So Cian O’Neill’s transfer to his native county is complete, presenting Kildare with a new football manager, and leaving Kerry without a coach and selector.
O'Neill was ratified for the Kildare position last night, his name only emerging over the weekend as a potential successor to Jason Ryan.
He has opted for a three-year term with his native county, where he’s already both played and managed at club level.
A case then of Kerry's loss and Kildare's gain. O'Neill was effectively head-hunted by Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice when he took charge at the end of 2012, and for good reason. Renowned for his expertise in strength and conditioning, O'Neill started out with the Limerick footballers, before spending four years with the Tipperary hurlers (including their All-Ireland win in 2010), then spent one year with the Mayo footballers.
O’Neill was, interestingly, one of the first “outside” appointments in Kerry football, and built up a close relationship with Fitzmaurice, the highlight being the All-Ireland win in 2014. That entire management team had intended to stick together for another year in the aftermath of this year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin.
Fitzmaurice will now need to find an additional selector for 2016 (O’Neill also served as fitness coach). Not that there will be any shortage of candidates.
Senior hurling
It was also confirmed that former Limerick goalkeeper
Joe Quaid
would take over the Kildare senior hurling position, also for the next three years.
Two more prominent managerial vacancies are close to being filled, although the Cork County Board last night asked for more time before announcing football and hurling appointments for 2016.
A meeting of the county board ended with updates on the appointments, although no names went for ratification, with early next week now being the mooted likely date.
It’s over two months since Brian Cuthbert stepped down as Cork senior football manager. Leading to race to succeed him is Ronan McCarthy, from the Douglas club, who worked as a selector with Cuthbert this year, and would therefore represent some degree of continuity.
Also known to be considered by the county board was Ehphie Fitzgerald of Nemo Rangers, and Ned English from the Duhallow club, although John Cleary, Cork’s successful under-21 manager and the original favourite to succeed Cuthbert, has once again removed himself from contention.
There was some confusion over Cleary’s exact intentions; he was the frontrunner, then withdrew his name, only for reports to emerge that he had been convinced to put his name forward once again. However Clearly, the 1990 All-Ireland winner, since confirmed his withdrawal from the race.
A selector
Cork are also facing the onerous task of filling the Cork hurling manager position left vacant by Jimmy Barry-Murphy. He only announced he was stepping down at the end of the August, over a month after Cork’s hurling championship exit to Galway. Leading the list of candidates to replace Barry-Murphy are Tomás Mulcahy, the 1990 All-Ireland winning captain and more recently
Sunday Game
analyst, and Kieran Kingston, who worked as a selector and coach with Barry-Murphy.
