Now the Meath players have no soft excuses

AFTER nine long weeks of speculation, and much debate from both sides, Meath has, for the first time, appointed a manager from outside the county.

While there are people strongly opposed to the idea, the clubs strongly backed Seamus McEneaney by 53-19 and this at least gives the new man a strong mandate.

Being the county’s first outside manager means Banty wont be operating in a comfort zone and that’s not a bad thing.

When considering the pros and cons of the appointment, an important thing to consider is whether this appointment will give energy to the players or not.

I feel the appointment of Seamus McEneaney and his backroom team will be very much welcomed by the current Meath players.

There are differing views in the county as to how good we actually are.

Some feel we have a team good enough to win the All-Ireland with proper management and some feel we don’t have the players to win it.

I feel we are a very average league team but definitely a top eight championship team.

Next year will tell us exactly how good we are.

The Meath players now have a manager who has six years of very recent inter-county management experience — a lot of that in the Ulster championship and some of it in Division 1 of the National League.

He has an assistant who spent a lot of time as No 2 to Joe Kernan with the great Armagh team of the last decade and a couple of years as No 2 to Kieran McGeeney in Kildare; a trainer who is very well respected in many Ulster counties as one of the finest in the country and the man with the local knowledge, current Skryne manager, Liam Harnan.

Liam has won his All-Irelands and he knows the game and still retains a lot of the old Meath values; he is big on discipline on the pitch and tells it straight.

And, as I have seen with the Skryne team, it is no harm for young lads who grew up in the Celtic Tiger getting things easy, to be managed in this manner.

Obviously it remains to be seen how the backroom team gel, but could the Meath players ask for any more in terms of knowledge and experience or a different voice?

Now they don’t have to look at the likes of Kildare or the other Ulster teams and wonder if other counties have better training methods or tactics or a more professional approach.

It will remove any excuses the players may have.

There were times in my career that we exited the championship tamely and one would spend the winter being told by people that you were not up to it.

YOU would then steel yourself over the winter and work hard on your game and come out the following season to prove a point.

I feel the current team have been spared some of this criticism as the main emphasis was on the manager not making a switch or a timely substitution or that the manager was just not good enough and needed replacing.

In one way McEneaney is starting at a disadvantage in being appointed so late and he may be much better in his second season, but I would still expect plenty of enthusiasm from the players to prove themselves to a new management.

The last two league campaigns were awful and if Meath are to become a serious force, then promotion to Division One is a must.

I know Cork and Down have operated in Division Two recently but both did achieve promotion.

Then the prospect exists of a possible championship meeting with Kildare — if they could overcome Wicklow beforehand, this would be the opportunity for the Meath players to put right this year’s defeat in the quarter-final.

So there should be no shortage of motivation or opportunity for the Meath players to have a very successful season.

Like Eamon O’Brien before him, McEnaney knows he needs to find a couple of tight defenders and improve the general pace in the team.

On a related matter, the other candidate for the Meath job, Gerry Cooney had proposed John Coughlan (son of Eamon) as his strength and conditioning coach if he were appointed.

Part of his remit would have included work with the county squads from U16 level upwards.

This was an excellent idea and one I would urge the County Board to implement.