Éamonn Fitzmaurice out as Kerry chiefs consider three main managerial options

The Kingdom’s last All-Ireland winning manager in 2014 was favoured by leading Board officials to take up the reins again

File pic Eamonn Fitzmaurice during his final year as Kerry manager. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Éamonn Fitzmaurice will not be a contender to return as Kerry football manager next season, leaving County Board chiefs with three main options to take charge of the team in 2022.

The Kingdom’s last All-Ireland winning manager in 2014 is favoured by leading Board officials to take up the reins again having stepped away in 2018, but Fitzmaurice has indicated this week that he is not in the reckoning if the Board decides against extending Peter Keane’s term into a fourth season.

The County Board executive meets on the matter Wednesday night following a brief discussion between chairman Tim Murphy and Keane earlier this week.

“The meeting will consider everything, and from that we will plot a course,” Murphy told The Kerryman. “The views of everyone on the executive will be taken on board, and we will come up with our plans regarding the managerial vacancy from there.” 

Peter Keane’s decision whether to seek an extension adds a layer to the considerations. On the basis he remains in contention, the executive appears to have three proposals.

His decision not to remain as Kildare manager next year has dropped a Jack O’Connor-shaped factor into the mix. Not only is the Dromid man a three-time All-Ireland winning manager with the Kingdom, but he is close to Declan O’Sullivan, now the Kerry Under-20 manager, and could bring him in as a senior selector and groom him for the future in the same way O’Connor did with Fitzmaurice in 2009.

Board officials are determined to put a proper succession plan in place for the senior job in Kerry, cognisant as they are of the dearth of managerial options down the track. Hence the possibility of a Seamus Moynihan-led management team, with Donie Buckley returning as coach, has gained so much traction in the county in recent days.

A number of players from the noughties, including Declan O’Sullivan and Moynihan, could come into the reckoning in a couple of years’ time – such as Tomás Ó Sé, Kieran Donaghy, Diarmuid Murphy, Johnny Crowley, Marc Ó Sé or Mike Quirke, who has already managed at senior inter-county level with Laois.