Kevin McStay took his leave of Roscommon at the beginning of the month, and left with a statement that we may look back at as a crucial, paradigm-shifting statement.
It was a lengthy valedictory, but this passage stuck out:
These are the significant challenges the smaller GAA counties face. If the GAA is committed to ensuring all counties are, at a minimum, competitive, then they must be supported financially in a way that reflects the demands and the need for fairness, equity and solidarity.
McStay made a first public appearance since his stepping down this weekend, speaking at an Ulster All-Stars event in Armagh. In quotes reported by The Irish Sun, McStay addressed some murmurings that his Roscommon exit was forced by player unrest. "That was simply untrue, bullshit, it never happened", was McStay's pithy response.
The Mayo native isn't planning on returning to inter-county management, and was fiercely critical of how Gaelic football and its coaches are portrayed by the "Kerry media".
Down south, the media voices will generally say that ye in the north have fecked up the game with your systems, defensive coaches, dark arts, intimidation, 15 behind the ball, sledging — and whatever you’re having yourself.
And when you examine the media pressure that Kerry — and I could say Dublin just as easily — bring to bear on an event and how it is interpreted and how it gets told, it’s actually scary.
McStay did a very fine job with Roscommon - a Connacht title, a Division One semi-final, a spot in the Super 8s - but he was no stranger to criticism during his time in charge. Ironically, the strongest of all came locally, from former Roscommon manager Gay Sheerin, who said on Shannonside radio that he didn't like to see Mayo men on the Roscommon touchline.
I do not like to see Mayo men on the sideline for a Roscommon team. I fought for years against Liam McHale and Kevin McStay, playing against them. And they hated me and they hated Roscommon.
And they can't have got that love (for Roscommon), there's no way, because I couldn't get that love for them.
McStay doesn't strike you as an Alan Partridge fan, but there is no doubt that he had the last laugh on that one.
