Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney has agreed to stay on as manager of the Monaghan football team for another three years.
His appointment is expected to be ratified at a meeting of the County Board on Monday night.
At a meeting of the Management Committee last Sunday night, McEnaney, who has been in charge of the Farney men for six years, only allowed his name to go forward for the managerial position on the basis that he would be granted a three year extension.
Monaghan exited the championship in disappointing fashion this summer, falling to a defeat by Kildare in Round 4 of the qualifiers only six days after losing the Ulster Final to Tyrone.
Despite the disappointing exit, however, McEnaney saw plenty of encouraging signs in Monaghan’s performances this year to convince him to remain at the helm.
“In my opinion, Monaghan played their best football by a country mile in 2010,†he said.
“In my opinion, a good football man would notice that. There is no doubt that we played our best football. We improved more in 2010 than we did in any other year.
“We stayed in Division 1 – which we hadn’t been able to do in 20 years – and we made only our second Ulster final in 22 years.”
‘Banty’ is hoping for an injection of new players ahead of next year’s campaign.
“Let’s face it, we need to blood new players and we want to stay at the top table,” he continued.
“We need time to do that and I believe we brought through three very good players in 2010. I believe there are four or five fellas to follow them, but they need a lot of work over the next 12 months.”
