Meath’s job departure was a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ to ‘my greatest regret’ – The Irish News

Former Monaghan manager Seamus McAnaney has revealed he discouraged angry players from going on “strike” when he was not reassigned for 2011.

‘Banty’ oversaw Monaghan’s rejuvenation between 2005 and 2010, leading them to two Ulster finals and promotion to League One.

But he said he felt disappointed by the county council which ultimately approved Eamon McInney’s appointment, calling it his “greatest regret” in football.

The Corduff man took charge of Meath within weeks but said it was a “knee-jerk reaction to what happened in Monaghan”.

Speaking on The Farney Army Pod, Bunty revealed that then captain and future manager Vinnie Corey was among those ready to picket.

“I had to go to the players and tell them not to go on strike,” McEnany said. “I was desperately disappointed in how I was treated. I felt like we might cross the line.

“Yes, the Ulster final did not go well for us, but I was bitterly disappointed that the then chairman and secretary refused to give me another year.

“It was one of the bitterest pills of my football career. If I have any regrets in football, not being reassigned in 2010 was my biggest regret.”

Under new manager Eamon Mackinney, Monaghan suffered back-to-back relegations in 2011 and 2012, relegated to Division 3 and lost four of their five championship games.

“Don’t forget, my captain at the time was Vinnie Corey,” Bunty said. “Now you’re ready to go to war with Vinny Corey any day of the week. He was belligerent about the direction we wanted to go in and not very sympathetic to what was going on.

“I’m honest, in the end I had to go to him and say, ‘Look Vinnie, what’s best for Monaghan football is for Monaghan footballers to play for Monaghan.’

“We might not have won the Ulster titles in 2013 and 2015 if I had stayed another year. But two years later we were in the third division and had a really good group of players.”

McEnany returned for a second stint as Monaghan manager between 2020 and 2022. Standards at that stage were much higher than when he first inherited the Monaghan team at the end of 2004.

He said there was a “huge cultural problem” at the time and said: “I saw some Monaghan players being taken to Hillgrove in Monaghan when they came home from nightclubs to go play for Monaghan.”

As for the group he inherited at Meath, he didn’t expect it either.

“I looked at them and thought they were huge people, traditional, brave as lions,” McAnaney said. “(Actually) it was everything I didn’t expect. I could go into the Monaghan dressing room and pick three or four guys to do the job of marking players, which would be tough and unpleasant. This was not the case in Mita.

“Mickey Burke was the guy to send to work. As far as being tough, tough, tenacious like the 90s team, I don’t like to criticize, but that’s not really the case.”

McEnany also revealed in the podcast interview that he tried to persuade former Galway and Mayo stars Padraic Joyce and Ciaran McDonald to play for Monaghan in the 2000s.

“I remember feeling at the end of 2007 that we needed a centre-forward,” he said. “Believe it or not, I went looking for Padraic Joyce because he was married to a woman from Monaghan. You know what, and this is a secret outside of school, he would have come to me, but he wanted to play with his club, so he couldn’t come to Monaghan because he was a Galway man and didn’t… he needed to play. club football in Monaghan. He would not leave his club, for which he must be respected.

“The other man I was looking for in 2008, I met him twice but he didn’t turn up, was Ciaran McDonald. He worked in Navan. These are two secrets that have never been revealed. And again he did not budge. I felt like if we had one person who could run the forward in ’07, ’08, ’09 and ’10, from center forward, that would be a link in the chain.”

*Full interview with Seamus McEnany at Army capsule Farni available on Spotify.