Offaly GAA in shock at sudden death of county senior football manager

THE Offaly GAA world was left numb with shock and grief on Sunday evening with the sudden death of the county's senior football manager, Liam Kearns.

The Kerry man was a surprise choice as the Offaly senior football manager last August but had won widespread approval and admiration in the county as he made a favourable impact.

He was on the sideline last Sunday in Longford as Offaly secure their status in Division 3 of the National Football League with a hard earned win. They are scheduled to play Tipperary in Thurles this Saturday evening and then Down in their last game. Two wins would put Offaly right in the promotion hunt but that will be the last thing on the squad's mind this week as they come to terms with absolutely devastating news.

A vastly experienced manager, Kearns had done very good work with Offaly as he got them impressively fit and playing good football.

They had made a good start to their National Football League campaign with wins over Antrim and Fermanagh. This was followed with defeats by Westmeath and Cavan but last Sunday's win in win over Longford lifted all pressure and secured Division 3 football next season.

With Offaly in a rebuilding phase, most supporters were content with staying in Division 3 this season.

A straight talking, no nonsense individual, the players had responded very well to Kearns and his selectors Martin Murphy (Gracefield) and John Rouse (Tullamore).

He had replaced Mayo's John Maughan as manager. A retired garda and 61 years of age, he had previously managed Limerick, Laois and Tipperary senior footballers. He had made most progress with Tipperary, leading them to the All-Ireland senior football semi-final in 2016.

A former member and player with the Austin Stacks club in Tralee, he won an All-Ireland minor football medal with Kerry in 1980.

After being appointed, Offaly manager, he stated that the job appealed to him on a number of levels while the 1 hour 15 minute commute from his Limerick home meant that he wouldn't be spending hours in his car each training night.

“I decided I had enough hunger. If you don't have the enthuasism for it, you shouldn't be doing this. This is a tough job and getting tougher but I had the enthusiuasm to do one more,” he said after being appointed, adding: “All of those things came into play and I decided this was the job that more interested me. They are very realistic about where they are.”

Kearns also said: “I really want to make a positive impact with Offaly football and leave it in a better place than I found it this year. There are good young players here and good underage teams but there is no guarantee they will make senior. That is the challenge.

“The first year is really about creating a panel and getting a depth in that panel. I would say getting stability into the panel and getting the best players onto the field. That is not happening at the moment. If we can get all of those things right. . . . I want to create a culture in the Offaly senior football set-up. If we come to the end of this year and feel we have improved, we will see where that takes us. I am not saying Division 3 or the Tailteann Cup or anything like that. We will take every game as we find it, do our best to get a result and see where it takes us.

“Division 3 is tough. Westmeath, Cavan and Down will be favourites. Then you have four or five more that all feel they can beat each other and we will be in those. Tipperary, Longford, ourselves, Antrim and Fermanagh. We will find out where we stand and we will take it from there.”

He had coached Roscommon senior footballers while he was manager of Clann na Gael in the county before taking the Offaly job.

There had been a whiff of controversy early in his term when Offaly conceded a walkover to Louth in the O'Byrne Cup semi-final. Offaly had qualified for the semi-final with a win over an understrength Dublin team but Kearns was backed by the County Board in pulling the team out of the Louth game – he had complained about player load and was annoyed at Louth being allowed to not fulfill a fixture against Wexford on the same night they played Dublin.

He had been less than enthusiastic about the O'Byrne Cup from the start, talking about being down players because of Sigerson Cup commitments. All of that was forgotten as Offaly hit the ground running in the National Football League and there was general satisfaction at the way the team was going and the players were responding to him.

Offaly are away to Longford in the first round of the Leinster Senior Football Championship in a few weeks time.