Dennehy clarifies St Brigid's position

Roscommon County Board have clarified statements that suggested Frankie Dolan's club St Brigid's argued for his reinstatement on the county panel. County secretary Frank Dennehy said yesterday that a meeting on Monday night between the club and county officers did not discuss the matter and that there had never been any threat of the club withdrawing its players from the county panel.

"Three of the club met with three members of the county board on Monday night and they never asked for Frankie Dolan to come back on the panel and there was no question of St Brigid's withdrawing players from the panel. Looking to bring Frankie Dolan back on the panel was never under discussion," said Dennehy.

His comments were made following a report and headline in yesterday's The Irish Times stating that the club had sought Dolan's return to the county panel from which he was removed last week following an altercation with county selector Séamus Killoran.

The confusion arose from Dennehy's statement that discussion of the player's position had been ruled out as a precondition of Monday's meeting: "We had a frank and cordial discussion," he was quoted as saying in yesterday's paper, "but on the remit, which we made clear beforehand, that Frankie Dolan would not be returning to the panel. That decision is up to the management. We listened to them and will again but nothing came of it really."

The club, however, have denied that there were preconditions or that they lobbied for Dolan's return to the panel. Dennehy himself yesterday clarified his statement.

"There was no precondition to the meeting. The meeting was held out of courtesy." Asked had he been misquoted, the county secretary replied: "The wrong impression must have been taken - I'm not accusing anyone of misquoting me. All I want clarified is that at no stage did St Brigid's ask for the player to come back. We'd no authority to say 'yes' or 'no' anyway. That's the manager's job."

Monday's meeting followed the dropping of Dolan from the panel last week and a subsequent statement from the club regretting the altercation but taking issue with the hostile attitude of Killoran to St Brigid's players. The club had raised their concerns about this matter three times already this year and Dennehy acknowledged that it had been an issue on Monday night.

"That was a part of it but the county board appoints these fellas and I've never seen interference with management from a county board. In the heat of a match on the sideline you're always going to get comments. Otherwise we'd all be living in a church somewhere. The county board appoints a management team and lets them get on with it."

According to the club last night, St Brigid's concern is for the well being of Roscommon football and they don't want any further distraction from the weekend's qualifier.