Walsh calls time on Ó Sé's turbulent career

Páidí O Sé's term as Kerry manager looks to be over after county chairman Seán Walsh outlined his plans for the selection of a new management team at a subdued county board meeting in Kerry last night.

Whereas it was not stated that the outgoing manager had stepped down, that was the understanding of most delegates.

"The term of Páidí Ó Sé is up," said Walsh, "and we will have to put in place a new management." Walsh went on to ask delegates to sound out their clubs on what format the new management structure should take. Kerry is one of the few remaining counties where senior management is put together by the county board electing selectors - although the executive recommends the manager or coach.

This gives the county board the opportunity to emulate Cork whose senior hurling manager, Donal O'Grady, was for the first time given the power to choose his own selectors.

The Kerry chairman went on: "This is probably a bad night for doing this but if we leave it until the next meeting it will in my view be too late. The outgoing management has been in place for the past two years and has put in an immense effort. I would like to place on record our appreciation and thanks for the enormous work they have done over the years. I would also like to thank the players and think we should think of them at this time. They were the most disappointed of all."

Walsh intends to get the views of the clubs at next month's meeting and be in a position to have the new management in place by the following month's meeting on October 28th. It was announced that the minor team manager, Pat O'Shea, would be stepping down to take up a position as Coaching Officer with the Munster Council.

Last night's meeting also unanimously condemned the attack on Ó Sé by a Kerry spectator at Sunday's match.

The major achievement of his term was the bridging of the longest gap in modern times between All-Ireland wins for the county, the 11 years between the final victory of Mick O'Dwyer's great team of which Ó Sé was a permanent member and the 1997 win. A second All-Ireland was added in 2000.

On Radio Kerry yesterday there were mixed signals for the Kerry manager in a phone-in programme in the morning. On the one hand about 90 per cent of the calls were critical of the management and believed that the manager should go; on the other a text poll - although not exactly a scientific measurement - concluded with a slenderer division of 53-47 indicating that they felt he should step down.

Attention will inevitably be focused on the identity of Ó Sé's successor. A number of names are already being bandied about. Current trainer and selector John O'Keeffe is considered by many to be a front runner.

Last January he resigned after implicit criticisms by Ó Sé in a controversial newspaper interview.

After accepting the manager's apology O'Keeffe resumed his duties amidst speculation that he would succeed when Ó Sé eventually stepped down.

Other names include Jack O'Connor, the current under-21 manager who was a selector in the 1997 senior success and who managed the All-Ireland winning under-21s in 1998. Playing legend Bomber Liston has also been mentioned in dispatches after leading Kerins O'Rahilly's to a county title last autumn.

There are two Kerry men currently in inter-county management. Mick O'Dwyer is unlikely to abandon Laois and former Kerry player Liam Kearns has had great success in the renaissance of Limerick football.