Meath silent on Geraghty row

Meath football manager Eamonn Barry continues to hold off on making any public comment on the alleged disagreement with Graham Geraghty after a challenge match against Antrim last Saturday.

The manager and the player were reported to have had a falling-out in the dressingroom after the game, and as a result Geraghty failed to show for training last Tuesday - prompting immediate rumour that he'd ended his long links with the team.

"I won't be making comment on this," said Barry yesterday. "It's not for public discussion. No one with the team will be making any comment on it, because it's purely a team affair. Right now it's purely a matter for the team management and the player."

Barry has already lost the services of Geraghty's fellow All-Ireland winners of 1996, Trevor Giles and Darren Fay, and admitted yesterday that he had "given up hope" of those two returning.

Yet Geraghty had been one of the first players to back Barry when he took over from Seán Boylan late last year, and was the only remaining link from that 1996 team.

Last Saturday's row was apparently related to an incident with the match referee Jim Smith, who was also at the centre of Geraghty's lengthy 48-week ban in 2003.

Other sources in Meath have indicated that no contact has been made with Geraghty since Saturday, and the management were expecting him to come forward to make an apology if the matter was to be resolved.

Galway captain Padraig Joyce will miss Sunday's Connacht FBD League final against old rivals Mayo at Tuam Stadium.

Joyce, currently abroad on a holiday, is just one of several players unavailable to Galway manager Peter Ford.

Ford will have to plan without college players Alan Burke, Micheál Meehan, Niall Coyne and Fiachra Breathnach as these have already played in the competition for either NUIG or GMIT.