Glennon takes swipe at board over poor treatment

WESTMEATH captain Denis Glennon has lashed out at his county board for not providing manager Pat Flanagan with enough financial backing last year.

The embattled manager was reappointed at a controversial meeting on Wednesday night where members of the local media were banned from attending. But it took an impassioned plea by Glennon in the Westmeath Topic earlier in the week to get it through.

“I’d be the first to admit that our championship displays this year weren’t good but it’s unfair to blame the management for that,” said Glennon.

“We [the players] have to take responsibility and so too should the county board who didn’t give us, or the management, much backing this year. When you don’t have full support, it makes things a lot harder.

“Our gym membership was stopped after three or four months, we can’t get physios at times and we didn’t get any gear this year until just before the Wexford game.

“The county board won’t allow us to train in Cusack Park for fear that the other county teams would want to train there as well. As a result, we have to train on a college pitch that isn’t full size and is an obvious disadvantage when it comes to games. It’s hard to reach the same level of intensity as the Kildares and Dublins of this world when you’re not getting these basic requirements.

“I know there is a recession at the moment, but they should still have been able to put us up in a hotel the night before the Wexford game. Instead, we had a three-hour bus journey down that morning and it was the same for the Antrim game. It’s very hard for players to be at their best after being stuck in a bus for that long.”

A motion had been put forward to get rid of Flanagan at the last board meeting two weeks ago. However, Downs clubman Aidan Maguire proposed a meeting with the Clara man to review the year.

A seven-man committee was established with chairman Tom Farrell, secretary Pat Lynagh, football chairman Liam Gavin, football secretary Gerry Coyne and club delegates John Cunningham (Ballymore), Paddy Whelan (St Mary’s Rochfortbridge) and Aidan Maguire (Downs).

After the review with the manager, a meeting was called for Wednesday night. However members of the press received an email at 10.30am that morning stating they were not welcome to attend. At 9.20pm that night a text was sent out stating: “Pat Flanagan reappointed.”

County board chairman Tom Farrell confirmed Flanagan’s appointment and said they would respond to Glennon’s comments at their next meeting on September 7.

“Everything will be responded to in full. In fairness we want to do it through the channel of county board meetings."