McGeeney: I’m blamed for everything

KILDARE manager Kieran McGeeney has laughed off suggestions that Pádraig Ashe resigned as county chairman largely because the pair could not work together, joking that history books are currently being rewritten to blame him for The Famine.

The Mullaghbawn man also revealed he rang John Divilly todiscuss the NUI Maynooth boss’s hard-hitting criticism of his training methods. The former Galway and Kildare player claimed any Lilywhite players on his squad for the Sigerson Cup were in danger of burnout due to what he felt was the McGeeney’s overzealousness.

“For everybody else it’s not that funny but for me it is,” said McGeeney.

“Next thing I’ll be blamed for The Famine, Fianna Fáil… if anything goes wrong anywhere, it’s all ‘McGeeney did this’.”

An EGM will be held on April 10 to appoint Ashe’s replacement and McGeeney insists he has no preferences when it comes to who might take over from Ashe.

He admits there were rows between himself and the former chairman, but argued that they go with the territory, and Ashe’s successor can probably expect more of the same.

“People like to make things out that county managers are the most important and most powerful people. We don’t get a vote on anything. Even the meetings we’re asked to go to, we don’t get a vote, whether it’s to do with refs or to do with the chairman.

“To me, Padraig Ashe worked very hard at his job and he should be given space. He obviously had different reasons for quitting. He said there were personal reasons and I think everyone should respect that.

“Yes, of course, he’d rows with me. Of course he’d rows with the hurling board but that’s part and parcel of your job. I’ve rows with my players every week. But the man has asked for a wee bit of personal space.

“It’s amazing between websites and everything else, everybody’s looking to point the finger at somebody else. He worked hard and did a good job and people should just let him be.”

He isn’t worried about Divilly’s criticism either, although he did get in touch with the Maynooth manager to set the record straight.

The 1998 All-Ireland winner with Galway claimed McGeeney was putting too much pressure on student players and putting them at risk of burnout by calling the NUI Maynooth contingent to training last Saturday week, after they had played Sigerson Cup games on the previous two days.

“I was talking to John. You’re better picking up the phone talking to people. It’s funny. The players that we were training so hard, (one) was his best player. Conor Brophy. I was at the Sigerson and he looked like their best player and their fittest player.

“For a fella that was very tired, he was doing all right.”