Geraghty rages at Royal fiasco
The two-time All-Ireland winner said chairman Barney Allen should not have announced Boylan would take over from Seamus McEnaney before a vote had even taken place on the future of the Monaghan man.
Both Boylan and Geraghty had been due to attend the Race the Rás charity launch in Croke Park yesterday. However, neither turned up although Geraghty agreed to be interviewed over the phone to promote the initiative and slammed the behaviour of the executive.
“Certain elements of the county board did themselves no favours over the last couple of weeks in all of this,” he said.
“I think Seán would have preferred if his name was left out of it until the end. It was very unfair of Barney [Allen, county chairman] to put Seán’s name out there. It overcomplicated the matter.
“They should have waited until the vote was over and take it from there then if they needed a new manager.”
In the wake of relegation to Division 3 last Sunday week, Geraghty readily believed the motion to oust McEnaney would have received the required two-thirds majority.
“If you had asked me after the Louth game I would have said that he would have lost the vote. But obviously the clubs went away and had a think about it and as the week went on it looked like he had more of a chance to stay.
“I’m just glad it has all been put to bed and we can get on with preparing for Wicklow.”
Geraghty didn’t attend the players’ meeting on Monday night as he reckoned it wouldn’t be fair in his dual capacity. However, he has gauged their opinion and claims they are fully behind McEnaney as they prepare for the championship.
“From talking to a few players and people around the county they are happy enough with the decision and happy it has been put to bed.
“Meath have been too quick to dismiss managers in the past and I think this was the right decision. It was a big upheaval, it has been very stressful for the players who don’t want to do anything but to play football. They are sick of all this and they got dragged into it again.”
McEnaney will now lead Meath into their Leinster SFC first round game against Wicklow on May 27 in Dr Cullen Park.
Geraghty, who was yesterday receiving injections on another Achilles problem in Santry Sports Clinic yesterday, believes the recent strife will embolden the spirit in the camp.
“I don’t think it is as bad as all that. That sounds like a contradiction seeing as we have just been relegated to Division 3 but we can improve.
“Obviously we have a lot of problems to iron out and we can do that by putting some confidence back into the players. The next few weeks are about lifting morale. A lot of that will be down to the players themselves and they’ll have to lift each other.
“They are back with their clubs for a few weeks and they will play a couple of rounds of championship so they have some time away from the county scene.”
Meanwhile, Geraghty’s former Meath team-mate Evan Kelly said he feels for Boylan after he had made himself available to take over from McEnaney.
“It’s definitely unnecessary publicity that Seán could do without. Seán obviously thought they were in trouble and offered a solution for them. It’s backfired on them.”
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