Dessie Dolan: Now is time for native manager to revive Westmeath

Dessie Dolan reckons “now is the time” for Westmeath to look for an inside manager to pull the county out of the black hole it resides in.

The former Westmeath footballer is extremely disappointed by the team’s lowly standing, a direct result of their fall from Division 1 of the Allianz FL to Division 4 in the space of three years, and believes one of the “leaders” from the 2004 Leinster-winning set-up should be given a chance to serve at the helm.

Brian Murtagh was the last Westmeath native to manage the county’s flagship team and when Kildare’s Tom Cribbin got the nod ahead of Jack Cooney in November 2014, he joined a long list of outsiders to wear the bainisteoir’s bib since Murtagh’s term came to an end before the start of the 1992 Leinster championship.