Colm O'Rourke has this weekend spoken out about the Meath county board line on his departure as the county's senior football manager.
O'Rourke took over as bainisteoir after Meath's exit from the 2022 championship, tasked with returning the Royals to something resembling the glory of his playing days.
His first season in charge saw hints of progress but things turned stale in 2024 and, several weeks after Meath's failure to progress from the round-robin phase of the All-Ireland, O'Rourke's departure was confirmed.
The Meath legend's exit came after a lengthy review by the county board, the details of which have come to light in recent weeks.
Meath chairman Jason Plunkett told a county board meeting last week that the board had not given O'Rourke a hard deadline to put himself forward for a third year as manager. Rather, it was suggested that O'Rourke had been told that he could not conceivably be nominated without a backroom team in place.
The man himself has now come forward to refute any such suggestion, saying that the process that led to his departure had angered him more than any incident during his long career in Gaelic football.
READ HERE: Cavan Spectator's Brilliant Remark Sums Up Confidence Of Jim Gavin's Football Review Committee
Colm O'Rourke refutes Meath county board claim
14 April 2024; Meath manager Colm O'Rourke during the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship quarter-final match between Dublin and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Colm O'Rourke spoke to Fergal Lynch of the Meath Chronicle this week, with the story published by Lynch on Saturday.
O'Rourke was asked to comment on the process that had led to his dismissal as Meath manager. The Royals legend said that though he wished nothing but the best for the future of Meath football, he was deeply angered by the process that led to his exit.
I have never been more annoyed by anything in football than what has happened in this review process and what has happened since has greatly angered me.
I don't want to be treated with such lack of respect as I was shown at the Co Board meeting last week, and that includes Sean Boylan and all the other people that were involved with me.
What the chairman said is quite untrue (that there was no deadline put in place).
Why would I walk away from a job I wanted, unless unreasonable demands were being made of me. I pointed out to the two men of the review commitee that there was no hurry to make appointments as training wasn't allow start back until December.
O'Rourke's recollection of events is significantly different from the story put forward at the Meath county board meeting last Monday.
The 67-year-old says that he had received two separate communications proposing different deadline, before an ultimatum to put together a new backroom team or risk being disqualified from contention.
At this stage, he said he became "fed up" and exited the process.
It's a sad and messy end to a tenure that brought so much hope for Meath when O'Rourke first arrived in 2022.
He will be replaced by Robbie Brennan for the 2025 season.
