By Paul O’Donovan
Former Sligo manager Niall Carew is believed to be the early front runner for the Westmeath senior football manager’s position.
Following Colin Kelly’s decision to stand down after one season in charge, Westmeath are on the look-out for a new senior football manager, and this week it has been confirmed that 2004 stars, Dessie Dolan and Joe Fallon, have joined the selection committee charged with finding a new manager. The committee will be led by County Board Chairman and Secretary, Billy Foley and Pat Reilly, assisted by Football Committee counterparts, Des Maguire and Niall O’Brien (Rosemount).
Early speculation suggests Carew is one of the leading contenders and the Kildare man has plenty of experience at inter county level, having served as a selector and coach with the Lilywhites in the past (when Kieran McGeeney was at the helm) and manager with Waterford. He then enjoyed a three-year stint in charge of Sligo.
He took over the Yeats County in 2015 and led them to a Connacht final, defeating Galway en route, before they performed creditably against Tyrone in the All-Ireland Qualifiers.
It’s believed Carew was one of the leading contenders in the past before Tom Cribbin took charge of the Lake County, and it will be interesting to see exactly what emerges over the coming weeks. There’s also speculation linking the likes of Jack Cooney, John Keane, Damien Gavin and former Mayo manager John Maughan with the vacant position.
Greville early favourite
Meanwhile, the search is also underway for a new senior hurling manager and Billy Foley and Pat Reilly will be joined by Hurling Committee counterparts Matty Conaty and Willie Murphy, while former hurlers Brendan Murtagh and Christo Murtagh have joined the selection committee. Raharney’s Johnny Greville is the early favourite for the position and he has quite an impressive coaching CV at this stage, having managed the county minors in the past, before guiding Raharney to a couple of senior hurling titles and then making great progress with the Westmeath camogie side.
When Greville was asked this week about the chances of him becoming the new hurling manager, he replied: “Everybody’s ambitious and I love my county. I’ll be very diplomatic and say, ‘I’m ruling nothing in and ruling nothing out’! It would be very difficult to leave this bunch of (Westmeath camogie) players, to be honest, because I think there is an All-Ireland in them. I don’t know where I’ll be next year – I mightn’t be anywhere at all! We’ll see what the winter brings,” said Greville.
