Hunt for new Westmeath football manager begins as clubs axe Bealin

Club power reigned supreme in Cusack Park last night, as the 12-month reign of Westmeath senior football manager Paul Bealin came to an end at a fractious county board meeting.

Clubs voted 37-12 to oust the Dubliner, with a groundswell of delegates expressing dissatisfaction with the end result of his first year at the helm, in which Westmeath lost all 12 of their competitive football games.

They also backed a new five-man committee which will look into appointing Bealin's successor, and demanded better structures for recruiting a manager with a "proven track record".

The committee will include county board chairman Sean Sheridan, secretary James Savage, vice-chairman Ken Eades and football committee chief Liam Gavin, while former Tang and Westmeath player Paul Conway - who was not present at the meeting - was also invited to join.

Conway was proposed by Moate All-Whites delegate Seamus McLoughlin, after clubs agreed that a former player with recent experience of the inter-county scene would be a desirable addition to the committee.

Though he made it through a management committee meeting on Tuesday night, things looked bleak for Bealin early in the ratification process, when chairman Sheridan asked for – but didn't receive – a proposer and seconder for the incumbent.

Instead, the Tyrrellspass clubman was bombarded with questions about Bealin's performance this year.

"Does his record stand?" asked Bunbrosna's Eddie Newman, prompting Mr Sheridan to defend the former Wexford boss for implementing a "very professional system".

"Did the system work though?" asked Garrycastle's Michael Mannion, while Mullingar Shamrocks delegate Terry O'Dowd criticised the management setup from minor to senior level.

Mr O'Dowd slammed Bealin for his post-match comments following the Leinster SFC defeat at the hands of Louth, in which the former All-Ireland winning Dublin star bemoaned a "lack of leadership" on the field.

"Well a number of people came to me afterwards and asked where the leadership was on the line," the Shamrocks clubman said.

As the chorus of detractors grew in size, Athlone delegate Niall Lynch stressed that nobody was attacking Bealin personally; rather, they wanted a fresh start, and for "best practice" to be put in place for the appointment of a new manager.

The chairman, however, insisted that the county board had "scoured the country" for a successor to Pat Flanagan last year. They approached over a dozen potential candidates, and for various reasons, ended up with only three contenders.

Mr Sheridan expressed fears that if Westmeath "kept changing their manager every year", top managers would run a mile from the job.

Ultimately, football committee chairman Liam Gavin proposed that a committee be set up to find and appoint a new manager.

Seamus McLoughlin (Moate) then moved that Bealin and Westmeath part company, at which point county board assistant secretary Pat Reilly and treasurer Joe Martin proposed the opposite, necessitating a vote.

After a motion to hold a secret ballot was defeated, clubs proceeded with the vote, ousting Bealin 37-12.

After the ballot, the chairman paid tribute to the outgoing Westmeath boss, describing him as "a professional… a true gent and a good businessman".

"He came all the way from Castletown in Co. Wexford. Fifty cents a mile [expenses] nearly wouldn't pay him, but he came anyway and didn't ask for a penny more," Mr Sheridan said.