A ROYAL RUMBLE
Surviving axe was huge but real battle has just begun for Meath manager...
AGE: 54
WHY HE’S IN THE NEWS:
The Meath manager had to survive a vote of club delegates on Tuesday after his own county board initially voted 8-7 in favour of his removal.
AS a follow up to his participation in RTE’s Ultimate Hell Week, comedian Rory O’Connor of Rory’s Stories fame popped up on Claire Byrne Live and opened his heart about some of the tough times in his life and how he found a way through it all. He told a harrowing story of losing his last hundred euro on a roulette wheel in a casino — ‘I hadn’t a penny in my pocket; hadn’t a penny in the bank’ — and all the negative thoughts that consumed him.
How he doubted his worth in that moment as a father, as a person, and how thoughts of ending it all even darkened his mind. Until he recalled being at the funeral of Shane McEntee — father of Justice Minister Helen McEntee — in Nobber. ‘I remember the brother Gerry speaking in the Church about if anyone is feeling like my brother please ask for help. I realised that suicide isn’t an option.’
So he rang his girlfriend in tears. Arranged for a taxi home to be paid before spilling it all out. ‘The next day I got up and my father came down and I just opened up to them about my low points and I asked for help. The current Meath manager Andy McEntee was there for me over the phone because I knew Shane, his brother, had took his life. Andy met me within two hours, pointed me in the right direction and I got help. And, as I say, the rest is history.’
O’Connor has gone on to add to his bow as a best-selling author and mental health advocate and plenty wouldn’t have known the part played by the current Meath senior football manager in offering the support to help him on the right road. The character and compassion shown at a critical time. It also showed a different side to Andy McEntee than on show publicly. As a dyed-in-thewool Meath GAA supporter, it was no surprise that O’Connor welcomed the news on Tuesday night that McEntee had survived a vote of county board delegates as to his future. He certainly wasn’t alone as delegates overwhelmingly backed him to finish out the last year of what was a three-year extension — 2022 will be his sixth year at the helm. The two-thirds majority required to remove the Meath boss in a secret ballot failed — the vote only prompted when the county executive had initially voted 8-7 against him continuing in his role. While the year as a whole had been underwhelming — Meath failed to secure promotion back to Division One, losing to Kildare in a winner-takesall Division Two semi-final, the nature of the Leinster semi-final comeback against Dublin suggested a sixth year was most likely. For months, there was no mood music to suggest otherwise. A belated review by a three-man committee was so late in arriving that it was hard to countenance the idea of change when any inter-county manager worth his salt had already committed elsewhere. It’s one thing to question McEntee’s record and prompt a conversation about whether he is the right man to continue to lead Meath in 2021 — but for an executive committee to vote against him in October when Meath were knocked out in July — and with no word of a heavyweight replacement or Plan B waiting in wings — was pure folly. Clearly, there was an element of personality feeding into the mix. McEntee’s ability to rub different people up the wrong way was evidenced in the fall-out with Bernard Flynn’s Under-20 management team. That a high profile ticket featuring another Meath legend in Graham Geraghty felt the need to step down over promises made in terms of access to players on the senior panel just wasn’t a good look.
And there have been times when McEntee’s short fuse and capacity to wear his heart on his sleeve hasn’t always reflected best.
It might have been better to address his team’s shortcomings on the day against Kildare when promotion was lost — Meath trailed 1-13 to 0-6 at one point in the second half after a dreadfully poor showing for long periods and finished with 13 men — rather than launching a tirade against Kildare and alleging a Meath player had been spat at. The image of McEntee having to be physically held back by attacker Cillian O’Sullivan after the 2018 qualifier against Tyrone too was an unedifying one. Meath suffered a one-point loss to eventual AllIreland finalists Tyrone in a first round qualifier in Navan and the Meath manager had to be restrained at the final whistle as he vented his anger at referee
Paddy Neilan over some questionable decisions.
But he has been big enough too to admit his faults. Speaking of his anger at the final whistle of that Tyrone game in 2018, he said: ‘Walking away isn’t the answer either. We’ve got to look at ourselves as a team… If we’re trying to improve, I’ve got to start with myself.’
Tuesday vote at least allows the focus to return to the field. There is a real sense of the pieces slowly coming together for Meath GAA.
Three All-Ireland wins can do that. The U20 hurlers starting things rolling with the B championship title before that important All-Ireland minor football win. The Meath ladies footballers then created another wave of positivity with their standout win.
Barry Horgan was recently announced as the new general manager for Meath football from under-13 to under-20 and there is a sense of the county getting its internal structures right.
That’s why it’s important that the position of senior football manager was sorted on Tuesday night. It’s up to McEntee now to make it count.