Laois’ daring bid to woo O Sé ends in failure

LAOIS GAA officials have been rebuffed in a startling bid to woo Kerry legend Darragh O Sé as their new football coach while any prospect of Mick O’Dwyer returning to the midlands also appears to be off the agenda.

Officials from the county identified the recently retired Kingdom midfielder as the man to revive their football fortunes and mapped out their plans to O Sé at a meeting in a Limerick’s Castletroy Park hotel on Thursday evening.

However, one source confirmed yesterday that the appointment “is not happening”.

It is believed O Sé feels the need to take a step back from football after only retiring in the wake of last September’s All-Ireland success.

O Sé only turned 35 in March and may feel that this is not the time to be returning to the front line with any county, though that’s not to say he won’t consider management in the future and Laois’ approach is evidence of his standing in the game.

The Leinster county’s Management Committee has already called an emergency meeting for Monday night with the vacant senior hurling and football management positions top of the night’s agenda.

If O Sé is out of the picture then so too, it appears, is O’Dwyer who was proposed for the football position by former county board chairman Dick Miller and ex-football board chairman Joe O’Dwyer last week.

Both men held those respective positions during the height of the Waterville man’s success with Laois but it appears that their calls for a second coming are not shared by the current men in power.

One man who definitely is in the frame is former Laois dual player Pat Roe who has managed the Carlow, Wexford and Offaly footballers in years past with varying degrees of success.

Roe was at the helm of the Laois U21s this year and has bid unsuccessfully for both the senior hurling and football posts in the past but most of the officers on the board have changed in the years since.

It is believed that the committee charged with finding the new man – chairman Brian Allen, vice-chairman Gerry Kavanagh, secretary Niall Handy, treasurer Martin Byrne and football board chairman Andrew Broderick – are hoping to speak with the Portlaoise native. Another name to be mentioned in relation to the football post has been former Westmeath and Longford manager Luke Dempsey who was in charge of the Carlow side the last two years.