McEnaney: ‘Fantastic’ Geraghty justified return

A DEFIANT Seamus McEnaney felt his decision to bring back Graham Geraghty to the Meath panel was justified by his controversial contribution in yesterday’s defeat to Kildare.

After Kieran McGeeney had rhetorically asked was the decision to recall the two-time All-Ireland winning 38-year-old the “move of the season”, the Monaghan native explained the impact he had in finding the net was exactly why he brought him back out of inter-county retirement.

He also argued the disallowed goal, which had been awarded by the umpires to Geraghty before referee Syl Fox overruled them, should have stood.

“When you introduce a player of the quality of Graham Geraghty and you want to lift the team and he gets a goal for you, I think it would have been a huge lift to Meath at a crucial time with 10 minutes to go,” he said.

“I suppose you felt every piece of the jigsaw was coming together and unfortunately it was disallowed.

“Some days these decisions go for you, some days they don’t and unfortunately for us it was a wrong call that went against us on the day and that’s very disappointing.”

McEnaney emphasised he wasn’t blaming Fox’s decision for Meath’s defeat.

“We were in a good position to win the game at half-time, coughed up some easy scores at the beginning of the second half and we didn’t keep the pressure on Kildare.

“It wasn’t just down to that decision but it was a crucial time in the game that if you want to talk about the stuff you expect of Meath and fighting to the bitter end.

“We were down to 14 men and suddenly had the thing back to a point and I was certain we would have been on the front foot from there but unfortunately it was disallowed.”

McEnaney said Geraghty has been nothing but a shining light in the panel since his reintroduction last month.

“Graham Geraghty has been fantastic for the young lads. He’s been a real leader in the dressing room. He’s been a real positivity for the team since he came in and I think he’s a big contribution to make going forward.”

McEnaney also felt Fox was wrong to issue a straight red card to Brian Farrell for an alleged incident with Emmet Bolton.

“The information I’m getting is, unfortunately for the referee who can only call it as he sees it, that Brian Farrell was a non-sending off.

“To end the game with 14 men and a disallowed goal is disappointing but I’m not using them as an excuse because these will go for you some days but unfortunately they went against us today.

“It wasn’t those one or two decisions that beat us today. I have no qualms with that.”

Although McEnaney described Meath’s second-half tally of three points as being “absolutely not good enough”, he insisted the Royal County can make major gains via the backdoor.

“This is a real test of character for this group, like it never was tested before. This group of lads, I have great respect for them. They are absolutely united.

“Today is very disappointing, but this is a real test of character and I’ve no doubt in my mind that you’ll see more of this team in the summer.”