Brendan Boylan Column: Missed opportunities and others to be explored

“All this talk of getting old is getting me down my Lord” is the opening line of ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ by The Verve.

Regardless of whether one likes the band or, indeed, what thoughts might be about the statement in the song title, the declaration in the opening line has been hitting yours truly like a tonne of bricks lately.

Truth be told, I’m not sure what the life expectancy for somebody with Cerebral Palsy is, compared to a ‘normal’ person. Nor am I about to go researching the answer. But it is an inescapable fact that - as you get older - you do begin to wonder will you ever see or do certain things at all or again.

For me, (some of) the components on that list include: getting back into farming properly, publishing at least one more book. Regardless of what format that’s in. To have a horse trained by one of the top operators locally. Preferably Noel Meade if I’m honest, for very personal reasons, but, if and wherever the opportunity arises, it’ll be grasped with the one working arm.

However, a couple of occurrences over the past week brought a couple of items on the above list into sharp focus. You’ve heard some of them before, but, some of the others even caught me by surprise.

Yes,seeing other clubs still engaged in the winter wonderland that are the AIB Club Championships will always feel like an off the ball dig as, seeing smaller rural parishes quite literally being put on the map owing to the exploits of their GAA team only accentuates the sense of underwhelm close to home.

Given that St Peter’s must surely, demographically speaking at least, be among the half dozen biggest clubs in the county. All of which makes the feeling of underachievement more acute.

Something underlined still further recently when revelling in seeing another homegrown hero fly the black and amber (or blue and red if you wanted to be absolutely accurate) with distinction at the other end of the world.

I refer, of course, to the uniquely talented Vikki Wall who - in scoring a hat-trick of ‘goals’ - every score on target in Australian Football League is titled a goal - saw the North Melbourne Kangaroos through to the AFLW Grand Final. The equivalent of the All-Ireland Final here.

It will be three years next year since our lady footballers clocked up the last of our three consecutive Meath SFC triumphs. After which the girls did, of course, go on to reign supreme in Leinster before falling short against Mourneabbey of Cork.

Now, the fact that the last two Joe Breen Cup deciders were also contested - wherein we had to give best to a burgeoning Dunshaughlin/Royal Gaels ensemble - would indicate that our ladies are still competing and capable of making an impact to a very high level.

But, to some degree at least, there must be a cognisance that time nor tide waits for no man or woman or football team.

Thus, seeing Vikki doing as she does, rising to stardom at the bottom end of the world, prompts a pondering of whether we’ll see her in blue and red or green and gold again. And, as an addendum to said mulling, has the golden era passed for club and county already?

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Staying on a very similar theme, chances are this old heart of mine wasn’t the only one which broke a bit when the inevitable - St Kilda’s recruitment of Eamonn Armstrong was confirmed. To be clear, despite the fact that Cian McBride, Conor Nash, Vikki, Orlagh Lally and now Eamonn feels like an awful harvesting of one county, in no way do I begrudge them the opportunity to be properly rewarded for their elite talent and dedication.

Trust me, if the opportunity to become involved in certain arenas that are desperately longed to be closer to, if it meant never tapping a keyboard again, so be it.

But no, my greatest angst is that more is not done to incentivise these young talents to stay local. Anyone sponsoring a county team is not short of money. Surely, if the conservatives are that dead set against paying players directly, the possibility of setting players up with college scholarships and/or employment could at least be explored.

Still, the best of luck to Eamonn. I’ve no doubt he has the physical attributes and football acumen to do well down there. We can but hope that, at some point in the future, it will indeed be a wonderful world with Mr Armstrong back in the fold where we can wrap the green (and gold) flag around him again!

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Here’s a quiz question for sometime in the future - ‘I won two Meath county Championships with two different teams, neither of which were my own, who am I? Answer - John McCarthy. For, the gospel according to the Meath Regional Football Championship is John 2:3

The Walterstown native, now imparting his expertise to Seneschalstown, having managed the winning team in two of the three stagings of the Regional Football Championship. Once, with Boyne Valley - encompassing his own native club - and on Saturday last, Bru Na Boinne.

It is a pleasant surprise to see the Regionals not only survive but prosper. I know there were a raft of proposals adopted at a recent Co Board meeting, presumably aimed at improving the quality of football and footballers in the county, but, I feel the remit of the Regional Championship could and should be adapted and expanded to (i) add to the prestige and importance of the event and (ii) play it at the beginning of the season rather than the end. With the carrot being that the winners thereof could be guaranteed, say, a preliminary quarter final berth in the SFC.

Cork and Kerry allow divisional sides in their SFC and it hasn’t served them too badly. Just a thought.