TWO MORE YEARS FOR KIELY
JOHN KIELY is set to be given a new two-year term as manager of All-Ireland hurling champions Limerick.
The Limerick County Board confirmed that an executive committee meeting had approved a new term for Kiely, who has led the Treaty men to three Liam MacCarthy triumphs inside four years.
A statement read: ‘Following a County Executive Committee Meeting the Limerick Senior Hurling Management Team consisting of: John Kiely, Paul Kinnerk, Alan Cunningham, Aonghus O’Brien and Donal O’Grady, has been approved for a two-year term and will be brought forward to the October County Committee Meeting for ratification.’ It’s the news that all Limerick fans will be delighted to hear as their team goes for a three in a row in 2022.
Meanwhile, Dublin LGFA star Lauren Magee is banking on her four-time All-Ireland winning manager Mick Bohan returning next season. Speculation that Bohan is on the brink of leaving the position hardened in the aftermath of his team’s All-Ireland final defeat to Meath, when in an emotionally charged press briefing he hinted that he could leave the post.
‘I can say this to you hand on heart that whatever we as a management team have given them, they’ve given us way more,’ the star told reporters.
But Magee insisted yesterday she remains ‘hopeful’ he will back to lead Dublin’s bid to regain the Brendan Martin cup.
‘I feel like at this moment in time it would be very tough for him to leave on that note. I’d hope that he would stay around.
‘I feel there will be another year in him hopefully,’ said Magee, speaking at the launch of the Beko Leinster club championships.
Elsewhere, Wexford hurling legend Larry O’Gorman claimed yesterday that loyalty would count for nothing if Davy Fitzgerald ends up coaching against his former players next season.
The decision of Galway’s 2017 All-Ireland winning manager Micheal Donoghue to withdraw from the race to succeed Shane O’Neill has led to speculation that the Tribesmen could make a move for Fitzgerald, just months after he stepped away after five years in charge of Wexford.
However, 1996 All-Ireland winner Gorman says if Fitzgerald ended up managing another team against Wexford in next year’s Leinster championship, it would be ‘hard to take’.
‘It would be very strange to see Davy after leaving us and then go to the opposition straight away. You would not be calling it great loyalty, to be honest,’ he said.