O’Rourke was given a three-year term when he replaced Any McEntee, subject to a review after two years.
That review has been ongoing since soon after the team’s championship exit to Monaghan in June.
In the meantime two of his selectors, former players Barry Callaghan and Stephen Bray, decided not to go forward again.
O’Rourke has confirmed his departure to the ‘Irish Independent’ and says his work to make coaching additions was at an advanced stage.
But he was not in a position to declare a new backroom team in time for a Meath Management Committee meeting tomorrow (Monday) night because those who he said were coming on board were still involved with clubs and he did not want to compromise that.
Meath’s Management Committee had met and discussed the review at a meeting last week but pushed a conclusion on by a further 11 days to give him more time to put a backroom in place.
They wanted the structure and identity of his new backroom team in time for tomorrow night’s meeting. A recommendation was then to be put to the clubs on Tuesday night.
O’Rourke, the two-time All-Ireland winner and well known former ‘Sunday Game’ analyst and ‘Sunday Independent’ columnist, decided not to continue on, chiefly because of that deadline. He wanted more time to complete his additions.
His two years in charge brought mixed results with a Tailteann Cup win last year overshadowing underwhelming championship performances.
Meath did retain Division 2 status in both years and there was significant change in personnel during that time.
Among the local candidates sure to be linked with the vacancy will be Kilmacud Crokes’ 2023 All-Ireland club winning manager Robbie Brennan, who lives in Dunboyne and has strong Meath connections, and Cathal O Bric, the county’s All-Ireland winning minor manager in 2021 who followed that up with a Leinster U-20 success, Meath’s first in 23 years, earlier this year.
O’Rourke was keen to bring O Bric in as part of the senior management for 2025 with a view to paving the way for him to take over in future years but O Bric has remained committed to the U-20s.
O’Rourke’s former Meath colleague Bernard Flynn and Michéal McDermott, who has managed Clare in the past and guided Wolfe Tones to a Meath title in 2021, sought the position two years ago and may be interested again.
Meath has only once appointed a manager from outside the county when Seamus McEnaney was in charge in 2011 and 2012.