McEntee tipped to stay with Royals
ANDY McENTEE has dropped the broadest hint yet that he will remain at the helm of the Meath senior football team for a third season.
In the immediate aftermath of their agonising defeat to Tyrone in the qualifiers in Navan’s Páirc Tailteann, McEntee insisted he would have to consider his future as the Royals’ manager.
However, speaking to LMFM, he hinted he was ready to return, though he insists his management team will be left to make their own decisions.
“I’m certainly thinking about it,” he replied when asked if he would remain at the helm.
“We still have to sort a few things out and need to know from a players’ perspective what exactly their plans are. So I’m not speaking on anyone’s behalf, they are all big boys.”
He admitted that he considered walking away in the days and weeks after the defeat to the Red Hand, in a game that saw Meath denied a free late in extra-time.
“I’d say there was points every hour for the next two or three weeks where you have to look at yourself and ask are we doing things right,” he said.
“And that’s something the management teams I have around me are particularly good at. The first thing we’d like to do is look at ourselves and ask what are we doing right and what are we doing wrong.”
McEntee confronted referee Paddy Neilan after the game and he accepted that he overstepped the mark.
“These things happen and I think if it were to happen again I’d like to think I’d do it differently. It wasn’t one of my finer moments but it can’t be undone at this stage,” he said.
half-time against Cork they won by 16 points in the fourth round, having ‘won’ the last 15 minutes of their third-round qualifier against Cavan by 0-6 to 0-3 for a three-point triumph.
McGeary says the team recognise a “window” that exists in the second half to step up and win a game.
“There is a window of opportunity which presents itself in the second half and if that is the chance to pull away from another team, you do your best.
“You see the Dubs doing it all the time,” he pointed out.
“They empty their bench, they get the window of opportunity and they take it.
“When that 15-minute opportunity presents itself, you have got to be direct. Boys are feeling their legs at that stage and if you put a man on the back foot and you score, he starts to question himself.
“I know if it happened to myself and somebody scored a point like that, I’d question my fitness for the last 10 minutes as well. When the chance comes you just have to take it.”
He doesn’t like the idea of being recognised as an impact player, however. “If we had been beaten, no one would be talking about the difference
we made when we came on. There is no specific role that anyone has. When you come onto the field, there is no label that you hold.”
McGeary sensed that Lee Brennan’s introduction helped to bring a different mindset to Tyrone’s approach early in the second half.
GAME ON
“It’s completely game on, you have just got to go for it at that stage.
“Lee knows what he’s capable of and he showed that whenever the chance presented itself.”
McGeary feels the same approach will apply for this weekend’s semi-final with Monaghan and suggests both teams were not at their best when they served up one of the games of the championship in May.
“Even in Healy Park, I don’t think either team really showed what they were capable of.
“I think both teams held back and continued to be very safe.
“I know Monaghan definitely didn’t show their abilities that day and obviously we didn’t show our abilities either.
“Next week is do it or die trying, we just have to go for it basically.”