With €100,000 on the line, much is expected of 'Banty’

Seamus 'Banty' McEnaney could do worse than to give Colm Coyle a ring over the next week or so. The new Meath manager could pick up a few tips from Coyler about the trials and tribulations involved in going into another county and taking charge of their footballers. Coyle came to know every twist and turn on the Navan to Carrickmacross road when he took charge of Monaghan in 2003. It was his first major posting in inter-county management. He left a year later, to eventually take charge of his native county from 2007 and 2008. Now, McEnaney is about to take the same route, except in reverse. Coyle did just fine during his sojourn in the Farney County; the highlight of his stay, a shock Ulster championship victory over Armagh, then the All-Ireland champions. Ironically, it was during his time in charge of Meath that Coyle came to experience some of the more intense frustrations involved in looking after an inter-county team. Coyle was eventually to depart the Meath job hours after a humbling capitulation in that hotbed of Gaelic football, Limerick, in the summer of 2008. Coyle walked off the team bus when it returned home that night and back into normal life. He felt he had taken the team as far he could. There were rumours that some of the players weren't giving the commitment required, that they enjoyed the glamour and the prestige of playing for Meath rather than the reality. There were rumblings that some members of the panel were simply not prepared to endure the hard, relentless slog and sacrifice needed to succeed at the highest level. To forego a social life for the spartan existance of an athlete. True or not, those same stories continued to circulate during Eamonn O'Brien's term in charge. How much validity can be attached to them is difficult to quantify but the perception was there among the supporters - and still is. The players made no secret of their desire to see McEnaney appointed as their new leader. Now they will be required to step up the mark, row in fully being the new man and quash any suggestions they are anything less than 110 per cent committed to the cause. McEnaney's accession to the Meath job has placed considerable pressure on him and the players to come up with the goods. If things start to go wrong and performances begin to dip, pressure - and abuse - will invariably come from supporters, particulary those who feel the job should have been given to a home-grown coach. They will look at the €99,000 (lets call it €100,000) it will cost to bankroll the Ulster takeover. They will look at the outlay and call for a greater dividend. The supporters will also have a role in achieving success - by giving McEnaney time to get things right and not get on his back if the wheels start to come off. There were times when the previous incumbent, Eamonn O'Brien, was shocked at the reaction of some Meath supporters after a defeat - or even when things were going awry during the course of a game. Standing on the sidelines at Pairc Tailteann and elsewhere, this most decent of men could hear the shouts of derision and the bile cascading down from the terraces. After six years in charge of Monaghan, McEnaney will be all too well aware of the pressures involved. However, this is a unique situation in the GAA. It is highly unusual for a county board to let everybody know just how much it will cost to finance a county management team - and there are those who feel that almost €100,000 is too high a price, even if he manages to land the Sam Maguire itself. Others will resent the fact that he is the first 'outsider' to take charge of the team - although in the pre-Sean Boylan era, Dessie Ferguson, a Dubliner, spent a while as the Meath football coach. This is an ideal opportunity for players, supporters, officials and management to row in together and get behind Banty. A new beginning, a new era. Anybody got Colm Coyle's number?