• Home
  • /
  • GAA
  • /
  • Meath Manager Mick O'Dowd Rips Into 'Sickening' Comments Of High Profile Meath Pundits

Meath Manager Mick O'Dowd Rips Into 'Sickening' Comments Of High Profile Meath Pundits

Meath Manager Mick O'Dowd Rips Into 'Sickening' Comments Of High Profile Meath Pundits
Conor Neville
By Conor Neville
Share this article

In the future, there may be no more managerial interviews. The RTE boycott is becoming de riguer. The way it's going the state broadcaster may soon be forced to choose between neutering their pundits or saying goodbye to the post-match interview.

If Tyrone win the All-Ireland this year, then RTE are presumably going to have to dream up an alternative to the All-Ireland winners banquet.

Perhaps, they'll send Michael Lyster and Marty Morrissey and Ger Canning down to the loser's banquet where they can ruminate on the nature of failure.

hard

Mick O'Dowd resigned as Meath manager after their loss to Derry on Saturday. His post match comments - delivered to LMFM and assorted other journalists - mainly concerned Meath's latest loss and their struggles in the latter part of his tenure (O'Dowd's reign did show some early promise). But he finished with a parting blast at the celebrity pundits who are so resented by so many county setups.

Recommended

Immediately after the loss to Derry, which triggered his resignation, O'Dowd referred to 'overpaid, inflated egos' who were 'ripping decent people apart'.

He returned to the theme in a more wide-ranging interview with LMFM. He alluded to former Meath players who were fortunate to be part of a very strong inter-county team who have made remarks which 'sickened' him.

Advertisement

They’re investing so much of their lives in it, doing exams and Masters, or starting in their careers, (and) it’s a little bit sickening to hear some former players, who were very good players, possibly, but lucky to be part of a team at the right time that came together.

Now they take the moral high ground on a lot of individuals putting so much of their time into the game.

It was more for the players really than myself but I have heard other managers being vilified by people.

I just don’t think it’s right. It’s an amateur organisation but we’re close to the UK and the Premiership, where people are on highly-inflated salaries over there.

Has that culture drifted across to the GAA? I think it has and it’s not something I’d be happy to see.

One can only presume he's talking about the only Meath All-Ireland winners working in punditry - at least at a national level - namely, Colm O'Rourke and Bernard Flynn.

Advertisement

Otherwise, O'Dowd suggested he was shocked by the physical and mental condition of the Meath team he inherited at the end of 2012.

This - particularly given the reference to mental condition - could be interpreted as a jab at his predecessor Seamus McEnaney who managed the team for a couple of turbulent seasons in 2011 and 2012.

To be honest, in those early months, I couldn’t believe the state the Meath squad was in physically and mentally.

There could have been 12 or 13 players having operations. Some of the older players spoke about how they were fragile…there was too much change of management and no settled culture inside the Meath dressing room.

That impacted on very good Meath footballers that had come through in the previous 8-10 year period. That initial period was a shock to the system but we regrouped well and got the team back into Division 2.

Listen below:

Advertisement

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/274098771" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]

Read more: KNEEJERK: Our Controversial Columnist Was Furious At RTE Yesterday

 

 

Join The Monday Club Have a tip or something brilliant you wanted to share on? We're looking for loyal Balls readers free-to-join members club where top tipsters can win prizes and Balls merchandise

Processing your request...

You are now subscribed!

Share this article

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com

Advertisement