Doyle ratified as Tipp hurling boss

MICHAEL DOYLE was last night officially ratified as manager of the Tipperary senior hurlers, at a meeting of the county board in Thurles.

Doyle, who replaces Nicky English, will have a two-man selection team. This will consist of former inter-county defender and intermediate team manager Liam Sheedy and Kevin Fox, a brother of Allstar Pat, who was boss of the county U21 side two years ago.

Those appointments were made by the Tipperary County Board in consultation with Doyle.

His hurling pedigree is impressive as he led the Premier County to an All-Ireland U 21 title in 1995 and is son of the legendary John Doyle who is the holder of eight All-Ireland medals.

As a player, Doyle won an All-Ireland minor and U21 title with Tipperary back in the 1970s, before going on to distinguish himself at senior level, scoring two extra-time goals in the 1987 Munster final against Cork.

Meanwhile, the Offaly County Board are no closer to appointing a manager to their senior hurling team.

Chairman Brendan Ward said that the issue was not to be discussed at the monthly meeting of the board last night and added that there was nobody in the running for the position at the moment.

That assertion was contrary to reports that former Clare and Galway trainer Mike McNamara was to be offered the role of manager, succeeding Fr Tom Fogarty, following talks with officials over the past number of days.

Meanwhile, Dublin County Board officials have flatly refused to entertain the notion of independent arbitration as a means to settling the Na Fianna fiasco.

Na Fianna, who fielded six substitutes in their quarter-final SFC win over Raheny last Saturday week, one more than allowed, yesterday released a statement appealing to the county board to accept an independent arbitrator to rule on the issue.

Club spokesman Jim Aughney said: “We decided at around 2am on Tuesday morning that we would put this offer to the county board so as to speed up the running of the Dublin championship, and we made it public later in the morning.

“What we wanted was for someone to come from outside the Association to rule on the issue, someone who was not linked to the GAA in any way and was not employed by them,” he added.

Negotiations were taking place behind the scenes all day yesterday as the Dublin County Board considered its next move.

However, officials indicated to Na Fianna late last night that they would be refusing the proposal on the grounds that there was no way to solve a GAA dispute by stepping outside of the Association.