The Management Committee of Meath GAA have recommended that Colm O’Rourke be put before the County Committee for ratification as Meath Senior Football manager.
The legendary former Skryne and Royal County forward has long being linked with the Meath management position, but by now many might have felt that ship had sailed. Especially given that his wife Patricia has, for a long time, been trying to get him to reduce the number of teams he was involved with!
However, it is believed the Principal of St Patrick’s Classical School recently had a change of heart. Sources indicated to this website that, like his former on-field foe turned punditry colleague Pat Spillane, the microphone may have been about to be hung up on his career with the national broadcaster.
The soon-to-be 65-year-old brings a wealth of managerial experience to the role have guided the Irish International Rules team to two Series wins against Australia, Simonstown Gaels to back-to-back Meath SFC titles and guided his school to Hogan Cup success in 2000, 2001 and 2004.
Colm has nominated two of his former pupils in St Pat’s – Barry Callaghan and Stephen Bray as his selectors for the 2023 season. To the best of my knowledge, it will be a first foray into management for Navan O’Mahony’s clubman Bray while Callaghan has been involved in the management of a few Meath underage teams in more recent seasons.
Barry Callaghan was an All Ireland SFC winner in 1996 and 1999 – along with his Dunderry GAA colleagues Tommy Dowd and Stephen O’Rourke – while Bray was the county’s last All Star in 2007.
While there can be little doubt there’s still plenty of work to be done to get Meath football back to where it should be, there are grounds for optimism too with infrastructure and fortunes at underage level having been on an upward curve in more recent years. The pinnacle of which was the county’s All Ireland MFC triumph of 2021.
Allied to that, you’d hope having the most high profile former Meath player of them all at the wheel might be just the carrot required to coax senior citizens of the panel like Donal Keogan and Bryan Menton to go to war once more in green and gold.
Colm’s appointment will be one which will surely be met with excited enthusiasm and optimism around the Royal County. You’d just hope it will stay that way as memories can get short if expectations aren’t met.
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