McEntee remains leading contender for vacant Mayo GAA post
by Aiden Henry
NOW that the process for appointing a new Mayo senior Gaelic football manager is officially well and truly up and running, there are a number of burning questions for the supporters.
Chief among them is this: Who will be the name (s) that the Mayo County Board executive put to a full county board meeting to be ratified as the new manager after the interview process is concluded?
Board secretary Ronan Kirrane has outlined to club delegates the process for appointing a new management team, stating that the next manager will not be chosen based on a PowerPoint.
“There will be an expression of interest form to go out where potential candidates can get in touch with the secretary, then an application form will be completed by the potential next Mayo manager and following that there will be an interview process where those shortlisted will have to name their top three backroom staff members to the interview panel,” said Mr. Kirrane.
The secretary noted that their change to the interview process is to allow potential managers to get involved in the selection process without having to go through clubs.
He explained: “Feedback from previous appointments pointed to previous applicants saying it would be preferable for them to maintain discretion and to minimise leaks.”
Reading between the lines, it would appear that the Mayo GAA hierarchy have already someone in mind.
However, getting that someone might not be as easy as first thought given the number of counties now looking for a new senior football team manager.
As to who that someone will be in Mayo, it is still my belief that Armagh’s Tony McEntee is the man.
I said a number of weeks ago that McEntee was the preferred choice, and nothing has changed since.
When the Mayo job became vacant, there were numerous names mentioned.
James Horan, Andy Moran and Austin O’Malley were leading the pace among the bookies before another Armagh man, Oisin McConville, became favourite for the job almost overnight.
Two of that four, Horan and McConville, have been ruled out now. Former manager Horan ruled himself out and last week we saw McConville, who has been manager of the Wicklow team for the past three years, deciding to extend his stay with the Garden County for a further two years.
With regard to Andy Moran and Austin O’Malley, the rumours doing the rounds is that Moran feels the time is not right for him to take on the Mayo job and he is likely to stay with Monaghan for the next two years.
If this speculation is correct, one would have to say that the Ballaghaderreen native is right to stay away from the Mayo job at this point as he would be close to a number of players who are likely to be still on the panel.
The rumour concerning Austin O’Malley is that he could join the Ger Brennan team for the Dublin job.
Therefore, it looks very likely that the next Mayo manager will be from outside the county. However, there isn’t a huge amount of potential candidates available other than McEntee.
The Armagh man has proved himself on the playing pitch (he has an All-Ireland senior football medal) and was joint manager of a club that won two senior club All-Ireland titles.
He also had a stint in Mayo as a selector before holding the Sligo senior manager position for the past five years. One would have to say he is more than qualified for the Mayo position.
However, with so many senior inter-county jobs up for grabs, McEntee is sure to have a number of suitors looking to get him. One of those counties could be Louth. With their great success this year, not alone at senior level but also at Under 20 and minor, the Louth position has become very attractive. It could be even more attractive for McEntee as he lives almost next door.
One would hope that the Mayo hierarchy got in there first and head-hunted him once the decision was made to end Kevin McStay’s reign. While I am of the opinion also that the Mayo hierarchy would have a few other names written down in their notebook for the senior job, McEntee’s would have been top of the page.
However, if McEntee is not going to be the next Mayo senior manager, where else can the county board look?
As already mentioned, there are not that many candidates out there suitable or experienced enough for the Mayo job, be it inside the county or outside.
Perhaps the county board will surprise us all and poach a candidate from another county?
There are also vacancies in Mayo for the Under 20 and minor jobs, but is bound to be plenty of names bouncing around for the two positions.
It will come as no surprise to see former Mayo players in the reckoning for both.