Louth reach expenses resolution
Forward Darren Clarke tweeted that the “small issue” had been dealt with and the players were “fully focussed and looking forward to Sunday” when they face Meath in Division 2 relegation battle.
GPA delegates Paddy Keenan and Aaron Hoey had been due to discuss the ongoing issues with board officials after the players had claimed members of the panel had not yet been recompensed for their mileage claims this year.
The county board insisted the matter only related to a small number of players but now seems to be resolved.
A number of players took to Twitter this week to air their grievances on the matter. Using his account on Tuesday, forward Darren Clarke wrote: “The last thing you would expect to affect preparations for a crucial relegation match — player expenses not paid yet this year!”
At a press event to promote Sunday’s game in Drogheda yesterday, Clarke expanded on his tweet.
“I suppose it is not so much about pay for play. The whole expenses thing is just to reimburse your fuel expenses and that’s it.
“There has never been a problem in the past. I’m sure there won’t be a problem in the future when we get over this blip.
“The Louth County Board have been great with building the Darver project and a state-of-the-art facility that we have now for training. I’m sure they took a hit for that.
“There are plans now in place to go ahead with Dundalk stadium so there is a lot going on at the moment. Hopefully, it will sort itself out.”
Louth’s opponents Meath, of course, have issues of their own to address.
Mark Ward says he and his Meath team-mates want to win the relegation derby for under-fire manager Seamus McEnaney.
For the second season in succession, the Monaghan native is under pressure as the Royals attempt to avoid a drop to Division 3.
Coming off the back of four defeats, doubts about Meath’s first outside football manager have resurfaced, but Ward argues they’re misplaced.
“The situation we are in now the players really need to stand up and drive it on and make sure we win this game,” said the midfielder.
“We couldn’t ask for anything more from the management set-up and it’s really down to the players now in this last match.”
McEnaney has been criticised for moving away from Meath’s traditional style of football and adopting a sweeper policy.
In the last game, when they went down badly in Omagh, former Tyrone footballer Philip Jordan remarked Meath’s own brand of playing had “been consigned to the scrapheap”.
“I don’t think Seamus or the management team are trying to steer us away from a Meath style of traditional football at all,” insisted Ward.
“Just with the way the game has gone we need to adapt. Different teams play formations so they can counteract the traditional style. If we do come up against a team that does that we need to be able to adapt and change.
“For us, it’s just getting used to that so we definitely don’t want to stray from that too much but we have to be able to adapt.”
Despite the run of defeats, Ward isn’t as unhappy with Meath’s form as he was last year when they needed a draw with Tyrone and a favour from Kildare on the final day to stay up.
“It’s only four points but it could easily have been eight or 10 if we had the luck of the draw. It’s so disappointing where we are now but I wouldn’t be fully disheartened by it.
“There are some good points there.”
Ward feels Meath’s biggest failing in recent years is their inability to put together a string of performances.
“Since I’ve been on this team, inconsistency has been our major flaw.
“There are loads of people who are trying to figure out why it is that we’re inconsistent.
“The last few league campaigns have shown that you can go out and be so average and then in the championship we can put in good performances like we did against Dublin [in 2010] and some of our forwards show exactly what they can do. It’s a big mystery. If you can figure it out for me then I’d be very grateful!”
