubt - but things have moved on."
Meath's own route to an All Ireland last year was marked by impressive improvisation and fitness and a shorter, less direct game than that practised by their predecessors. Boylan vigorously upholds the merits of a young, team collectively rising above its individual limitations against a Mayo team which had plenty of opportunity to put them away.
"After our first round match against Carlow, Pat Reynolds (father of wing back Paddy, former All Ireland medallist and selector with Boylan until 1992) came in and he's a gentleman who wouldn't be known for cursing and swearing. But he swore at how different that team was.
It was a totally different style from the other team (1986-92). Then we had only one or two players under six foot. Now there's only a few over. They were a stone a man lighter than Mayo and a couple of inches shorter. No wonder they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth, but they had the resilience to stick in there."
