Tomás Ó Sé named as new Kerry under 20 manager

Ó'Sé was ratified at a Kerry County Board this evening.

NEW MAN IN: Former Kerry footballer Tomás Ó Sé prior to the Allianz Football League Division 1 Final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Kerry legend Tomás Ó Sé was ratified by delegates at tonight’s Kerry County Committee meeting to replace Declan O’Sullivan as Kerry U-20 Football manager.

While it was widely known that Ó Sé, once he turned down the chance to manage Offaly, was the man that County Chairman Patrick O’Sullivan wanted, the makeup of his management team was not. 

The names of Seamus Moynihan, Bryan Sheehan and former Kerry Chairman Seán Walsh from Moyvane were not but this powerful quartet not only appears a strong U-20 management team but a possible future senior one, whenever Jack O’Connor calls time on his glittering senior career.

Three of the four played on the same Kerry All-Ireland winning teams with 14 winners medals between them, Tomás and Bryan have five each while Seamus has four. 

The trio has 26 Munster Senior titles won and 9 All-Stars while at club level, Bryan trumps the trio with 5 Kerry SFC titles, Seamus was part of the East Kerry 3-in-a –row side of 1997 to 1999, while Tomás won two with An Ghaeltacht (2001 and 2003). 

Considering the age group that they are taking over, Ó Sé is a three three-year U-21 player winning an All-Ireland in 1998, while both Seamus and Bryan were three years Kerry minors and Kerry U-21 players and Seamus and Bryan are former Kerry senior captains.

Walsh is a vastly experienced football administrator serving as Kerry County Board Chairman for ten years from 1998 and was also Munster Council Chairman and Chairman of the Kerry Ladies Board as well as being an unsuccessful Presidential candidate. 

He won Kerry SFC titles in 1978 and 1980 and played some tournament games with the Kerry seniors. Sean was appointed tour manager for the 2006 and 2008 International Rules series between Ireland and Australia. 

He was also a selector with Charlie Nelligan when Kerry won the All-Ireland Minor final in 1994 and then had to wait twenty years before Kerry achieved the five in a row in the last decade. Geographically it is a management team that has the whole county covered.

The term will depend on what happens to the U-20 grade at Congress next year but providing the age grade exists, it will be a two-year term.

Delegates were also informed that the House Draw yielded a profit of €310,000 and considering it was reported to be in difficulty at Christmas, delegates were pleased that it had been such a success with the monies being ploughed into Currans where works on the main pitch are currently progressing according to plan.

Central Council delegate Maurice O’Mahoney reported that the Special Congress on the age grades that was to be held next month will not now be held as the Age Grades committee only managed to meet 4 times so the age grades will remain U-17 and U-20 for 2023.