ON THURSDAY EVENING, THE statement from Meath GAA was as brief as it was evasive.
“The Management Committee of Coiste na Mí CLG met this evening to discuss the ongoing scheduled review of the Senior Football Management.
“The review remains ongoing and will be concluded in advance of the Co. Committee meeting on Tuesday, August 27.”
Ahh . . . I dunno. Ringing endorsements don’t usually come as, well, dry as this.
Let’s go back to the start. When Colm O’Rourke was initially named as the new Meath manager, there was a review built in to the end of the second year to see if it was feasible to continue.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it didn’t matter if O’Rourke had led Meath to an All Ireland title: the review was due.
His first year brought some optimism. There was a reality check that Meath were not among the game’s elite. And yet there was a fine accomplishment to beat Cork, away from home, in the season’s opening fixture.
Without that win, though, they would have been relegated. They beat Clare in the second game with a 4-8 tally. It looked too good to be true as Meath were launching the kind of early ball forward that O’Rourke himself and his selector Stephen Bray, thrived on.
Then, gravity ensued.
Derry tanked them, 2-15 to 1-7 at Owenbeg. Louth won a rare victory over Meath in Navan. Dublin beat them by 11 points and Kildare did it by five. Meath just about survived relegation.
In Leinster, they lost their first round to Offaly by four points. Meath scored just 0-10.
From that point, Meath looked a different team as they won the Tailteann Cup. A clean sweep of Down, Tipperary and Waterford in the group stages.
They walloped Wexford, edged past Antrim, before the final against Down, when players such as Jack O’Connor, Jack Flynn and Ronan Jones looked like they could become the face of a new Meath.
Sometimes though, perception is a lot to do with packaging.
As an RTÉ pundit for over two decades, O’Rourke has always had a place in the forefront of GAA debate.
Undoubtedly it helped that he was often stuck refereeing the two extremes of the northern firebrand views of Joe Brolly and the deep south plamás of Pat Spillane.
In such a scenario, O’Rourke could deliver a more sober analysis and appear the voice of reason, week after week. The fact he did occasionally monster various teams, such as his declaration that he would eat his hat if Tyrone won an All Ireland with Brian Dooher – Brian Dooher, like – on the team, often blew over with the latest rant of his bombastic colleagues.
In winning the Tailteann Cup, he gave great copy, and with the benefit of his classical education, said afterwards to the broadcasters: ‘It’ll be great to look forward to tonight and as the poet Horace said when he was asked what he was going to do after Cleopatra was beaten by the Romans, he said “nunc est bibendum (Tonight we drink).”
A nice line. But a winning day in Croke Park and a Tailteann Cup victory comes with a health warning. It raises expectations without providing any true progress beyond being the best of the rest.
In the league this year, Meath fared marginally better, two wins and two draws, but again just a point off relegation.
The alarming element was how far away the genuine contenders were; Armagh beat them by a dozen points. Donegal did it by eight.
Onto the Championship. A seven points win over Longford before a 16-point loss to Dublin.
The All Ireland group stages brought three straight defeats to Louth (10 points), Kerry (15 points) and Monaghan (three points).
So, onto the review. It was exactly what you might imagine; a player survey conducted along with soundings from those in and around the fringes of the set-up.
It is believed that the contents are not favourable towards O’Rourke.
For his part, he wants to continue in his role and said so after the last game of the year, stating, “Well, I think it’s going to take several years to build a team here, so I think it might take five years. So I think I’ll go to the county board and ask them to give me five years as a minimum thing.”
Now that the review committee has met with the management committee, the outcome looks grim.
Already, his selectors Stephen Bray and Barry O’Callaghan have left the set-up, though it is believed that O’Callaghan was opting out at the end of 2024 no matter what.
There are some who believe that O’Rourke might dig in and make things awkward for Meath county board.
After all, O’Rourke is still a widely-loved figure in the county for his achievements and ability as a player. It gives him a halo effect that others may not enjoy.
And while he was never One Of The Lads, his job as school principal in St Patrick’s Navan brought him into contact with people from across the county. You don’t have to go hunting long for many anecdotes of how he positively impacted upon student’s lives and careers.
Yet the problem with digging in is you can only trap yourself.
When players do not want a manager, the only thing to do is to make your exit as dignified as possible.
Mickey Harte managed it in Derry. The players were not won over, and so he left.
On the occasions when managers tried to ride out the storm, they enjoyed strong county board support. We’re thinking of the Gerald McCarthy in Cork and Justin McCarthy in Limerick eras.
Both men eventually had to stand down, but they did so with a terrible mess behind them.
If the report is as unfavourable as been indicated, then there is only one course of action for O’Rourke to consider.
If he doesn’t, then the Meath county board have to act rapidly and decisively.
But then, who wants to shoot Bambi?
