Banty staying untill 2013

Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney has agreed to stay on as manager of the Monaghan football team for another three years.
His appointment is expected to be ratified at a meeting of the County Board on Monday night.
At a meeting of the Management Committee last Sunday night,
McEnaney, who has been in charge of the Farney men for six years, only
allowed his name to go forward for the managerial position on the basis
that he would be granted a three year extension.
Monaghan exited the championship in disappointing fashion this
summer, falling to a defeat by Kildare in Round 4 of the qualifiers
only six days after losing the Ulster Final to Tyrone.
Despite the disappointing exit, however, McEnaney saw plenty of
encouraging signs in Monaghan’s performances this year to convince him
to remain at the helm.
"In my opinion, Monaghan played their best football by a country mile in 2010,” he said.
“In my opinion, a good football man would notice that. There is no
doubt that we played our best football. We improved more in 2010 than
we did in any other year.

"We stayed in Division 1 - which we hadn't been able to do in 20 years - and we made only our second Ulster final in 22 years."
‘Banty’ is hoping for an injection of new players ahead of next year’s campaign.
"Let's face it, we need to blood new players and we want to stay at the top table," he continued.

"We need time to do that and I believe we brought through three very
good players in 2010. I believe there are four or five fellas to follow
them, but they need a lot of work over the next 12 months."
Wasn't hard to see this coming.

unless things change at Congress this year I cant see Tyrone going down the Ulster route so the Ulster title should be there for the taking for Banty.

The player shave given their backing i wonder what the fans think and more importantly what does Grimley think about this????

In my opinion, there are 2 main questions that Monaghan had to answer before making this re-appointment.

Firstly, is the team still improving?

Secondly, are you confident that a new man could do any better?

My feeling is that they did improve in 2010, and also introduced some new blood. And I'm not convinced that anyone else could be getting much more out of them.

Therefore, I think that Monaghan were right to give Banty another term.

What will be even more interesting is where will Grimley be next season.

Have to admit I was very surprised by this, not so much the news that Banty stayed on but that he is taking a three-year term. I wasn't sure about him staying on but giving him a three year term is much better than simply "giving it another year", this was the case in the last few years and that wasn't giving much thinking to the long-term, now that it's settled at least he can plan ahead and blood a good few young players and that seems to be his intention, which is encouraging. A few were introduced in this year's league to great success and if the same happens next year I'll be happy.

As I said before I thought the time had come for Banty to step aside, he's done an awful lot for Monaghan football in taking us from the doldrums and into a consistently competitive team, but I felt the time had come for a new face to take us further. But having thought about it I'm not sure what all options were available. Grimley on his own seemed to be many's favourite, but he seems to be happy in his role as no. 2 wherever he is, and why not I suppose. He seems to get the credit when things go well and often avoids criticism when things go belly up(and he gets a tidy sum too!), not a bad way to be! Then again maybe he'll leave and manage another county and the reason is that we can't afford him anymore! There were a few native contenders bandied about, and while there are a couple there which would be good options in a few years, after a bit more experience, there's no home-grown manager at the minute who will do as good a job as Banty. I'm still sceptical enough but hopefully I'm proved wrong next year! The good thing about Banty staying on aswell is that the majority of the players will continue, I imagine we'll still see a retirement or two but we were looking at as much as 5-6 if he left. No word on the backroom team yet but I would say there'll be some sort of change there.

Well, he's gone now.

McEnaney won't seek reappointment

Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney with his players after the Ulster SFC semi final win over Fermanagh.
25 August 2010

Monaghan are looking for a new senior football manager following the announcement by Seamus McEnaney that he will not be allowing his name to go forward through the new nomination process that was decided on at a recent meeting of the county committee.

Prior to that meeting on Monday August 16th it was understood that McEnaney's reappointment would be proposed to the meeting but the upshot of a debate on the procedural matters that should apply to the appointment of team managers was that the county committee would seek nominations for the position of senior football, senior hurling and minor hurling team managers.

The nominations are due to be returned by the clubs before 6 p.m. on Friday September 3rd following which a special subcommittee will be set up to interview the nominees.

Seamus McEnaney was known to be unhappy to have to, as he put it, compete for a position that he had held for six years, and a position that he was willing to continue in, with the backing of the players and the perceived backing of the management committee.

The players issued a strongly worded statement in support of Seamus McEnaney continuing on as team manager but having given careful consideration to the position McEnaney came to the conclusion that he was not willing to compete for the position that he had held for six years.

Despite not winning an Ulster championship during his six years in charge McEnaney has an excellent record as Monaghan manager. When he took charge initially Monaghan were rated in the last five or six counties in the country whereas now they are among the top ranked teams in the country.

In his time he has steered Monaghan to promotion to Division 2 of the national football league and promotion twice to Division 1, once as Division 2 champions. He has reached the final of the Ulster senior football championship twice, 2007 and 2009, and has reached the final of the U21 championship and the Dr. McKenna Cup, as well as enjoying extended runs in the All Ireland qualifiers. This year Monaghan retained their Division 1 status in the national football league.

Seamus McEnaney released the following statement on Wednesday morning:

"Last week I released a statement that said I would take some time to think about the Monaghan county boards decision to open up the managers position for 2011 to nominations.

"Today I am confirming that I will not have my name submitted as a nominee for the managers position for 2011. I believe that this is in the best interest of Monaghan football and indeed every decision I have ever made as Monaghan team manager has been guided by that principle.

"I would like to thank the Monaghan county board and in particular John Connolly, the chairman who gave me the opportunity to manage my native county team, a post I was honoured and privileged to hold. Thank you to my club Corduff Gaels for their devoted support. I must also pay tribute to the Monaghan clubs, supporters and team sponsors all of whom contributed to the progress of Monaghan football. To every member of my backroom team and every person that helped in any way over the 6 years, only you know who you are, I am sincerely thankful. A special thanks to Niall McNally, who was my co-ordinator and a great help from day one.

"I would like to offer my sincere thanks to this group of players as their commitment, endeavour, attitude and loyalty to the progess of Monaghan football over the last 6 years has been enormous. The players are the jewel in the crown. We, as a management team strived to give them the best so that they could get the best out of themselves. We built and shared a special bond.

"I am leaving with a life-time of memories from the good days and bad. To give just a small example of the progess this group of players has given Monaghan football. I was one of only 20 Monaghan supporters in Carlow for a NFL game in February 2004 and to witness 20,000 Monaghan supporters in Clones in July 2010 highlights the incredible work these players have done. This progress has been driven from the front by our two outstanding captains, Vinny Corey and Damien Freeman.

"My family are steeped in the GAA, we love and support its activities at every level. My family have supported me totally on this wonderful journey. None more so than my wife Rosemarie and my four children, and for this I am very grateful to them. My time as manager brought many demands with it but also brought enormous enjoyment to our family life too.

"For a team to progess you need everybody going the one direction; management, players, county board, clubs, supporters and sponsors. This has been the solid foundation that has served us well over the last six years and it is with this that I would encourage everybody concerned to move on and continue to make further progress as the progression of Monaghan football is of the upmost importance at this time. I leave this post wishing the team every success in the year ahead."

MMM whats the story here - are the clubs in the county who want rid of him or why were the new procedures proposed????

I dont fully understand his reasons for not allowing his name to go forward - he has no god given right to the job and if he had as much support as is claimed then surely it was only a formality that he would get the job again, seems to me though he had his doubts he would be reappointed.

His decision comes across as kind of arrogant - though he's not alone in that regard as far as inter-county managers are concerned.

Yeah Boc the club delegates voted in favour of opening it up to nominations, 29 votes to 19 I think it was. Every other year if he wanted it the job was his basically as everybody was happy with that, but this year most seem to be looking for a change. I suppose he was looking for the 3 years to work with and most weren't happy with that length of time so he felt he wasn't interested anymore. Probably a bit insulted also that he would have to go through the whole process again but I definitely agree that noone has a god-given right to a job. He's given 6 years of his life to Monaghan(and he did put his body and soul into it) and it can't have been easy with a young family. All I can say is thanks Banty and good luck in your future endeavours.

Not sure how I feel about it to be honest, he's done an awful lot for Monaghan football but as I've said before I felt it was time for a new face. But thinking about it I wonder will anyone else do a better job, considering who we can realistically get(I don't think the budget for the management team will be as big again)? Alot of names being bandied about for the job at the minute and it's hard to see who's the most likely. I can see 4-5 players retiring now and that will leave us sparse in defence in particular, but we've a few promising players there and we will need to play them and a few other new players in next year's league in order to build up a good squad.

The situation is getting messier by the day now with Damien Freeman coming out this morning and calling for Banty to be reinstated. I really can't see what good can come of this, all it will serve to do imo is scare off potential new managers, as who wants to take on a panel who seem to want to call the shots. There's even rumours of strike action going on, which would be awful. The way I see it, there's panels and committees set up to deal with appointing new managers and the like, the players have finished with the county this year and are getting started in the thick of the club championship action, they should be focusing on that and that alone and never mind about the county for now.

Very tough for Monaghan people indeed MMM. I agree with the main points in both of your posts. After 6 years without a trophy, Banty should not have expected to be reinstated automatically. It is right that other options are considered, even if it amounts to nothing. As I said from the outset on this thread, I think that Banty was probbaly worth persevering with, but that should not be done blindly, and not without exploring other options.

A strike would be a disaster for Monaghan, and would probably finish off any momentum that they have built up over the last few years. The coming weeks are crucial for the long term future of this side, and I'd hate to see all their progress ruined by people making stupid decisions.

Interesting and strong comments from Paul Grimley in today's Irish Times .....

"Grimley has been an assistant/coach in Armagh, under Joe Kernan, when they won the All-Ireland in 2002, Cavan and Kildare, with Kieran McGeeney, but his loyalty to McEnaney prohibits him from seeking the Monaghan manager’s position.

“That’s a non-runner because Séamus McEnaney took me to Monaghan last year and I feel huge disappointment that the county board, or whoever, has seen fit to go to nominations.

“There is an argument here that Monaghan hasn’t won a provincial title but they have been in two finals during a period when Armagh and Tyrone have dominated. What other manager in six years has brought his team from the fourth to first division and stayed there?

“Okay, there is no silverware but only half a dozen teams over the last decade have been consistently winning things. In some counties success is measured in different ways and I think Séamus has performed miracles in Monaghan.

“He has brought this team from the gutters up to the big time. I’d say he feels hugely let down. The players, to their credit, have stood by him.”

Grimley criticised the county board for allowing the management team, which also included Martin McElkennon, to be disbanded. “Administrators come into their own at this time of year and sometimes inexperience can be a major problem in the boardroom. It doesn’t stop on the football field.

“You get delegates who have never put on a pair of boots in their life and suddenly at this time of year they are Jack O’Shea’s midfield partner.

“I would have to feel for Séamus. He is a man who is extremely passionate. I mean this man sacrificed his family life and business life. People close to him would know the cost to him is huge. To be treated in what I feel is an underhand way is nothing short of a disgrace.”

That's Grimley out of contention then, which is a shame as he was the favourite of many to take it over. Don't know who will come in now, not many will want to with the players acting up, that's probably cost us any chance a big name outside manager. Looks like it will be an inside man now, and while there's a couple there who are definitely potential county managers I didn't think there would was anyone ready for it yet. It will be interesting who is nominated for the position, I'd like to see it done quickly and smoothly but unfortunately that looks unlikely thanks to the players(or more to the point, a few of the senior players). They obviously feel strongly about it and were fully behind Banty which is fair, but I fail to see what can be achieved by saying all this now when he's already stepped down.

Eamonn McEneaney appointed as Monaghan manager. Contractual terms not known as yet...