Messages

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1 - Club Eirne do not pay the players expenses, so the same players who wouldn't play last year still have no financial incentive to play this year. No financial reward, then they will hardly be motivated to play this year

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People have talked about why players left etc for nearly a year now, and I think most don't think money was the reason for it. Whatever peoples thoughts on whether they should or shouldnt have left, stating the players would only return for the money seems like just a cheap shot at them (many of which have give years of service) and seems like someone just trying to throw dirt at them in the hope that some sticks.

Now is the time to come together and try to move on from what was an absolutely awful year for us. I for one, am far more optimisitic this year than I was when O'Neill was appointed. Hopefully the players that remained, those that left and those that refused to come out in the 1st place can now come together and become the good side that I think they can become.

I assume Donnelly is also on the Canavan ticket?

Despite all this the same paper reports that the same people who appointed O'Neill will be responsible for choosing his successor.

Hard to believe I know, but not surprising with our county board. If I was them I would have asked Jarlath (seems to have done a good job with the review, and I doubted him when he got the role so I stand corrected) to remain and be part of a panel to pick the new boss. My panel would have been Jarlath, Owens and an ex player, someone like Paul/Tom Brewster/Shane McDermott/Liam McBarron. However, our county board always like to remain in total control of everything, even if other people seem far better placed to pick the manager.

PS On a side note, so far we have only seen a small piece of the review, are we going to see the full report, and if not, who are we protecting by not showing it, to me it looks like a case of, we don't like the details of it, so lets sweep it under the carpet so no-one can see the real truths behind 2011?

Thankfully the decision has finally been made, I wonder will the report be made public. I would like to hear what it says about the state of our county board, that would be interesting reading.

Need to now start looking for a manager ASAP. I would like to see a young manager from outside the county selected, and that will make sure there are no internal issues with the new boss. Someone like Peter Canavan (even O'Rourke, McKeever or someone else from a successful team that has quit playing but still knows what it takes) would be ideal in my eyes. Fermanagh is surely a good job for an up and coming manager, do well and you improve your reputation, do badly and everyone just says the players arent there.

What about Coleman on the right and Duff on the left, surely thats the best combination of wingers, with Aidan in the stand watching!!!

The man has only been appointed and he is all ready being judged.

Lets see what the review brings and judge him then.

The lack of a independent review is the problem here, not Jarlath. Within an independent review, Jarlath would be fine, as he could voice his view and the group would work together to come to there conclusion. But having the people that appointed the manager on the review commitee just seems crazy, but to be honest, not in the one bit surprising, considering the Fermanagh County board set it up. I fear it will be Jarlath against the rest, and he will back down so not to cause trouble.

If the Fermanagh County Board really wanted the truth the review would be 100% independent!!!!

I fear Samwin08 is right. If I am right the Review commitee is made up of Jarlath and 3 county board members, the same 3 that actually employed O'Neill in the 1st place. So in my eyes this review is just for show. Jarlath is a great choice by the county board to do the job they want him to do, i.e. sit there and cause no trouble. Afterall Jarlath has bigger fish to fry in the years ahead and won't want this to damage his image in the heads of those deciding on the next GAA president.

When the review is over, O'Neill will remain, even more players will quit, and Fermanagh will sink even lower (if thats possible).

Our only hope is a complete overhaul of the county board at the end of the year!!

I think it's safe to say he'll be gone after this. A Rossie Paul Coggins is manager of London so congrats to him.

No guarantees. I would be surprised if he resigns. It'll be up to the county board to sack him and I'm not so sure they will. 2011, a year to forget for Fermanagh football.

I doubt he will resign, its not his style, he will have to be sacked if we are to get rid of him, and considering his relationship with the county board I doubt that will happen. 2012 could be an even tougher year with even more retirements etc leading to a fermanagh team that would be beat by most fermanagh club sides never mine county sides!

From the Irish Examiner:

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The Irish Examiner
WITH Fermanagh football making the headlines of the national media and the county side languishing in the doldrums of Division Four, it has obscured one of the league's more interesting developments.
With one game to go in the notoriously-competitive Division Two, Donegal remain unbeaten. Once the hardest-partying team in Ulster, they now pride themselves as the hardest-working one.
In Jim McGuinness, they have a progressive manager hungry for success and hungry to develop, not just his players but himself. He's studied coaching and winning from his time attaining degrees in sports science and sport psychology.
He's credible and cutting edge.
McGuinness has only one man by his side down on the touchline: his number two, Rory Gallagher. Of all the people he could have chosen, he went with a 33-year-old not even from the county, just one living in it and the owner of an exceptionally high football IQ.
Last season, Gallagher played for Fermanagh. He was not asked back by John O'Neill but if he had, do you doubt he wouldn't have voted on the setup with his feet? Nor would there be any doubt about how he'd be described, considering the perception of him during his on-off inter-county career with Fermanagh: troublemaker, too big for his boots, "one of the players who got us into Division Four in the first place".
There has been something honourable about the dissenting players' reluctance to disseminate horror stories about O'Neill's management but it has largely backfired. People don't know what they found so objectionable about the setup, leaving the vacuum to be filled with innuendo, side issues and non-issues.
The dispute has been portrayed as one featuring a group of pampered players no longer indulged with the backup and medical support they enjoyed under Malachy O'Rourke.
Undoubtedly the county board, like most county boards, are financially-challenged now, but Club Eirne, the county's supporters club, have money waiting to be called on, only to be sidelined by the current setup.
The crux of the dispute is over something that costs nothing — man management.
The dissenting players were not impressed by O'Neill's tactical awareness or his addresses and found him unapproachable.
Think of all the recent best new managers — Liam Sheedy, Anthony Daly, Kevin Walsh, Jason Ryan, Kieran McGeeney, Pat Gilroy, James McCartan, Conor Counihan, Jim McGuinness...
All the boss, but all approachable, all new school.
O'Neill is unashamedly old school. Upon his appointment, he declared his scepticism towards sport psychology.
"I was discussing this once with Cormac McAdam and he told me that when he was captain and goalie with the county he didn't need any psychologist to tell him we were losing on the scoreboard!"
A great line to draw a guffaw from your drinking buddies, but could you imagine Jason Ryan saying that?
I should declare that I'm a sport psychologist, and as it happens, the one that worked with Fermanagh, my father's native county, when they reached the 2008 Ulster final.
Space prevents me from elaborating on how we looked at scoreboards or 'losing' during games that hadn't yet been won or lost — though it's quite revealing John and Cormac had Fermanagh losing on their scoreboard.
I believe John's job is safe for this year and in many ways it's only right it is, after the team's win over Clare last Sunday. But he should be judged by the results of his team this summer, because it is ultimately the team that he left himself with. Probably O'Rourke's biggest mistake was the wild turnover of players he oversaw after 2008. Too many panel players were discarded for 2009, and again in 2010. For Fermanagh to be competitive in 2011, the team needed to enter a period of transition married with some stability in the form of the Sherrys and McElroy.
Those departing players have been dismissed as being "the same players who landed Fermanagh in Division Four". It's unfair. For starters they still managed to win their first-round Ulster championship game each of the last three years, a trend unlikely to stretch under O'Neill. Niall Bogue was man of the match on the county's greatest day, the 2004 win over Armagh. James Sherry remains the only Fermanagh man to score a goal in an All-Ireland senior semi-final and only last year was Fermanagh's best player in their Division Three campaign.
In 2008 Tommy McElroy was a near All-Star and the best newcomer in Ulster. Three years on, he might be finished.
So could the GAA-GPA intervention model; it is too crude, idealistic and unwieldy to deliver a "compromise" in a "dispute" like this; no way in the real world were O'Neill and those players going to co-exist in the same setup.
O'Neill survives because he's been backed by Barry Owens, who is desperate to play football after three long years away from the game and by a county board whose officers are the salt of the earth but have little idea as to how you coach and compete in the Facebook era, otherwise they'd have found or produced another Jason Ryan or Jim McGuinness last autumn. And until the clubs show some initiative, that's the way it will stay.

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Finally a paper is willing to say it how it is!!!!

Phil Smith (the British handicapper) has allotted them a higher rating.

Don't Push It is the highest rated horse in the field with an official rating of 160. He will carry top weight of 11st10lbs. Merigo is rated 137 so he would in theory be getting 23lbs from Don't Push It (i.e. 10st1lb). But Merigo is number 56 on the list so there are 55 horses rated higher than him and only 40 runners get into the race so he'll need 15 of the horses rated higher than him at the moment to be taken out.

The cut off point is likely to be around One Cool Cookie or Our Monty who are currently 47 and 48 on the list respectively.

When is the final field actually decided, is there a cut off point next week?

Well said Hound, the players have taken a stand and risked there intercounty futures, now its up to the fans and clubs to show there support for them.

If not, the situation will die away and Fermanagh football will continue to go backways.

You're right...in most counties supporters would be looking to clear out the squad that was relegated from Div 2 to Div 4 in successive seasons.  Big fish, very small pond??

I really doubt most supporters would be looking to clear out all 15 of the players that just 3 years ago got us to our first Ulster final in about 25 years. Especially as we do have such a small pool of players to pick from.

Every county in the country would have a number of players who do not committ to the intercounty scene for various reasons, work, family, don't like the manager, don't like the colour of the polo shirts supplied, etc. 

The difference here is that all 15 of the Ulster final team in 2008 and 12 of the 15 that started in the championship against cavan are gone, this does not happen in every county in the country, and there must be something making them all quit.

Another quick point about the set up...I don't think JON will prove to be a particularly successful inter county manager but he didn't take Fermanagh into Div 4.

However it would be nice to be at least competitive in Div4, which we are currently not and won't be until things change.

The one thing I can't understand is why O'Neill wants to stay. If I was the manager and a significant number of my squad quit because of me, and on top of that at best, public opinion is split about my appointment, and the fact our results have been shocking I would quit for the good of all concerned.

Surely the county board have made a big big error here. The players are now bound to make their problems with the manager and county board public knowledge now, and this may get pretty embarrassing for the county board.

But the decision is no surprise, typical Fermanagh county board, stick your head in the sand and hope it all goes away. It needs a massive shake up, but this won't happen and as usual they will all just rotate there positions within the county board and no new blood will get a look in and the old heads will remain to hold the county back in the dark ages.

Hopefully everything will get sorted out tonight one way or the other and we can move on. In reality the current management will remain in place this year and the county team will struggle badly with the limited numbers we have. I fear an absolute hammering from Derry. Our county squad seems to be turning into a Lisnaskea/Devenish Select (O'Neills prevous two clubs I believe) with a few players from other clubs threw in.

On a different note, I have heard a few names of players that have been asked in the last week to come out for fermanagh this year to increase the squad size, and some of them are no where near county standard, one in fact was a sub for his club on several occasions this year. One such player even told me that O'Neill didn't even ring him, he had Owens ringing him instead, which seems a bit strange. Surely a manager should be making these calls.