Andy McEntee fears gap between club and county widening

New Meath senior football manager Andy McEntee has slammed the proposed introduction of a round-robin series at the quarter-final stage of the All-Ireland SFC, labelling the plans a “money racket.”

And McEntee, whose tenure with Ballyboden St Enda’s ended with Saturday’s round 2 Dublin SFC defeat to Kilmacud Crokes, insists that far too much emphasis is being placed by the GAA and GPA on inter-county players, who he estimates makes up roughly half a percent of the playing population.

McEntee added that it was “ridiculous” to expect Dublin’s All-Ireland winners to return to club action just a week after landing Sam Maguire.

Michael Darragh Macauley lined out for Ballyboden on Saturday but while Paul Mannion scored a crucial goal for Kilmacud, Cian O’Sullivan missed out through injury.

Speaking to Newstalk, McEntee said: “Let’s be honest, it’s very difficult for a couple of guys to win an All-Ireland on a Saturday and play another game seven days later. It’s ridiculous. It’s not because we lost, I said the same last year when we came out the right side of the result.

“For guys to win an All-Ireland and then be asked to play again within a short space of time is just not fair. All clubs are committed to training for 10 months of the year, for what? One game? It doesn’t make sense. It needs to be changed.

“The proposals to have a pool stage at the latter end of the All-Ireland series? That’s just a money racket. That means more games for the inter-county and drag it out even further, and less of a window for club players. I think inter-county hurlers and footballers account for about half a percent of the playing population of the country. All the resources are going into that half a percent. That doesn’t make sense.”