Meath now look to the next test

Following Sunday's disappointing surrender of their Leinster SFC crown it now appears that the Meath management are not under pressure to find replacements for Liam Harnan and Barry Callaghan, who resigned as selectors last month. All the talk in the build up to last Sunday's Leinster SFC quarter-final defeat by Kildare was about the turmoil in the Meath camp. There was no evidence of that as the Royal challenge simply ran out of steam in the second-half when Kildare overturned a 0-5 to 0-7 interval deficit to secure their passage to the last four with a 0-16 to 0-10 victory. After the game the attention immediately switched to the identity of the new selectors. There were suggestions that the returning Graham Geraghty might fill one of the roles and remain as a player, but when contacted by the Meath Chronicle on Tuesday morning Co Committee chairman Barney Allen denied any possibility of that. "I haven't heard anything about Graham (Geraghty) taking on a selectors role. Anyway, if that was to happen, it would have to be ratified at the next Co Committee meeting," said the chairman. "No time frame has been put in place to find new selectors and Seamus McEnaney is not under any pressure to replace Liam Harnan and Barry Callaghan. I'd say that the status quo will remain for the time being. "I'm sure the situation will be discussed at next week's Co Committee meeting, but as I've said, the manager is under no pressure and so he will probably work with the team he has at present," said Allen. Sunday's disappointing loss came as a massive blow to McEnaney's aspirations. He declared that his players had trained "liked they'd never trained before" for the game, yet still their efforts came up short. While a couple of key decisions blatantly went against Meath, including the square ball decision on Geraghty's 'goal' and the dismissal of Brian Farrell, the defending champions were clearly second best after the break and managed just one point from play in that period. Meath Co Committee will appeal Farrell's red card and video evidence suggests that the Nobber man may well earn a reprieve as his actions warranted nothing more than a yellow card.