Former Meath star Anthony Moyles has criticised the Offaly county board for the way they dealt with the sacking of Stephen Wallace.
Wallace was sacked on Wednesday evening after the county’s Leinster SFC championship exit at the hands of Wicklow.
Speaking on the Saturday Panel, Moyles believes Offaly’s position on Wallace’s disciplinary issues did not help team stability.
“I’d say it was a case of saying: ‘let’s put our hands together and pray we get over Wicklow’,” Moyles told OTB.
“To be honest – the whole thing is a bit of a mess. It’s a mess in the sense that nobody stood up at the time and said this was a pretty big disciplinary issue – no matter what way he wants to play it down because he was playing it down.
“He can’t get involved like that especially with his profile of being an inter-county manager whether it’s family or whoever is playing. You can say we all lose the head but you have to draw the line on something like that.
“The Offaly county board should have and probably could have said: ‘no we can’t have a situation like that where we have a fellow who’s managing the team’.
“If they then chose to back him then they should have backed him for the three years. I heard him saying it’s not Offaly’s God given right to beat Wicklow and he’s right about that for me. I think they’ve won one game in Leinster in the last 10 years.”
Ex-Down forward Danny Hughes also gave his opinion on the matter and believes the players should have been able to perform better without their manager on the touchline.
“You obviously have a county board that are being swayed by public opinion, disciplinary [reasons] or whatever else,” Hughes said.
“And the players themselves –and I would very much be in the players’ corner – there might be six or seven who are discontented. And even with the strongest management team you’ll have boys walk in or out and they won’t be happy.
“Your captain, vice captain and your senior players need to be very strong and for me they haven’t been strong. And that’s probably why they’ve been beat by Wicklow.
“But I think there’s a perfect storm here; county board, Wallace himself and the players. The players haven’t been strong enough either.
“As characters, they either back their manager and say to the county board: ‘do absolutely nothing. We want to see the season through here and then go and make the decisions’”.
Written by James Hopper
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