Barry is the new Meath supremo

Gaelic Games News round-up: Despite an attempt to re-open nominations at last night's county board meeting, Eamonn Barry is the new manager of the Meath footballers. He succeeds Seán Boylan, who unexpectedly stepped down last week after 23 years in charge.

Boylan's announcement came after nominations had closed and meant that a number of candidates, who had declined to go forward while the outgoing manager was still interested, could not pursue the matter any further.

Former Central Council delegate Pat O'Neill proposed that because of this situation, nominations should be re-opened although he emphasised that he wasn't casting any aspersions on those who had already secured nominations.

The current Central Council delegate Brendan Dempsey opposed this and county chair Fintan Ginnity ruled that the election of the new manager would go ahead on the basis of the nominated candidates. Barry had circulated a statement claiming that the county executive had been supporting one of the other candidates. This was denied by the officers.

In the event the Walterstown coach won comfortably with 57 votes, ahead of former Louth manager Paddy Carr - a former team mate - who got 25 and county under-21 manager Benny Reddy with seven.

The man who must follow in the footsteps of the most successful manager in Meath's history, Barry first came to national attention taking Dunshaughlin to three successive county titles between 2000 and '02 and the Leinster championship in that final year. Centre forward on the Walterstown side that reached the 1981 All-Ireland club final, he has contested the Meath job for the past three years.

Meanwhile, All-Ireland hurling champions Cork will name their line-out for Sunday's final tonight.

There are no late injury problems and it is expected that the same 15 that started the semi-final win over Clare will get the nod despite the high-profile replacements made by manager John Allen during that match.

Brian Corcoran was carrying an injury but has recovered. Ronan Curran has struggled to find his best form, but it is considered unlikely that the All Star centre back of the past two years would be dropped.

Asked about how long the selection process might take, Allen hinted that there would be no change.

"There'll be certain positions up for debate but as I was saying to someone, we've been very conservative over the past year or two. We'll pick at four o'clock and train at seven or a quarter to seven. So it'll take somewhere between two hours maybe 10 minutes.

"I think we pick genuinely the people we feel will suit the team on the day and given the training that has happened between now and then - a fella's form, his speed. People have off days and can recover and train well again. I wouldn't say loyalty; I'd say doing what we think is right on the occasion."

Galway won't name their side until Thursday and according to manager Conor Hayes there are no injury concerns. Like Cork the westerners are expected to give the winning semi-final team a vote of confidence.

The only possible change would be the bringing back of Kevin Broderick, who has been recovering from an operation, and who came off the bench to score a vital point against Kilkenny.

Broderick is reportedly going very well in training, as is Galway's last All-Ireland final captain Liam Hodgins, but no starting change is anticipated.

Other news on the management front sees Tyrone man Brian McIvor taking over from Brian McEniff as manager of the Donegal footballers. McIvor was short listed for the Tyrone job when it went vacant at the end of 2002, a vacancy filled by current manager Mickey Harte.

McIvor was manager of the Ballinderry team that won the 2001 Derry and Ulster championship and added the following spring's All-Ireland club title, beating Nemo Rangers in the final in Thurles.

Meanwhile in Mayo at last night's county board meeting, a number of candidates were considered, among them the former Limerick manager Liam Kearns, Eamonn Clarke, who led Knockmore to the 1997 All-Ireland club final, Tomás Jordan, who took Crossmolina to the 2001 All-Ireland club title, and Martin Trench, who managed the Listowel Emmets club for the past five years during which time the club won the Kerry intermediate final and contested last year's county senior quarter-final.