McGeeney's Kildare reign over
Kieran McGeeney has sensationally been ousted as Kildare senior football manager, with a vote at last night's County Board meeting narrowly going against him.
Delegates at the meeting in St. Conleth's Park voted 29-28 against keeping McGeeney in place as Lilywhites boss, bringing the Armagh man's six-year reign in the Leinster county to an unceremonious end.
Although there have been some terrific results during Geezer's tenure allied to obvious developments in terms of bringing young players through and raising standards on and off the pitch, it seems he has paid the price for a lack of silverware with June's 16-point Leinster semi-final hammering by Dublin a real sore point.
The Lilywhites recovered to beat Louth in the All-Ireland qualifiers, extending McGeeney's unbeaten run in the qualifiers to 16 matches since 2008, but Tyrone toppled them at home in the very next round on July 20.
Under McGeeney, Kildare reached five All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals and made a single semi-final appearance - losing by two points to Down in 2010 - as he turned them into a consistently competitive outfit on the Championship stage.
Despite the absence of trophies (save for a Division 2 league title), McGeeney, who also managed the county's Under-21s, still won more Championship matches than any other Kildare manager in the past 30 years.
His record in qualifiers alone was hugely impressive, and he had a 54% winning ratio in Leinster before this summer.
But reports surfaced recently of a swelling of support among some Kildare clubs to bring McGeeney's reign to an end, and those club delegates have now gotten their wish.
Former Kildare captain Glenn Ryan recently stepped down as Longford boss and is already being linked with the vacant position in his native county, while another Lilywhite legend Anthony Rainbow, who managed Carlow this season, could also be in running to replace McGeeney.
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