Gerry McEntee has refuted claims made by former Tyrone manager Art McRory that the Meath team of the 1990s indulged in sledging.

In a strongly-worded letter to the Sunday Independent, the legendary midfielder and well-known surgeon hit back at claims made by McRory in last week's edition of the newspaper that Meath had a simple target of  "targeting the top player on the other team and everyone within 20 metres of him would hit him with everything they had".

McEntee wrote: "It is not only factually incorrect, but an insult to the intelligence and integrity of Sean Boylan, a man that I never once heard encourage any form of physical or verbal intimidation in the 10 years I had the privilege of playing under his guidance.

"I can guarantee that all the players under his stewardship at national and international level could put their hands on their heart and say likewise."

The Nobber man added: "It seems that Art has never got over Tyrone's 1996 All-Ireland semi-final defeat on his watch, and the late tackle that John McDermott put in on Peter Canavan which was exactly that, a late tackle, but was dealt with by the referee at the time as he saw fit.

"I am sure that there are a number of teams or individuals who 'suffered' at the hands of Tyrone during their hard-earned and well deserved three All-Irelands, but I hope they will have got over it 20 years later.

"As for his view that he knows 'of no manager who would . . . tolerate it' (sledging), let's wait and see how the Tyrone minor management, which includes Ryan McMenamin, a self-proclaimed 'sledger', deal with the claim by Donegal's Declan Bonner that their captain Michael Carroll was subjected to vile verbal abuse by two Tyrone minor players. . . That's the second allegation of verbal abuse made against a Tyrone underage team in the past month."

Tweet

Most Read Stories