Home where Harte is despite Dublin job

Tyrone's Mickey Harte will not be relocating to Dublin despite taking up a job in the capital. The All-Ireland winning manager will be opening a new office of Martin Short Auctioneers at Santry Cross, in the north of the county.

"Maybe the odd time I'll have to stay down," he said, "but the M1 has really opened up the road between the North and Dublin and the Carrickmacross by-pass also cuts the journey."

Harte joined the firm in a career move from teaching and is happy with the change. "It's good and in many ways not very different from what I was doing before.

"Both jobs are about how you interact with people. You have to engage and respect the people you're dealing with. These are important traits in education, sport and business."

He had been working around north Meath and Cavan.

At the moment the All-Ireland champions are taking a breather after the exertions of a memorable year but Harte says the whole routine will begin again after Christmas.

"We're holding trials at the end of December, beginning of January and will be putting a panel together for the McKenna Cup. We're guaranteed three matches and will train once a week before making our decision about the panel for the National League."

Meanwhile, the Antrim county board have released a statement saying a new manager for the county's senior hurlers should be appointed next week.

It denied speculation that the county had rejected all declared candidates for the job, saying the interview panel, which vetted all candidates, only reported back to the county management committee on Monday. Clubs were briefed on the updated situation on Wednesday and two of those candidates will be interviewed early next week for the job.