O’Shea set to take over as Kingdom boss

PAT O’SHEA could be appointed the new Kerry football coach later this week.

County Board chairman Sean Walsh, remains adamant that he will have a successor to All-Ireland winning boss, Jack O’Connor by the end of the month.

However O’Shea, the Board’s sole target, remains tight-lipped about his prospects of taking charge.

He said: “I don’t think it would be fair to comment at the moment. But I would hope that some decision would be made fairly soon.’’

Meanwhile, Joe Kernan has confirmed that 2007 will be his final year as Armagh senior football manager.

The Crossmaglen man extended his stay for a sixth year in September but the coming season will be his last hurrah.

“The one thing we know is that when we go Armagh will be left in good hands,” said Kernan.

“There will be no need to go around looking for a new manager like in Mayo at the minute where everything is up in the air. You don’t need that. We need to keep the ship steady and keep the players believing. Hopefully in 12 months, and I’d like to think it would be late in September that I step down.”

Kernan intimated that his new assistant manager John Rafferty will take the reins when he steps down next year. Rafferty, who steered Antrim side St Gall’s to the AIB All-Ireland Club title, took over from Paul Grimley as Kernan’s right-hand man two months ago.

Meanwhile, former Wicklow goalkeeper John Mitchell is the new manager of the county senior hurling team.

Mitchell, a member of the Kilmacud Crokes club in Dublin, was ratified by Wicklow’s County GAA Committee this week.

A man with long experience in the game, Mitchell first hit the headlines as the goalkeeper of the Cork team that won the U21 Hurling All-Ireland in 1966 after a final win over Wexford that went to three matches. He was sub-goalie to Cork’s Seanie Barry for the All-Ireland final of 1969, won a Fitzgibbon Cup medal with UCC in 1966/67 and was on the losing side in the final of the following year. He played with Wicklow in 1971. Meanwhile one the heroes of Westmeath’s historic 2004 Leinster senior football championship triumph has joined the county’s backroom team for the 2007 season.

Paul Conway’s career was cut short due to injury in the aftermath of the 2004 win, but the Tang man has now answered Tomas O’Flaharta’s call to serve as a selector for next season.

Conway played a key role in Westmeath’s first-ever Leinster title two years ago, but he has been forced to quit the intercounty game due to recurring shoulder problems.