Captain's role for O Cinneide

GAELIC GAMES/News: The captaincy of the Kerry football team has been handed to Dara Ó Cinnéide for the coming year. Ó Cinnéide was nominated for the position by his club, Gaeltacht, the reigning Kerry champions, as is the protocol in the county, and he replaces Michael McCarthy, who served as captain for last year's championship.

Ó Cinnéide's nomination is hardly a surprise, although it was far from guaranteed. Four other members of the Gaeltacht team are also regular starters for Kerry. Among those is Darragh Ó Sé, who captained Kerry to the All-Ireland final of 2002, where they lost to Armagh. It was rumoured Ó Sé would be given another chance.

Others in contention were his two brothers, Tomás and Marc, as well as Aodán MacGearailt. Yet the club opted for Ó Cinnéide, whose service to both club and county over the past few years had added significant weight to his candidacy.

According to gaeltacht secretary James Long, the nomination of Ó Cinnéide was unanimous. "We first put together this nomination on Christmas Eve," said Long, "after the club had decided that Dara was the unanimous choice for Kerry captain.

"There were several reasons why we went for him, including his great experience, his great seniority, and his great service to Kerry football over the last decade. But most of all we felt he deserved it. And he has everything going for him to make a great captain."

Now aged 28, Ó Cinnéide was one of the few players to find a permanent place in the Kerry forward line last summer. He appeared as a substitute in the opening game against Tipperary, and started in all their remaining games against Limerick, Roscommon and Tyrone - always named at centre forward. He contributed 1-16 over those games and was Kerry's highest scorer of the summer.

The two-time All-Ireland winner, who also has an under-21 title to his name, will clearly command a lot of respect within the team, while also bringing a calm but positive influence onto the playing field. For the past several years he was worked with Raidió na Gaeltachta.

Ó Cinnéide is with the Kerry panel on their week of warm-weather training in Lanzarote, and his first competitive game as captain will be the opening league match away to Longford on February 1st - which also marks the first competitive outing for new manager Jack O'Connor.

Last year the Kerry captaincy became something of torch relay. Barry O'Shea was initially nominated by then champions Kerins O'Rahillys, but was later injured and replaced by clubmate Declan Quill. Later Quill was dropped from the Kerry starting line-up and O'Rahilly's then nominated Michael McCarthy of the Kilcummin club in Killarney, who acted as Kerry captain throughout the championship.

Interestingly, a motion to allow the new Kerry football management to choose their own captain was heavily defeated at last month's Kerry County Board annual convention.

Ó Cinnéide has again featured prominently in Gaeltacht's club championship campaign over the last few months.

Having beaten Clare champions St Senan's in the Munster football final, they next face Leinster champions St Brigid's of Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final on February 22nd.

The captaincy of the Laois football team for the coming year, meanwhile, is likely to go to either Ross Munnelly or Chris Conway, the only county representatives from this year's championship winning team, Arles-Kilcruise.

Like Kerry, Laois have traditionally offered the captaincy to a member of the county champions, and Munnelly would be the leading candidate on the basis on his starting roles last summer.

Conway was always a member of the panel but his season was interrupted by injury.

At the age of 20, however, Munnelly might be considered too young for the position. A final decision will be made after the team return from their holiday in South Africa, which starts on Tuesday.