Westmeath ‘saved me from bitterness’

PÁIDI Ó SÉ might now agree taking over management of Westmeath after the rancorous leaving of Kerry was one of the best decisions of his life.

Certainly, guiding the county to Sunday’s Leinster SFC final - Westmeath’s first in 55 years - increased the sense of fulfilment following the wave of cynicism which greeted his original appointment.

“At the particular time, with all the circumstances in which I left Kerry, I just didn’t want to be bitter,” he explains. “If I didn’t take up something and stayed back in Ventry -which is possibly what would have happened - I would have been bitter with myself and bitter with other people.