Andy McEntee: I’m f*cking raging, to tell you the truth. I’m absolutely f*cking raging

Antrim manager Andy McEntee has condemned the implementation of the Football Rules Committee’s (FRC) changes to the game.

Former Meath boss McEntee is still fuming about a decision against his team during the first half of their Division 3 defeat to Laois in Portlaoise on Saturday. A free was reversed against an Antrim player who was deemed to have taken too much time in taking the solo-and-go option after being fouled.

As managers wait to learn what amendments are made to the new rules on the back of Monday’s FRC meeting, McEntee doesn’t hold out much hope the communication from the body will be clear enough to be understood in games. “They (FRC) have already changed some of the rules and we haven’t been informed about them, only to find out on match-day,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“I’m fucking raging, to tell you the truth. I’m absolutely fucking raging. The behaviour and the treatment we got at the weekend. We were told the rule had been changed on the tap-and-go. A midfielder gets dragged down in the middle of the pitch. He’s lying face down on the ground, he gets up. I went back and timed it in my video analysis – within three seconds he’s up and going again – and the referee blew up his whistle and he awards them a free.

“While we’re all charging up the field, they go down the other end and get a score. They win the kick-out and they get another score and do it again. We were on a run but the momentum totally changed.

“I asked one of the officials, ‘How can the tap-and-go be turned over if you don’t take it within the time allowed?’ My understanding was that it’s four seconds from a standing position. It was also my understanding if you didn’t take it within the time allowed, it was a normal free or the worst case scenario you’d throw up the ball.

“Yet he turns around and gives them a free and it changes the course of the rest of the half. To be really pissed off, a similar situation happened with Laois and he sent them back to take the free.”

McEntee contacted the FRC and was informed no such tweak had been made to the rule. “The official told me at the weekend that they changed the rule with the amount of time allowed for the tap-and-go. I said, ‘Surely somebody should be telling us this?’ I rang Jim Gavin to see if there was a change in the application of the rule and he said absolutely not. So where do we go here?” McEntee, who led Ballyboden St Enda’s to an All-Ireland senior club title in 2018, said the lack of information contrasts with the FRC’s public defence of their work. “It seems to me there is such a campaign. I was getting a bit fucking nauseated. They’re ramming it down your throat.

“I had comments to make after a challenge game earlier in the year and the following morning I got a call from a member of the FRC. It felt like Big Brother was watching you, as if ‘how dare you?’”

He predicts the high scoring currently being experienced in the Allianz Leagues will translate to significantly lopsided results in the provincial championships. “Just because there are 23, 24 scores from teams in a game doesn’t mean it’s great. At least the games at the moment are even. When the championship starts, there are going to be unmerciful hammerings. All these new rules do is help the stronger teams.”

McEntee said the application of the three-up rule has been infuriating, citing an Antrim example as well as Galway’s two-point free, which levelled their game against Tyrone in Tuam on Sunday. “Look at what happened to Tyrone. It seems to me listening to the radio that a Galway selector informed the referee that Tyrone who had a player [Peter Teague] coming back on after a black card had only two men up. I mean, how fucking crazy is that?

“We got done for an accidental crossover at the weekend. He wasn’t getting involved. The guy just happened to wander over the line, he wasn’t involved and we conceded a two-pointer. A Laois player runs back to join the defence, somebody shouts at him, he’s six yards into the half and he runs back and it’s missed.” Currently, the clock/hooter is not in operation in Division 3 and 4. Based on another bad experience in Portlaoise this past weekend, McEntee suggested it will be a welcome experience for Antrim in the championship.

“We were two points down and a fella gets fouled on the 21-yard line. A player asked the referee how much time is left. He said we had one more play. So we kicked it outside the arc, passed it around trying to get a shot away and he blows the final whistle.

“Now I have to keep my players away from him because if something is said there will be a suspension. That’s just not fair, It’s against the spirit of everything. Why would you say that?”

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