Jack O’Connor has appointed Cian O’Neill as head coach of the Kerry footballers. O’Neill, who was involved with the county in a similar role under former manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, when the 2014 All-Ireland was won, has just completed three years with Galway.
That appointment concluded with the Connacht champions’ defeat by Armagh in July’s All-Ireland final and also included reaching the 2022 final, which was won by Kerry.
O’Neill has been involved with a number of other counties, including the Tipperary hurlers, who won the 2010 All-Ireland, and Mayo before managing his own county, Kildare.
Having won the All-Ireland in his first year back as manager, O’Connor has had a couple of frustrating years, losing narrowly to the last two champions, Armagh in this year’s semi-final and Dublin in the final 13 months ago.
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Paddy Tally, who was brought on board by O’Connor on his appointment three years ago, remains involved with the Tyrone man now designated as “performance coach”.
Two new selectors to replace the outgoing Mike Quirke and Diarmuid Murphy, were also appointed, former Kerry minor manager James Costello and All-Ireland winning wing forward Aodán Mac Gearailt.
The management team is completed by Pa McCarthy as assistant coach,
Jason McGahan and Arthur Fitzgerald as S+C coaches and 2014 All-Ireland winner Brian Kelly as goalkeeping coach.
It will go for ratification for 2025 to the next meeting of the county committee.
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