Farrell succeeds Gavin as the Dublin boss on three-year term

DESSIE FARRELL has been appointed Dublin senior football manager on a three-year term.

The 1995 All-Ireland winner was ratified at a meeting of the Dublin County Board’s management committee in advance of the annual convention in Parnell Park last night when their choice was revealed to delegates by outgoing county board chairman Seán Shanley.

His appointment comes as little surprise, even if the sequence of events that led to the job becoming vacant threw added complications into the process.

A four-man sub-committee spoke to a number of candidates, including Declan Darcy, who has been a selector under Jim Gavin for the past seven silver-plated seasons, before deciding that Farrell was the man to lead Dublin in the immediate post-Gavin years.

Farrell’s selectors are expected to be announced in the coming days.

“We give a big thanks to Jim (Gavin) and all his backroom team. Some of them might be back with Dessie. We don’t know yet,” said Shanley.

A former Dublin captain, Farrell’s managerial credentials are robust from both underage and club involvement. He began coaching in 2006, just a year after retiring as a player, initially taking charge an U-13 Dublin West development squad.

He coached them until they became a combined county team at U-16 level, a group that went on to lose the 2011 All-Ireland minor final to Tipperary.

Immediate

The following year, Farrell managed the minor footballers again, this time to a first All-Ireland title for the county at the grade since 1984. That victory still stands as Dublin’s only minor All-Ireland of the past 35 years.

He made an immediate step up to the Dublin U-21 job, steering separate groups to All-Irelands in 2014 and in ’17, the last staging of the competition before it was regraded to U-20.

This year, he was manager of Na Fianna, who effectively knocked a star-studded Ballymun Kickhams team out of the Dublin SFC1, before losing to eventual winners Ballyboden St Enda’s in extra-time.

Farrell’s relationship with many of the players who have backboned Dublin’s success at senior level of the past five years was clearly seen by the kingmakers as one of the most alluring aspects of his candidacy.

Talents such as Ciarán Kilkenny, Jack McCaffrey, John Small and Paul Mannion blossomed under his coaching, while Brian Howard and Eoin Murchan were key players on his most recent U-21 team.

His first game as manager comes on January 11, when Dublin play in an O’Byrne Cup semi-final; although with most of this year’s squad due to be abroad on a team holiday, Farrell will be left with a mostly experimental pick from which to make his maiden selection.

Dublin face Kerry in their opening NFL Division 1 clash in Croke Park on Saturday, January 25.