Internal voices hurt Kenny most

MEATH captain Seamus Kenny admitted the criticisms of his side from former players have hurt the most in recent times.

The Simonstown Gaels clubman has watched his team become public enemy number one since their controversial Leinster final victory over Louth and the fall out from the Graham Geraghty debacle which saw selectors Liam Harnan and Barry Callaghan walk away from the team.

However, despite most of the country getting on their backs, it is the comments from former players which have cut deepest.

“You learn to deal with it but it was tough, especially the bit of criticism that came from within the county from ex-players,” he said.

“I’m not having a go or anything because I’d look up to all those players and obviously they’ve earned the right to say what they feel but at the time I thought we maybe could have done with getting a bit of support behind the team instead of everyone being fairly critical of us; when you’re not playing well that’s not a help.”

With a father who played and managed Louth though, and the constant reminders of the way they won that game and refused to offer a replay, Kenny has been unable to get it out of his head no matter how hard he tries.

Karma has been quoted in many places as the reason for their subsequent demise but Kenny was having none of it.

“If you want to use it an as excuse you can,” he said.

“I don’t really want to talk about the Leinster final last year, pretty much two days later it was gone, we were concentrating on the Kildare game and there was no more talk about it.

“Obviously since we became public enemy number one in a way and I’d imagine a lot of people would have taken great satisfaction in seeing us struggle so far this year.

“Not that I want to get into that right now but I saw some of the stuff written about Joe Sheridan and I got some stuff.

“A lot of the criticism came from within our county as well as other people, it was tough to take. At the start of the year all we wanted to do was win a Leinster title, we achieved it and then for everyone to pretty much take it away from us was tough to take but that was last year and had very little relevance to what has happened in the league to be honest.”

With so much going on, there must be added pressure being captain this year.

“There is and there isn’t. I’d be one of the more vocal lads in the dressing room for the last few years anyway. It’s been a massive honour for me and my club and I don’t want to let it get in on me.

“I don’t see myself doing anything different to what I’d have done prior to it anyway. Within the panel there’s a core group that have an awful lot of experience, like Anthony Moyles, Joe Sheridan, Nigel Crawford, these lads have a lot of championship experience under their belts and there’s no point in me trying to get them up, they don’t need me.”