O’Flatharta to replace Ó Sé in Westmeath

TOMAS Ó FLATHARTA has told Westmeath football board he will take the vacant senior football manager’s position - and he believes the Lakes county can repeat their heroics of 2004.

Ó Flatharta’s appointment will be formally ratified at the next meeting of the football board, but all parties are proceeding on the understanding that he will be the man at the helm next season.

“It is a big challenge. It is my first time managing at inter-county level, but I know the players will work hard and I think we can repeat our achievements of 2004,” said the Kerry native who shot to prominence as Páidí Ó Sé’s right-hand man in the county.

Already Ó Flatharta has coaxed veteran defender Damien Healy to stay on for at least one more season, but he will be without former Allstar midfielder Rory O’Connell, who has decided to retire.

Paddy Collins is likely to remain on as a selector, but the identity of the other members of the management team remains a secret.

“I gave a lot of thought to the position over the summer, and I am looking forward to having a go.”

Meanwhile, Dublin City Council has dismissed allegations that cars with northern registrations are targeted by clampers on match days around Croke Park.

Some GAA officials in Ulster have claimed that they have evidence clearly demonstrating that vehicles with northern registrations are treated differently from those from the Republic.

The Ulster Council has been inundated with complaints from fans who have travelled down from the province to the capital on match days, gone to the game, and returned to discover their vehicles clamped.

There was even a suggestion last week from the Ulster Council that they may relocate their provincial final from Croke Park back to Clones if such perceived biased treatment of their patrons were to persist.

Dublin City Council outsources its clamping duties to external companies but a spokesperson has denied that there was any coordinated effort to single out vehicles from north of the border.

“Clampers operate in conjunction with gardaí and they clamp cars which are illegally parked,” she said.

As a Kilkenny family tries to come to terms with another sudden death following a football match, a leading medical specialist has backed a report which has called for sportspeople from high-risk families to be screened.

A Government task force on Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) is expected to recommend that all high-risk families be screened to allow them change their lifestyle.

Task force chairman, Dr Brian Maurer, a cardiologist, said on Monday they would finalise their report shortly but wouldn’t be recommending mass screening.

The report is expected to call for close relatives of those who die to be tested for rare heart conditions.

Meanwhile, Tyrone’s Owen Mulligan and Galway’s Niall Healy were yesterday named as Vodafone Footballer and Hurler of the month for August at a reception in Dublin.

Mulligan scooped the honour for his astonishing goal against Dublin in the drawn All-Ireland quarter-final and the 1-7 he totted up in the replay.

Healy’s nomination was secured on the back of his three-goal haul in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.

“You look at the young men we are honouring and they are wonderful sportsmen who have already achieved great things and have many more years of great football and hurling ahead of them,” said GAA President Sean Kelly.