Olympic coach Kilty set to play role in Mayo management

JOHN O’MAHONY is in the process of putting the final touches to his Mayo management team, with former Olympic coach Jim Kilty likely to be involved.

The former Galway manager was only appointed last Monday week but Kieran Gallagher and Tommy Lyons have already been brought on board as selectors. RTÉ analyst Martin Carney will also be involved as a statistician and video analyst.

Kilty would not be involved with the Mayo team on a permanent basis but it is believed that he would attend training once a week.

“I wouldn’t be in a position to confirm anything at the moment,” said Gallagher yesterday. “John was only appointed a short time ago so it is early days yet. It would be fair to say that we are in the process of sorting everything out at the moment.”

A hugely respected figure in the world of Irish sport, Kilty was athletics’ director of coaching for a 10-year period in the 1990s and also served as the Irish squad’s track and field coach at the 1998 Seoul Olympics and the games eight years later in Atlanta.

These days he is better known as the coach to Derval O’Rourke who followed up her gold medal success at year’s European Indoors with a silver at this year’s outdoor championships at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Kilty is no stranger to other sports either, having worked with the Leinster and UCD rugby teams but he is also well known to GAA fans after his stints with the Tipperary and Wexford teams in particular.

In 2001, Tipperary won the Munster and All-Ireland titles under Nicky English and Kilty’s SAQ methods were credited with playing a large part in securing those titles.

Kilty was also on board when Wexford won their first Leinster title in seven years back in 2004.

Often neglected in traditional training sessions, SAQ became all the rage in GAA circles after Tipperary’s success five years ago. SAQ programmes emphasise the importance of agility training to equip athletes with the best methods and techniques for greater quickness, speed, control and movement.

Kilty may even be joined by another well-known face. There have also been suggestions that Mick Byrne, who is part of Steve Staunton’s staff with the Irish soccer team, will be asked to come on board.

Byrne, who is officially a masseur but whose role could be better defined as “morale officer”, was an integral part of O’Mahony’s staff with Galway when the Tribesmen won their first All-Ireland in 32 years back in 1998.

Byrne was a constant presence in the Irish set-up under Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy and returned under Staunton after being relieved of his duties by Brian Kerr.

O’Mahony and his selectors have met this week to discuss their plan of campaign for 2007 and the first meeting with the players is due to take place tomorrow.