Giles takes appeal to Leinster Council

TREVOR GILES will appeal to the Leinster Council tonight against the four-week suspension that rules him out of Sunday’s Meath SFC final.

Meath star Giles was hit with the ban on Monday night following his sending off in the semi-final replay win over Dunshaughlin.

He attended a meeting with disciplinary chiefs on Saturday but failed to have the red card overturned.

Giles’ Skryne face the Colm O’Rourke-managed Simonstown Gaels on Sunday but the failure of Skryne to provide a video of the incident leaves the former Footballer of the Year likely to miss out.

Going down the legal route was an option but it’s more likely the Leinster Council will have the last word.

Meanwhile, former Monaghan manager and Meath selector Colm Coyle is back in the Royal County set-up as trainer for 2005.

Long-serving boss Sean Boylan will also have David Beggy and Declan Mullen by his side again for the new campaign.

Carlow’s extended search for a new football manager may be about to end, with the county board meeting tomorrow evening to discuss managerial appointments for the coming season.

The board has been busy meeting prospective candidates ever since Luke Dempsey opted not to continue his temporary spell in charge at the beginning of September and decided instead to succeed Denis Connerton in Longford. Several names have since cropped up as potential successors to Dempsey and Mick Condon, who controversially stepped down just weeks before the beginning of the 2004 championship.

It’s believed that Tommy Lyons was approached by the board immediately after stepping down as Dublin manager, while the name of former Dunshaughlin manager Eamon Barry, who stood unsuccessfully against Sean Boylan in Meath for the past three years, has also cropped up in recent days.

The front runners still seem to be former Offaly manager Paul O’Kelly and former Laois manager Michael Dempsey. Reports last week suggested O’Kelly was a certainty, but Carlow secretary Tommy O’Neill, a member of the three-man committee in charge of appointing the new man, furiously denied that claim.

Nevertheless, O’Kelly was an interested spectator at the drawn county SFC final between Rathvilly and Fenagh on September 19 so he can’t be discounted just yet.

Dempsey still looks favourite to get the job if he wants it. Aside from his experience across the border with Laois, he spent this season training the All-Ireland-winning Kilkenny U21 champions and crucially, he has experience of the Carlow club scene after managing O’Hanrahan’s for a spell.

With that local knowledge, his undoubted experience and the fact that he is an impartial outsider, he could be seen as tailor-made for the role.

Meanwhile, Leitrim’s executive is on the brink of appointing their next senior football manager. The race to succeed Declan Rowley is now down to two and a final decision is expected tomorrow or Friday, which will then be ratified at next Monday’s county board meeting.

However, county officials are playing their cards close to their chests.

“We’ve met with six people, all of whom would have a fairly high profile and who have shown a real interest in taking the job,” said county secretary Stephen Flynn yesterday.

Local men like Pat Prior and Martin McGowan would be strong contenders for the post. Prior, whose son Barry had a superb rookie season in 2004 for the seniors, managed the county to their last Connacht minor title back in 1998, while McGowan guided the juniors to this year’s All-Ireland final, where they lost to Waterford.

As for more high-profile names, former Fermanagh footballer Shane King was mentioned in recent weeks as a possible contender, as was Dessie Dolan Snr, father of Westmeath star Dessie Jnr and current trainer of Longford side Ballymahon.