Claim that Carr had resigned was ‘mischievious’
RTE’s Aertel service broke the story yesterday afternoon, saying that the players had held a meeting on Sunday night in the wake of their All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Dublin at Croke Park.
An unnamed county board source was quoted saying that the senior squad was disgruntled with Carr’s treatment of certain players in the run-up to the game, in particular the demotion of star forward Frankie Dolan to the bench.
It went on to say that Carr had issued a brief statement, saying he was “disappointed” with the players’ decision. The story was removed from the site shortly before five o’clock.
“There was no player meeting [on Sunday] night, that’s completely untrue,” a very unhappy Banaghan said last night. “The first I heard of this whole thing was when some other sports writers were on to me to say it was on Aertel. I don’t know where the whole thing came from and quite frankly we’re pissed off about it.
“How they would put up a story like that, for the whole nation to read, without ringing someone on the Roscommon county board to clarify it is mystifying. I’ve been talking to Tommy and he is very annoyed about the whole thing. It’s completely mischievous.
“I don’t know where it came from but I’ll be doing everything I can to track down exactly where it all started.”
Carr himself was unavailable for comment last night but had already fielded queries as to his future with the county after the loss to Dublin at the weekend. Appointed for a two-year term in September 2002 with an option of a third, the former Dublin captain and manager insisted that he would make no decision until after he lead the county U21s in the Connacht final against Mayo in Dr Hyde Park tomorrow week.
Roscommon enjoyed an encouraging championship campaign in Carr’s first year at the helm. The disappointment of an early exit in the Connacht championship was softened considerably by a thrilling ride through the qualifiers which only ended with defeat to Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
This year has been a tougher grind. Failure to win promotion back to Division One of the league was a blow to the team’s development and, although they reached the Connacht final, they never hit the heights of last year.
Despite that, Banaghan was hopeful that Carr would take up the option of a third year in charge. “Obviously, everything has to be ratified by the county board but Tommy was brought into a development situation and I’m quite happy with the job he is doing.”
