FARNEY SEARCH FOR A MANAGER CONTINUES

COLM SHALVEY REPORTS

The saga that is Monaghan’s search for a new senior football manager had another twist last week, with former Dublin defender Ger Brennan the latest front-runner to remove himself from contention. Brennan had reportedly been the favourite to end Monaghan’s lengthy pursuit of a replacement for Séamus McEnaney, but it appears that he will now remain with Moorefield, who exited the Kildare SFC late last month. It leaves Monaghan as one of three Division One counties yet to appoint a senior football manager as the club season heats up towards the business end.

Meanwhile, Oisín McConville has made a surprise move to become Wicklow manager, just weeks after distancing himself from the Monaghan job. Currently in his third year in charge of Inniskeen, McConville had been tentatively linked with Monaghan, but speaking on the Irish Examiner’s GAA podcast in mid-July, the former Armagh star said: “Inter-county management is just not something I see fitting … It’s very all-consuming, so at this moment in time, it doesn’t fit.” Having subsequently been part of Ray Dempsey’s proposed back-room team that lost out to Kevin McStay’s high-profile ticket in the race to take charge of Mayo for 2023, McConville will instead take his first steps into inter-county management with Division Four side Wicklow.

Speaking on the Second Captains podcast this week, McConville said: “It just seems like the right time. There’s a couple of things that have to be given up and set aside. I felt consciously in the last 12 months if not two years, that I was a little bit in the comfort zone as far as where my life was. Sitting talking about football when I have more to give. “I really enjoyed the club stuff but to go into inter-county management is another step up. It’ll give me a good window into what I need to do in order to improve as a manager. That process…