He did an excellent job with them, reached a Leinster final (which I had completely forgotten about until I looked it up a couple of minutes ago) and got successive promotions in the League. Reached Round 4 of the qualifiers in 2019, beating Derry in Derry in the process.
Won an under-20 Munster title with Kerry in 2020 but stepped down from that job last winter. Lives in Laois and runs his own physiotherapy clinic there so work commitments might rule him out.
I don’t think they need much, just a fella who’ll pick half forwards at half forward, and won’t be looking in at 578 short kickouts thinking it’s a winning strategy. That kind of thing
It only really seems to be the ‘Big 3’ of Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary that are going for that managerial template of fellows around the 60 mark who were playing in the 1980’s.
The standard of management in football as a whole has gone down a good bit from a few years ago.
The Dublin, Donegal and Kerry managers are all pretty average. I don’t think its a coincidence that Tyrone and Mayo made the final. They have the best management of any of the teams you could conceivably imagine reaching a final, which I suppose just about includes Galway and Monaghan. Although Horan blotted his copybook in a big way on Saturday.
A good manager makes a huge difference. Look at the difference Rory Gallagher made to Derry this year. You wouldn’t write them off winning Ulster next year. Look at Mickey Graham last year. Even John Maughan with Offaly at a lower level.
Jim Gavin, Jim McGuinness, Malachy O’Rourke, Stephen Rochford, Kevin Walsh, John Sugrue, none of these guys are currently over inter-county teams and are obviously superior to the vast majority of what’s out there at the moment.