Tipp set to name new football boss

Seamus McCarthy is set to be named Tipperary football boss tonight, ending a long-running saga in the county and filling the last vacant inter-county football post.

The Tipperary football board recommended McCarthy at their meeting last Monday night, and his name is expected to be ratified at tonight's county board meeting.

Long-serving goalkeeper Philly Ryan and former player John Owens are favourites to make up McCarthy's backroom team.

The appointment will bring the curtain down on a dark chapter in Tipp football, following the resignations of boss Andy Shorthall and his selectors during the summer in protest at the fixing of a club hurling tie involving two members of the football panel just days before they were due to play Fermanagh in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

The players then backed Shorthall and withdrew their services, failing to fulfil the fixture with the Ernesiders.