NEW MEATH MANAGER Colm O’Rourke has outlined his ambitions and reasons for taking the role, explaining this was probably his last opportunity to take the job. 

The Royal County great won two All-Irelands as a player and will now replace Andy McEntee, who stepped down last month. 

Speaking to The Meath Chronicle newspaper, O’Rourke said a win over their Leinster rivals is one of several targets for his three-year term. 

“Ultimately we have to beat Dublin. That was the measurement of Meath when I was playing and that hasn’t changed.”

At club level, O’Rourke led Simonstown Gaels to back-to-back Meath titles in 2016 and 2017. The Sunday Game panellist went on to praise McEntree’s hard work in recent years.

Having previously said he was not interested in the position, he was subsequently contacted by people involved at county board level.

“I was asked by a lot of people would I make myself available for interview this time around and I did. I spoke to the committee involved in the appointment and it went on from there.

“I’m not giving away state secrets when I say there was a general keenness for me to get involved in some way and I thought to myself that this is probably the last opportunity I will get, so if I’m going to do anything I better do it now.

“I still regard it as one of the big jobs in football in the country. Meath has a rich and varied history and tradition of football and I’m hoping it will be easy enough to reignite the tradition and passions that we had for the game.”

Former Meath footballers Stephen Bray and Barry Callaghan are to join O’Rourke as selectors, with further management team additions to be made.

“There will be further people to be added to the management team over the next few weeks. There’s no great panic on that at the moment.

“We certainly will be adding more on the coaching side, on the strength and conditioning side and a lot of the other areas that are now common with county teams.

“This is a process.”