Boylan to stand his ground

GAA: Seán Boylan will face opposition from Eamonn Barry in the vote to decide the Meath football manager for next season. Nominations for the position closed on Wednesday night, and it was announced yesterday that Boylan and Barry are the only candidates.

The county board are expected to ratify those nominations at their meeting on Monday night, although the election among the club delegates won't be held until the next meeting, in early November.

Boylan has held the position since 1982, and Barry's nomination represents only the fifth challenge to his reign during those 21 years. One of those was last year, when Barry first went for the position only to lose by 79 votes to 30.

A similar election process will determine the manager for next year, rather than the interview process mooted last month. A four-man committee will review the candidates, but merely to confirm their interest in their position.

"The position will be decided by the votes of the club delegates in the normal way," said county secretary Barney Allen.

Barry was nominated for the position by six clubs, but he still faces a daunting task in trying to end the reign of Boylan. Meath's six-point loss to Fermanagh in round three of the All-Ireland qualifiers was viewed at the time as a step backwards for the county, but Boylan had brought in several younger players this season to good effect. Should he go now it is felt that several of Meath's older players would go with him.

For Barry, however, the timing does appear right. He coached Dunshaughlin to the past three Meath county titles, and then to Leinster club glory last year. With Blackhall Gaels taking the county title this year, his interest has now entirely shifted to the county position. In the meantime, Barry is also known to be in the running for the vacant Westmeath position.

Meath have also begun the search for a new senior hurling manager following the announcement last month that Michael Duignan, the former Offaly All Star, would not be seeking another year in the position. So far, however, no candidates have expressed an interest.

In Wexford, meanwhile, the future of hurling goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry was under scrutiny yesterday after confirmation that he was heading to Australia soon. There are suggestions it will be a long-term move, and that Fitzhenry is contemplating retirement, although the county board were unaware of any possible end to his intercounty career.

"It was something that Damien had planned well in advance," said hurling secretary Pat Murphy. "We'd be fully expecting that he'd be back with Wexford next season. Maybe not for the start of the league, but right now there's been no indication it was going to be a long-term move, unless circumstances change."

Fitzhenry was recently involved in the controversial Wexford senior football championship with his club Duffry Rovers against Horeswood, in which he was sent off. Next week he faces the Wexford Disciplinary Committee as part of their investigation into the game, which also ended with match referee John Denton being assaulted.

"It certainly has nothing to do with incidents in that recent club game," added Murphy. "Travelling to Australia was something that Damien had decided on doing a couple of months ago."

An All Star winner in 1997, Fitzhenry is not the only member of the Wexford team considering his future. Liam Dunne, Larry O'Gorman and Larry Murphy are all likely to reassess their commitment.

It is also believed that dual player Rory Mallon, who had emigrated to the US at the start of the summer, is unlikely to return in the near future, and Darren Stamp is also planning an excursion to Australia early next year.

Elsewhere, new Cavan football manager Eamon Coleman has added Martin McElkennon to his backroom team. The Fermanagh trainer for the past year, McElkennon previously worked with Coleman during his later years with Derry.

Finally, a new publication chronicling the 50-year history of the Hogan Cup will be formally launched in Mullingar tomorrow by GAA president Seán Kelly. It includes statistics from the All-Ireland colleges football competition, and profiles some of the winning captains, from Pat O'Neill, who led St Patrick's, Armagh, to glory in 1946, to Galway's Padhraic Joyce, who captained St Jarlath's in 1994.