Minogue: shine taken off Banner’s U-21 win
Minogue admitted that the prospect of taking over from McNamara was “tempting” after the job was first offered to the successful U-21 management team on a first refusal basis.
Minogue, Cyril Lyons, Alan Dunne and Sean O’Halloran have committed to the U-21s for another season but there is speculation that Lyons could also link up with new senior boss Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin as a selector.
Minogue said: “I don’t know. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Sparrow goes to Cyril but we made a commitment to do the U-21s and it would be difficult to do both. Inter-county management is very time consuming but Cyril has a lot to offer.”
Prior to O’Loughlin accepting the senior post, Minogue and his backroom team were contacted about their possible availability.
Minogue reflected: “It was tempting enough. We’ve been with a bunch of guys for three years but when you’re with lads, a break can be good. If we were going into the senior job, we were looking at another couple of years and while Brian Cody has managed it in Kilkenny, five years is a long time to be preaching.”
Minogue admitted that repeating this year’s success will be extremely difficult and he believes that the memories of September’s All-Ireland final victory against Kilkenny vanished quickly when anarchy broke out in Clare.
Minogue said: “It’s very unfortunate. I’m speaking about the players who won the Munster and All-Ireland titles but some of the gloss has been knocked off it by the shenanigans going on since September.
“This thing has been going on for quite some tie and there’s a lot of talk about players not giving commitment.
“There must have been seven or eight U21s on the senior panel and we had no problems with their commitment to us. The U21s, their success and the recognition that the players received, has been lost in the furore of what’s been going on between board, players and management.”
Looking ahead to next season, Clare will plot the defence of their U21 crown without this year’s entire full-back line as captain Ciaran O’Doherty, Cian Dillon and Eamonn Glynn are all overage.
Enda Barrett and the O’Donovan brothers Cormac and Domhnall are also unavailable but Minogue will be able to call upon goalkeeper Donal Tuohy again along with other key outfield players.
Nicky O’Connell, James Gunning, Darach Honan, Caimin Morey, Sean Collins and John Conlon will form the backbone of the team and the latter four have already tasted senior fare with the county.
Meanwhile, a major row has blown up in Tipperary over the election of a chairman for the West Divisional Board at annual convention.
Three men were nominated for the position – outgoing chairman Matty Finnerty of Cashel, Roger Kennedy of Knockavilla Kickhams and Joe Power of Arravale Rovers.
A three-year maximum term applies for all divisional and county board chairmen and Finnerty was completing his three-year term. However, as the West division was out of line with the other divisions in its rota system, due to a resignation some years ago, it was suggested in a letter from the county board that should the West division decide to extend the Cashel man’s term to regularise the situation, the county board would look favourably on it.
Finnerty had vacated the chair to facilitate the election, but the ad-hoc chairman, Michael Frawley, a former chairman of the Munster Council, ruled that because of the Tipperary bye-law restricting the term to three years, Finnerty’s nomination was out of order.
Arravale’s Joe Power then withdrew his name from the election and Roger Kennedy was declared elected.
However, the Cashel club has appealed the matter to Tipperary County board.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
