Meath's fall from grace has left them desperately short of confidence admits young defender Tomas O'Connor who, nevertheless, is optimistic that they can start climbing the footballing ladder again under new manager Eamon Barry. This year marked the end of an era in Meath with the decision by Sean Boylan to bring the curtain down on his extraordinary 23-year reign as football manager. Under Boylan, the Royal County won four All-Ireland titles, two National Leagues, the Centenary Cup and a bagful of Leinster titles. But since their unexpected capitulation at the hands of Galway in the 2001 All-Ireland final, Meath's fortunes have nosedived to such an extent that they now find themselves in a similar position to when Boylan was appointed to the post all those years ago. For promising Meath defender Tomas O'Connor, news of Boylan's resignation came as a major surprise. The 21-year-old wasn't even born when his fellow Dunboyne man took up the managerial reins, and he acknowledges that the Meath dressing-room will be a strange place without him. "Sean Boylan was Meath football for as long as I can remember," O'Connor says. "He brought incredible success to the county and will go down as one of the most successful managers in the history of the GAA. I always found him to be a true gentleman and to be extremely helpful. You could have nothing but respect for the man and even though things weren't going well for us in the last few years, I was very surprised to see him step down. "Sean lived for Meath football and it will be a strange place without him next year. But we've got to look forward and I'm sure after a few months, Eamon Barry will be well settled into the job." As sad as he was to see Boylan go, O'Connor feels the change of management will bring a freshness to the Royal County set-up in 2006. "It's exciting in a way because Eamon Barry will bring a new approach and new ideas to the table. He comes across as being very enthusiastic and I've no doubt that will quickly rub off on the players. "Managers in their first season have had a very good record in Leinster over the last few years. Micko won a Leinster with Laois in his first year, Paidi did the same with Westmeath last year and Paul Caffrey achieved the same with Dublin this year. Hopefully Eamon Barry will have similar success in his first year, but he can only do so much and it's up to the players at the end of the day." Boylan's final year at the helm saw Meath regain their place in Division 1 of the National League, but a shock defeat to Monaghan in the Division 2 final set the tone for a disappointing championship campaign. It was somewhat ironic that the most notorious pick-pockets in football were the victims of an art they had perfected themselves over the years when a freak goal in the final piece of action gave Monaghan a dramatic 3-13 to 3-12 victory at Croke Park. With two minutes of injury-time already played, Meath led by two points and looked to have done enough as they prepared for one last gasp assault from the Ulster side. Monaghan were awarded a free about 35 metres from goal and Paul Finlay took it knowing his only option was to float it on top of the Meath goalmouth and hope for the best. His luck was in as a bizarre lack of judgement from second half substitute Mark Ward handed Monaghan an unlikely victory. Ward, who had performed admirably following his introduction, attempted to punch the ball upwards but mistimed his connection with cruel consequences for the softest of goals. Meath had over a month to regroup for their Leinster championship quarter-final clash with old rivals Dublin. It was just like the old days as over 65,000 fans flocked to Croke Park to witness a fierce battle which swung one way and then the other before eventually ending in a Dublin victory. A Joe Sheridan goal gave the Royals a dream start, but less than 10 minutes later, Alan Brogan collected a perfect ball from Tomas Quinn, beat David Crimmins with blistering pace before firing to the net from an acute angle. From there on, the Metropolitans held the upper hand, but a strong push from Meath just before the break which yielded three unanswered points gave them a 1-7 to 1-5 lead at half-time. The dominance enjoyed by Dublin midfielder Ciaran Whelan - who was fortunate not to have been sent off in the first minute for lashing out at Nigel Crawford - meant a regular supply of quality ball going into the Dublin attack. They were able to convert this into enough scores to win the match, though only just as they hit eight second half wides. Meath put up stern resistance until under 21 star Mark Vaughan came off the bench to land two huge frees in the closing stages to give Dublin a 1-12 to 1-10 victory. And so, for the fourth year running, the Royals found themselves back on the qualifier circuit. A Saturday afternoon outing against Antrim at Casement Park was a far cry from the red-hot atmosphere of the Dublin game as the Royals began their championship rehabilitation with an emphatic 5-12 to 0-13 victory. A brace of first half goals from newcomer Stephen Bray and two more from Peadar Byrne and Graham Geraghty ensured that the game was over as a contest by half-time. The Royals almost came a cropper against Connacht minnows Leitrim in the first ever championship meeting of the teams at Carrick-on-Shannon. Dessie Dolan's charges seemed poised for a surprise win when substitute Daniel Beck fired over a point from the right to edge them in front in the final minute. But Meath showed their survival instincts. Leitrim needed to regain possession from the kick-out but failed, and Ollie Murphy, who had only entered the fray a few minutes earlier, found space to slot over the equalizer. Even at the interval in extra-time, Leitrim were perfectly positioned for victory, trailing by just two points with wind advantage to come. Meath sensed the danger, however, and within two minutes of the restart they put the result beyond doubt. Graham Geraghty pointed and then, after Murphy hit the bar, Geraghty was on hand to crash the rebound to the net. Leitrim were never going to haul back a six-point deficit, but Michael Foley and Donal Brennan kicked points in the closing stages to leave four in it at the finish. The third round draw pitted Meath against Cavan, who they hadn't met in the championship since 1954. The Royals had pipped their near neighbours for league promotion a few months earlier, but the Ulster side exacted sweet revenge with a 1-8 to 1-6 victory at Clones. Meath trailed by a solitary point before Jason Reilly scored a goal to give Cavan a 1-4 to 0-4 lead at the break. Cavan remained on top until the dying moments when Joe Sheridan won a penalty and Graham Geraghty coolly dispatched the spot-kick to leave just the minimum between the sides. But just when it appeared that Meath would perform another Houdini act, Finbar O'Reilly converted a long range free in the fourth minute of injury-time to seal victory for the Breffnimen. "Clones has never been a happy-hunting ground for Meath and Cavan deservedly beat us," notes O'Connor, who was out of action for eight weeks after dislocating his knee in the league clash between the teams. "After putting such a big effort into training, it was disappointing to go out of the championship at such an early stage. We had geared everything towards the Dublin game and had we managed to win that, I'm sure things would have turned out differently. It would have got our confidence up and the supporters would have got behind us, but unfortunately it wasn't to be." O'Connor, who was full back on the Meath minor team that lost the 2002 All-Ireland final to Derry, attributes the Royal County's recent decline to a lack of confidence rather than talent. "We've been in decline since 2001, and seem to have gone back a stage each year. We're one of the weaker counties now and we've got to realise that. We have to treat the weaker counties with the same respect as the stronger ones when we play them. "This was my third year to be involved with Meath and all I've got to show for is an O'Byrne Cup medal. It's disappointing to think that we haven't really challenged for a Leinster title in that time and I would put that down to a lack of confidence. "I'm convinced that the talent is there, but we badly need to get on a winning streak. If we could improve our confidence levels, we could be title contenders again," he concludes. Tweet

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