Offaly board’s olive branch

THE Offaly county board will meet for discussions with the senior footballers if requested to do so by mediator Eugene McGee, PRO Pat Teehan insisted yesterday.

The players met again over the weekend and agreed to deal with the former Offaly manager in an effort to solve the crisis.

However, they expressed dissatisfaction about the continued lack of communication from the board.

Four of the panel’s complaints in the recently released 17-point statement focused on what they perceived to be an appalling level of communication on the board’s part, but Teehan insists the executive are amenable to a meeting should McGee deem it necessary.

“We have no problem meeting with a third party [McGee] or the players,” Teehan said.

“If Eugene McGee wants the county board to meet with him we’ll do that, if he wants us to meet with the players, we’ll do that too.

“The situation is that the players have accepted Eugene McGee as a mediator and the county board’s response to the players’ statement was being given to McGee [yesterday].

“Beyond that we have to wait and see what happens. The county board’s next meeting is down for this day week, but if we feel we have to bring it forward to deal with this situation we could do that.”

It’s been a busy week for officials in Offaly and the focus won’t be just on the footballers this week. A committee to find a successor to Gerry Fahy has been on hold until the situation is resolved, but another to begin the search for a new hurling manager is to be established this week.

Meanwhile, the impasse over the management of the Tipperary senior football team is to be discussed by the county board tonight.

It’s over three months since Andy Shorthall and his selectors tended their resignation prior to an All-Ireland qualifier against Fermanagh.

Just like the situation over the border in Offaly, it seems efforts at some manner of mediation might be suggested at tonight’s meeting.

There should be no such problems further north, where the three-man management team of Joe Kernan, Paul Grimley and John McCloskey is expected to be returned by the Armagh county board. Kernan was unsure as to his future after their championship exit to Fermanagh, but the support of the senior squad in the interim would appear to have decided the matter for him.

In Carlow, a three-man committee has been established to pinpoint the county’s next senior football manager after Luke Dempsey slipped through their fingers. The committee, made up of county chairman Tommy Byrne, secretary Tom O’Neill and one other unnamed person, have drawn up a shortlist of at least three and possibly four names.

Prominent in the committee’s thoughts is former Laois football manager Mick Dempsey.

Now based in Kilkenny, Dempsey played a supporting role for the Cats’ U21 team who captured the All-Ireland title last Saturday.

Dempsey’s brother Sean, who has guided the Laois minors to All-Ireland and Leinster success over the past two years, is also a contender.

Meanwhile, the replay of the Tyrone SFC semi-final between Carrickmore and champions Killyclogher has been fixed for Saturday. The game goes ahead at Healy Park in Omagh with a 4pm throw-in, and extra-time will be played if necessary.

Carrickmore’s Tyrone star Conor Gormley is struggling to be fit after suffering a leg injury in the drawn game, while they will definitely be without defender Ciaran McAleer, who received a straight red card in that game.