FORMER Meath great Bernard Flynn has lashed the Meath county board for the manner in which it has handled both the removal and replacement of Eamonn O'Brien as county manager, claiming it is a new county board rather than a new county management team that Meath football should be looking for.

Meath are the only county yet to appoint a manager for 2011 and while Seamus 'Banty' McEnaney will finally be presented to club delegates next Wednesday as the nominated choice of the county executive, Flynn contends that McEnaney's appointment is not a formality because the clubs may once again use their vote on the issue as a form of protest against the executive.

"We've become a laughing stock and the only reason Seamus McEnaney is finally being put forward next week is because of all the bad press and attention we've been getting. They were embarrassed into proposing him only because Meath football has been humiliated so much by all this.

"The Meath county board got away with blue murder for 25 years because they had the great Seán Boylan as county manager, covering it all. The board haven't moved on from the Boylan era and the way they continue to conduct their business is embarrassing.

"Over the last few years I must have met more than a dozen former Meath footballers still actively involved in football who have commented to me that the whole set-up is a joke without coming out and saying it. Well, I'll say it. The whole thing needs to be shaken up by dynamic, young, progressive people like a director of football and clean out all the deadwood that is there.

"A few years ago Colm O'Rourke made a detailed presentation with a brilliant five-year plan and vision for Meath football and was basically laughed at. We had Eamonn Barry almost finished before he started as manager [in 2005-2006]. Then the board went about appointing a successor to Colm Coyle. Then you had this year's Leinster final fiasco. They left it to the players and management to make the hard call, not because they wanted to consult with the players or managers but because they ran for cover themselves, they hadn't the courage to show some leadership themselves.

"Eamonn O'Brien should have got another year as county manager. It should never have even got to the floor but when his name was put forward the vote was 32-29 against, not because there were 32 people against Eamonn O'Brien; it was a vote against the board. He was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire of the politics of the Meath county board. The same could happen to Banty next week.

"It's very unfair on everyone how drawn out it has become, especially Gerry Cooney [McEnaney's rival candidate] who is a very intelligent and sincere man."

The position was supposed to have been filled at a county board meeting last week but that was cancelled after McEnaney's nomination was stalled by the 14-man management committee. Last Thursday, however, that committee agreed to put McEnaney's name forward. Flynn though, for one, thinks it is no fait accompli for the former Monaghan manager.

"There will be delegates who will vote against Banty because they're against the idea of an outside manager and there will be others who'll vote against him because they're so fed up with the board. And they have reason to because until the board is reformed and freshened up we won't be nearly as consistent or formidable a football force as we should. Meath needs serious direction from the top and what's there is not going to give us it."

The likelihood is McEnaney's nomination will sail through. No one has the stomach to enter into another round of interviews and negotiations. The players, while hardly the most militant bunch, will only stand for so much while Cooney has probably moved on at this stage too. Whether the executive stay in place after next month's convention is another matter. Flynn for one would prefer to see a cleanout at the top table.