Football Board gives green light for new manager

The first members of Westmeath GAA to hear formally of the identity of the new county manager were Football Board delegates, who met at Cusack Park in Mullingar on Tuesday night of last week.However once Monaghan man Brendan Hackett's name was out, the discussion turned to whether or not there was any undiscovered talent playing at ranks below senior around the county.In nominating the former AAI CEO for the post, Football Board Chairman, Des Maguire said that the arrival of Brendan Hackett would herald a new dawn for Westmeath. "The feeling of the County Board was that the committee should look outside the county," he said, before going on to recount how the committee drew up a set of criteria they wanted met. They started off with a list of seven candidates, which they then whittled down to two, and finally, to one name.Mr. Maguire outlined the details of Brendan Hackett's career, which included stints managing Thomond College from 1981 to 1983; Leixlip from 1983 to 1985; Longford from 1987 to 1990, and Offaly from 1990 to 1992.In addition, the new Westmeath manager was trainer of the Irish Compromise Rules team that won the 1990 series, before obtaining a qualification in sports psychology, and becoming sports psychologist to a number of Irish teams."He's mad to get back into football," Mr. Maguire said. adding that Mr. Hackett had been with the backroom team in Monaghan GAA last year, and with the Dublin team this year, and was anxious to get back into management..Mr. Maguire said that Mr. Hackett has stated that he wants 9-10 people picked, half from each end of the county, to scout at junior, intermediate and senior level."He has done a bit of research and feels there's a lot of untapped talent in Westmeath, and he will assess players every Friday for the next couple of months," he said.John Cunningham, Ballymore said he was impressed with the detail given, and would be happy to propose Brendan Hackett as manager.The Chairman assured the delegates Mr. Hackett believed that within the county, clubs "should be No. 1. He thinks players should be playing club football at all times. He says why deny them? Clubs don't want to be denied their players," he stated.Paddy Whelehan, St. Marys was of the view that there should be "no hesitation" in appointing a committee to look out for players for Mr. Hackett."I never went to as many matches as I did this year, and there's fine young players all around the county, and they're not being picked up and they're mad to play for their county" he said.Seamus Ennis, Ballinagore was glad to hear that the manager was on a three year contract. But he didn't agree that there was a lot of untapped talent out there. I go to a lot of our games and I don't think there's that much talent out there," he said.Richie Brown, Maryland agreed: "I think Westmeath is going to go through a lean time. The talent is just not really there. We just don't seem to have the talent when the older fellows move on. You won't coach a lad that there's no football in. They're born," he said.John Cunningham countered this by saying he had seen players who could have played at minor level but who didn't end up on the panel. "Some of them are outstanding. They're sticking out a mile. I firmly believe there are guys out there that haven't been picked up," he said.Paddy Whelehan, before seconding the proposal to ratify Mr. Hackett, said that serious consideration needed to go into the minor and U-21 managers positions, a point supported by Christo Bradley, also St. Marys.Mr. Bradley went on to ask what Mr. Hackett's position is on dual players. "Believe it or not, there's a committee being formed to look at that particular area because we feel it's an issue. Tom Farrell is drawing up that committee to see where we're falling down on the dual end of things" said Mr. Maguire.Immediately after the Football Board, at a meeting of the County Committee, Mr. Hackett was formally endorsed as Westmeath senior football manager for the next three years.