Meath GAA’s county board will meet on Tuesday and consider the issue of the senior football management. In an unexpected move, revealed by the ‘Meath Chronicle’ during the week, the executive voted narrowly, 8-7, not to recommend the incumbent Andy McEntee for a further year.
He has served two years of a three-year renewal granted from 2019 and in all, five years.
There has been no comment from either party and if McEntee decides to hang tough his fate will be decided by the full county committee.
Whereas there are clearly issues with the football management at the top level of the GAA administration in Meath, the wider world will wonder why has it taken three months since their championship involvement concluded for these to surface.
The Leinster semi-final defeat by Dublin in July was sufficiently encouraging - a six-point defeat after a big second-half recovery, as opposed to the 21-point mauling in the previous November’s provincial final - for McEntee to be markedly upbeat.
“I’m not exactly known for my patience. Look at last year. We didn’t really perform at all at any stage. The lads put in a hell of a second half there on a bloody hot day. It wasn’t just us. Dublin were struggling too. It was a pretty physical, pretty fast, hot game.
“Yeah, progress has been made. We just didn’t get enough games this year. It’s about games. That’s the thing with Dublin the past couple of years. They get more games and it’s layer-upon-layer and if you’re not playing as many games as they are, it’s hard to close that gap.”
Within the last week selector Donal Curtis, twice an All-Ireland medallist with the county, announced that he was stepping away after being involved for five years for family reasons and because "it's no harm to have a different voice going in there".
Meath made progress under McEntee, getting promoted to Division One of the league and reaching the All-Ireland quarter-final round robin in 2019 but having been relegated last year they failed to beat Kildare in an effective promotion play-off this season.
Nonetheless the mood in the county has been upbeat with the improved display against Dublin followed by All-Ireland wins for the Meath minors and women’s team.
In a recent interview former player Trevor Giles pointed out one example of how the county was improving the development of player.
“They have appointed a director of underage football there, Barry Horgan during the week. I think it’s a positive development and I think they recognise that they can do more to bridge that gap between under-17 and under-20.”
But there was also controversy last June when another All-Ireland winner Bernard Flynn walked away from managing the under-20s - a role to which he had just been appointed - because of a row over player availability, which is also speculated on in the county as a reason for discontent with senior management.
“I undertook to accept the role of managing and developing the Meath under-20 squad,” said Flynn in a statement at the time, “based on a verbal and written agreement that the senior players would be released for championship, an issue that has caused difficulties for previous management.
“Confirmation was received today (that this agreement, which is underpinned by a signed charter including a commitment from the chairman coiste an Mi (John Kavanagh) and the senior manager (Andy McEntee), will not be honoured, therefore making the position of the under-20 manager and my back room team, untenable.”
