Former Meath defender Paul Shankey appointed new Waterford football manager
NEW MAN: Paul Shankey in his playing days with Meath against Dublin.
The one outstanding inter-county senior football managerial post has been filled Wednesday night with Waterford GAA appointing former Meath footballer Paul Shankey as replacement for Ephie Fitzgerald.
Shankey is attached to the Portlaw club with whom he won a county intermediate title in 2016 and subsequently managed the senior team after transferring earlier from the Royal county and Kimainhamwood. He has been appointed on a two-year term with Mikey Cronin (Carrick Davins) appointed as coach. Cronin will also take charge of the county's Under 20s.
Shankey will replace Ephie Fitzgerald, who stepped down after two years at the helm of one of the most challenging positions on the senior inter-county roster. Fitzgerald was also in charge of the Deise's Under 20 footballers.
Waterford won one competitive game this year, against London, and there are serious concerns in the county at the state of the game, with Ephie Fitzgerald revealing that he had eight players for his first training session.
"We knew we weren’t anywhere near the best but we wanted to get the best out of ourselves. Anything we asked them to do, they did. We were behind the eight ball all the time in terms of trying to get fellas to commit but the ones that did, were absolutely fabulous.
"There are serious footballers but everybody wants to be a hurler, as far as I can see. If you don’t make it in hurling then you might play football and that’s kind of sad. If you had 30 odd fellas committed to hurling, fine, but there’s another 50 or 60 that are hoping they get called onto the panel."
Waterford GAA added: "We are delighted and the appointments will be recommended for ratification on a two-year term at the next meeting of the County Board. The additional management and backroom personnel for both teams will be advised at a later date."
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