Westmeath U21 hurling manager Adrian Moran has described his “disbelief” at being dismissed from his post.
Moran, who guided the Lake County to a historic triumph over Kilkenny in last year’s Leinster U21HC quarter-final, was informed by the county board of their decision to replace him with senior manager Michael Ryan this week.
Speaking to RTE Sport yesterday, the Ringtown clubman revealed that he wasn’t given a meeting to discuss the situation.
“Disbelief and disappointment is the feeling amongst all management as I contacted them last night,” Moran told RTÉ Sport.
“We as a group felt that we had more to offer and at least deserved a meeting with the County Board as I previously requested by email to discuss possible future plans and proposals which we were excited about.”
He added: “This is a job that nobody wanted in 2016. The feeling was that 2015 didn’t go well and it was impossible for one management team to run two squads.
“After a senior inter-county match in February 2016 it was brought to our attention that the county board had exhausted all avenues to find an U21 manager to prepare a squad to take on Kilkenny in the first round.
“Darren McCormack and I with the help of physio Niamh Guy, sports performance coach Denis Coen and stats man Tomas Mount took on the task of preparing a panel.”
Westmeath chairman Sean Sheridan has defended the decision, saying: “After reviewing the situation between football and hurling, we felt the one management team between senior and U21 was the best going forward in the interests of Westmeath GAA.”
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