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Very disappointing article by Tommy Conlon on Sean Boylan's successful Meath teams in the 1980's and 90's. A nice documentary during the week about Sean gave an insight into a much loved figure far beyond the confinement of Meath football. His teams were tough and physical but had no little skill. Fact was they were the best teams of that generation in Ireland weather Tommy Conlon likes it or not. To pick out specific incidents and individuals and try diminish the successes and even the overall quality of the game was totally unacceptable. winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 237 - 09/08/2020 19:08:39 2287012 Link 5 |
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Newspapers are on their knees...not really surprising drivel like this being printed.
bert09 (Meath) - Posts: 1668 - 09/08/2020 20:39:20 2287019 Link 4 |
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I thought the documentary was great. I expected a lot of people sharing anecdotes about Boylan but it had a lot of time dedicated to him sharing some of his life story. His Meath teams could play ball and they were tough, they hated losing. They were dirty at times but so we're a few other teams at that time. But they were winners and Sean Boylan turned them into winners.
GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 5955 - 09/08/2020 20:45:50 2287020 Link 9 |
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Oh look...it's journalism of the modern kind. Write something controversial to get people talking/ complaining so that others will want to read it and will buy the newspaper. It's the print version of click bait and you've fallen for it by starting a post on it here. I didnt even know about the article til I read your post and I'm sure theres many others like me so to that extent you've helped the ploy to be successful (though I'm still not going to read it).
PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1448 - 09/08/2020 21:26:12 2287024 Link 0 |
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I like Meath never made excuses- win or lose. Cork lost the '88 and 89 Finals to Meath and some of them sadly whinged about it for long enough. When Cork beat Meath in 90, the Royal men never complained and took their beating like men.
Oldertourman (Limerick) - Posts: 162 - 09/08/2020 22:07:34 2287032 Link 4 |
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I wouldn't pay too much attention to Conlon , stopped reading anything he had to say years ago, always thought he had a chip on his shoulder- think he's from Leitrim which might explain some of his bitterness. Galway4ever (Galway) - Posts: 134 - 09/08/2020 22:49:38 2287037 Link 2 |
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Gutter journalism, no more to be said. moc.dna (Galway) - Posts: 1049 - 09/08/2020 23:48:36 2287042 Link 2 |
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Agree but does anyone remember Liam Hayes Sunday in the Tribune paper before it folded. The constant dung he uses write about Kerry was actually laughable. I still remember being on the train to Tullamore for our Qualifier against Antrim in 09 and one of the lads reading aloud his piece that day, a character assassination of Gooch. The whole carriage was rolling in the aisles. TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 5828 - 10/08/2020 00:21:17 2287046 Link 4 |
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Sean's a top man, he was always very gracious win, lose or draw and he never got drawn into the "It's ALL the Nordies fault" sanctimonious sh*te that many within the GAA and Southern media wallowed in when Ulster sides started to win All Irelands. Great respect for Meath and it's hard, tough but very talented and capable teams. Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9294 - 10/08/2020 04:01:22 2287054 Link 5 |
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Maybe you should take a leaf out of his book with your non stop the world is against us BS
oneoff (UK) - Posts: 402 - 10/08/2020 10:05:13 2287069 Link 3 |
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Have a little bit of respect and cop on to yourself will you. The thread is about his comments about Seán Boylan not poor Kerry. catch22 (USA) - Posts: 1647 - 10/08/2020 11:20:35 2287088 Link 7 |
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A Kerry man tries dragging another topic off track and diverts it into a poor Kerry post. And not a Dub in sight to be blamed for it. What has what Liam Hayes wrote about Kerry got to do with the Sean Boylan documentary. Nothing but as usual a Kerry poster has to try and drag it into a discussion about how Kerry were wronged. On the piece a very poor article by Conlon but not unexpected. Some people will always have an axe to grind. He lamented the great Kerry team of 75 - 86 yet didn't provide any balance in that the exact same Kerry team were as dirty, cynical and confrontational as anyone else. They were of their time, as were Meath in the late 80's early 90's. Just go back and watch any of the 70's/80's matches on TG4 and you'll see that. Meath were as good and skillful as that Kerry team. But they were labelled a dirty team yet rarely if ever started arguments. Finished plenty of them yes but that team never went looking for trouble. brian (Meath) - Posts: 909 - 10/08/2020 13:21:40 2287114 Link 7 |
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I read the article, most annoying part was he was writing as if his opinions were facts rather than opinions (he talks about 'whitewash facts' and 'truths' but when he elaborates, with little detail, all it turns out to be is his subjective analysis). bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 768 - 10/08/2020 13:28:10 2287115 Link 2 |
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There are more poor journalists than good ones these days. Tommy Conlon is always at this stuff. Same for MacKenna and a few others. It's red top stuff. TheFlaker (Mayo) - Posts: 6893 - 10/08/2020 13:35:43 2287119 Link 7 |
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Has nothing to do with. But it does have something to do journalists having a clear bias against a team or individual. You've brought up the Kerry team of the 70s and 80s in the same way. Yet that's fine is it? oneoff (UK) - Posts: 402 - 10/08/2020 14:08:47 2287124 Link 0 |
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Had the pleasure of meeting him, a wonderful man and true legend. lilypad (Kildare) - Posts: 1357 - 10/08/2020 14:38:37 2287127 Link 0 |
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Pay no heed. There are very few journalists worth their salt left. More often than not its a reaction they are looking for. Anybody who knows anything about football knows how well respected Sean Boylan was/is. I never had a problem with any of the Meath teams down through the years. I hated them naturally as great rivals mostly do but respected them too. They were as tough as they come as were several other teams at that time and now for that matter. By all accounts a lovely man. Jackeen (Dublin) - Posts: 3976 - 10/08/2020 14:59:30 2287128 Link 11 |
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I brought up the Kerry team of the 70's and 80's as Conlon referred to them directly in his article. He made a direct link saying how the Meath team that went after them were the complete opposite of the Kerry team. That the Meath team were dirty and had very little football ability, which is completely untrue. He mythasised the Kerry team as a pure footballing team when they could be as dirty and cynical as the Meath team that followed them. I merely pointed out that there was no balance in what he said about both teams. If my language was a bit off or i didn't portray that in my original point I apologise. He went on further to decry the northern teams who came after in 91 onwards as copying the Meath template and that's even further from the truth. He failed to give Dublin, Meath or Kerry any dues for their own footballing acumen in 95-97 stating that only when Galway won in 98 did we get a proper footballing team winning all irelands. That's absolutely disgraceful journalism. There were many great footballers in all of those teams, but also men who were tough and sturdy who'd give and take a hit but weren't dirty. brian (Meath) - Posts: 909 - 10/08/2020 15:03:24 2287129 Link 4 |
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I wouldn't worry too much although it is common for teams to be judged years later. His comments were unfair but there would be a significant number of people in the country who wouldn't look kindly on those Meath teams; that is life! A lot of counties unearth 5 or 6 top class footballers at the one time but they find it impossible to sustain success when they retire. Those type of players for counties like Meath don't appear every generation. Do I think Boylan sent his teams out to play close to the edge; lets be honest they did sometimes go over the edge. I don't believe he did but my opinion is he was cute in selecting the players for the squad he did. He'd have known exactly the type of player he was getting and as a result there was a very physical element to his squad; to me there was a plan in place and he went about the county even below senior to find what he wanted. Training would have been brutal which came out in the RTE show, that built a very hard, physical fit inter county team. When those attributes were in place Boylan could then concentrate on getting the maximum potential out of those special players he had. There was average footballers in those Meath teams but everything went towards ensuring the great players were allowed to prosper so they could win All Irelands. Boylan was a very brave, smart manager who knew a system was required to maximise the counties potential. Consider the likes of Laois, Kildare, Monaghan and Mayo in the last 20 years who had some very special players. They didn't have 15 or 20 special players but then either did Boylan in my opinion but what those counties would have done to have him build a team around their special players. Would the article annoy me if I was from Meath? With 4 All Irelands during his time no I wouldn't care. Take Laois a county who competed with Hartes underage teams in the late 90's; two fantastic group of players coming through. When they both got to senior did Laois waste their opportunites! Boylan ensured Meath didn't waste their opportunity when it came along. sam1884 (UK) - Posts: 707 - 10/08/2020 15:47:36 2287137 Link 2 |
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More Whataboutery, and made up stories, as you constantly go off topic. Has a game ever been played that you did not attend?
seadog54 (Meath) - Posts: 1432 - 10/08/2020 17:52:40 2287154 Link 10 |