Harmony reached in Offaly

Gaelic Games Digest: The Offaly football and hurling squads have ended their strike after reaching agreement with their county board on a number of issues including team preparation and the appointment of managers.

The Offaly County Board have agreed to the introduction of new terms for installing team managers which includes making appointments for terms of three years with no review until the end of the second year.

Senior team management will also now have the option to take charge of the under-21 team.

The agreement does not specifically cover Gerry Fahy, whose resignation as football manager precipitated the crisis that has been running over the past month.

In future the county's managers will be appointed by a newly formed committee, comprising the county chairman, the county secretary and two former players.

This committee will be responsible for the review of managers' positions after the first two years. The county board will now just have responsibility for ratifying the committee's decisions.

If Fahy was interested in returning to his role it would be within the powers of the new committee to reappoint him.

After Fahy resigned at the start of last month for what he perceived as a lack of support from the county board the footballers called a strike. This was quickly followed by a similar action by the hurlers.

Former manager Eugene McGee was then called upon to mediate between the parties which culminated in a statement released last night.

Among the points in the statement are a new set of guidelines to govern training and preparation which will "bring Offaly into line with what is best practice in county team preparation at the present time".

A new system is also being introduced to "ensure players, team management and county board work as a united force in the best interests of Offaly football at all times".

As part of this system, two liaison officers, one of whom will be a selector, will ensure that good communications between the various parties are maintained throughout the season and any grievances will be promptly dealt with.

WICKLOW: Wicklow's management committee has set up an investigation into the violent scenes that marred the Wicklow county senior hurling final between Carnew and Glenealy on October 3rd.

Substitutes as well as players became involved in a ugly sideline fracas just minutes before the end of normal time and in some instances hurleys were used as weapons.

Carnew went on to beat the defending champions by 0-16 to 1-8.

The county's management committee met representatives of the two clubs on Monday night and the investigations committee will be meeting next week with the match officials to get their account of what happened.

LIMERICK: Former All Star Joe McKenna was last night ratified as Limerick's new hurling selector replacing Damien Quigley who left the post for personal reasons.

The move means McKenna once again links up with his fellow Offaly man, and manager of the Limerick team, Pad Joe Whelahan. It also means that both Limerick selectors - McKenna and Declan Nash - are from the same club, South Liberties.