A number of Westmeath clubs are unhappy that Jack Cooney was overlooked for the football manager's position.

Tom Cribbin was ratified as the Lake County's new manager on Tuesday night after being put forward by the selection committee. However, not everyone at the county board meeting was in favour of the appointment, with some maintaining that the former county midfielder and selector - who had reportedly lined up John Keane and Martin Flanagan as his selectors - should have been given the job.

Cooney's Coralstown/Kinnegad club colleague Joe O'Keeffe is quoted on westmeathtopic.ie as saying: "We are exporting our best managers up to Kildare. I'm very disappointed leaving here tonight that three of our finest players, one who even won an All Star, didn't get the job. I'd like to put that on record."

Athlone delegate Niall Lynch said: "I think it's a regressive step; it's no reflection on the new appointment, but these are the sentiments of our own club. I'm deeply disappointed that they didn't get the job, to be quite frank."

Killucan's Alan Leech, meanwhile, expressed "shock" that no count was taken on the appointment of Cribbin, who was elected on a show of hands.

"We were half an hour counting the last night," he said regarding the vote that was taken on Peter Leahy's failed appointment last month.

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