Back to square one again. Don't know whether it's a good or bad thing. Where do we go from here!?

Get a Meathman for a start,McEntee or Giles

I dont post a lot but the following has to be said. Banty is right to leave the job after the way the County Board Mafia treated him. He did a decent job with average players. Even after the debacle of the league campaign, he still managed to blood some talent in. In my opinion it remains to be seen if a manager with the right credentials is within the county, but until there is a change in leadership both on and off the pitch, Meath will remain in the doldrums for years to come.2001 seems a lifetime ago and what changes have happened in the intervening years...none, as it went from one dictatorship to another at the top and the result of that is no success at any level. We need people like Flynn, Beggy McEntee, Dowd etc getting involved in an administration capacity if they don't wish to get involved on the managerial side of things as they are proven winners and will freshen up things. Anyway best of luck to the Banty for the future.

Good thing...fair dues to the way he handled himself during the madness in Spring butI feel that he is not the man to pull us together and drive us forward

God this is a brilliant trend we have of changing manager every 2 years. God love the man that takes the job next, no matter what he does it wont be good enough

The day McEntee takes the Meath manager job I'm bringing friends and family to a pre-emptive dinner to celebrate winning Sam the following year

Not Suprised at his decision particularly if hes in for Monaghan job as that will
Be a three year gig.

Royalultra84 i agree with most of what you said but how on this Earth can you possibly come up with Dowd (Brutal managerial record) , Beggy (Brutal stints at bad clubs and no interest) and Bernard Flynn ( Never was involved with clubs and has made it clear is chose journalism over managing) as managing prospects? There are only two Meath men that are serious contenders for the job as manager, Sean Kelly and Gerry McEntee. As for backroom staff, well thats anothers days work, nobody knows if county board will want a say or if the managers can bring in there own team.

banty showed serious passion and loyalty to his players and i admire him for this, ultimately didnt work out for him but he gave it his all so owed thanks for that

getting seriously tired of this managerial switching, this will do us no good, i would like to see a manager get a 5 year term with a leinster title and all ireland final within the 5 year as the terms. Please god they choose a manager quickly and they get to see the club championships and get set up.

personally id like to see either boylan or eamon a brien in with giles and geraghty in background getting experience.

kelly, dempsey will be another 2 year tenure mark my words

great news for meath football,sean kelly would be my choice to take over

iamurdad fair point. I don't think McEntee will get involved due to his involvement with St Brigids, what about Carr he won a club All-Ireland with Kilmacud. I think there is a serious overhaul needed from the way all gaelic games is run in the county. Club football is a joke, the MDL is better ran at least the lads playing soccer know they will playing every week, until you have a solid club structure and championship it will be hard to develop the county team. If you look at Dublin they continue to play games regardless with how the Dubs are doing likewise Cork, Kerry Donegal etc

We can't can't fault Banty for passion or lack of effort, I think it would be very unfair to do so, he tried a different style of football with pretty average players and it just didn't work, but thanks for the effort anyway.

It was a no brainer for him to walk away because only a Leinster title would have saved him job this year and he knew well that he'd never survive another vote so common sense prevailed.

As for our next manager, I'd love to McEntee taking the job but I can't see him having the time or commitment, Sean Kelly wouldn't be a bad option either. But anyway lets stay firmly grounded here, no manager is going to turn these lads into champions, all we can really hope for is steady improvement and sweeping changes at county board level, otherwise.........more of the same.

Best of luck to Banty it didn't work out for whatever reason! It's time to move on now I'd love to see Giles get a shot physio/selector/manager lol! Mcantee if he'd take the job would be great but I don't know would he have the time to commit with his job!

With banty now officaly gone ,the CB should call a EGM and resign ,allowing for a complete overhaul to take place ASAP

How long will it take the county board to appoint a manager this time . Knowing the recent histroy of the Meath County Board they will make a bags of it . Barry , Coyle , O'Brien , Banty , in the space of a few years we're a bit of a joke . Meath clubs would want to look at who they are voting in as their delegates to the County board . To many fella's that are living in the past getting voted in . Until this changes Meath football will remain the same "in the past" .

Good luck banty and thank you

McEntee seems the popular consensus but he's a leading Irish surgeon so don't see how he'd have the time for what has almost become a full time job managing an Inter County team

Not that I'd discount any Meathmen whose names are being bandied about but just for a different angle on things, surely since we've now broken the mould and gone outside the county we can consider outsiders for the new vacancy. Not sure how logistics worked for Evans when he came on board but he'd be a strong candidate for me if he was interested. Also the modern trend of appointing a recently retired intercounty player hasn't done Donegal or Kildare any harm nor Laois last Saturday - could there be other such candidates out there? Glen Ryan doing a nice job with Longford, has Vinny Claffey managed many teams?

I honestly don't care who gets the Meath job.
The county is a joke at present.
Who's going to want it from outside the county and who from within the county is good enough?

I've said it before if you are looking to hire a manager for a company and are forced to promote from within you tie your own hands behind your back.

We win our first Leinster in 9 years and we get rid of the manager.
We get our first outsider in and he endures constant pressure and questioning before a ball is kicked.
He's gone after two years.
We were spoiled with Sean Boylan but since then we've had more managers than Chelsea.
There is a ridiculous amount of unfounded expectation in this county.
Yes Meath should not be relegated to Div 3 but any new manager will need time to CHANGE things and this does not happen over night.
We live in an age where people are judged by every kick, shot and pass they make.

This is not a defense of Banty but more frustration that there is no time afforded to management to evolve a team that needs to change.
Some of the loons on here jump from Meath being the worst team ever to potential All-Ireland winners depending on the result the previous Sunday.
What is the county chairman doing in the dugout at matches???
How can anyone expect to manage a Meath team that has the chairman sitting beside them at matches?

I don't blame Banty for stepping down and I would have liked to see him stay for another year as much to bring some stability to the set-up and bring on Evans, Giles, Geraghty etc.

First thing that needs to be done is get rid of the entire county board no disrespect to the men involved but they have all been involved too long. The county board needs a fresh voice from someone who has never been involved before. Being fair to banty he never stood a chance with the chairman in charge. Manager wise gerry mac seems to be a favourite amongst fans but timewise I don't think he would commit maybe a role similar to the role he has with st brigids would be ideal from talking to a few brigids men the said he not only transformed the fortunes of the adult teams but also done it for underage structures within the club and that is exactly what is needed in meath football at the moment the whole lot needs to be ripped apart and rebuilt. The new manager needs to be appointed as soon as possible to give him time to get his panel together we need to be playing close as possible to our probable championship 15 in all the league games so we are not left with a situation 2/3 weeks before championship not knowing who are best 15 are. I personally think we need a dedicated trainer to look after the fitness and conditioning side of things and then a manager and selector whose sole responsibility is to implement a game plan that Will bring the best out of our current players. An awful lot of names are being thrown about but as we all know if the current county board decides on who the new manager is we Will only get someone who Will bow to there every command and we as fans Will be left to endure another bad year. Finally my choices for a complete transformation of meath football would be colm o rourke - chairman county board. Gerry mcentee - director of football to oversee change to all football structures to include underage development. John Evans - manager there was no coincidence with our upturn in performance when he arrived aswell look what he done with tipperary he transformed there football fortunes and if we are honest we are at a similar low ebb as tipperary were when he took over. Trevor Giles - selector whose knowledge of forward play is something we need to tap into to a greater extent than we did this year. Mark o reilly - selector bit of a wild card here but he was a tigerish defender who never gave a forward an inch and we need somebody to instill that defensive mind into our players because lets be honest apart from keoghan our backs are too loose. Colm Brady - trainer he done a great job a few years ago so lets get him back. Finally with regard to underage management lets get former players involved look at Dublin and especially at minor with dessie farrell involved how well they do

am with RoyalROver on this. I mightn't agree with all the nominations but many of them. However RR's principle is right. Now its up to the clubs to get this underway. Time to lobby the clubs. No point musical chairs we need a clear out and new energy. There has to be a lot of people who would get involved but who are out off by the current set up