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Keane in management? No longer a farfetched notion

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

But Keane, who appears to be watching his behavior in recent games with Manchester United, has been talking about his future plans.
“I will be 32 in August, and when you reach that age you naturally begin this think about your future,” he said. “If you had asked me two years ago about management, I would have told you it wasn’t even on my mind. Now as I have got a bit older I have spoken to Steve McLaren [former United coach, now Middlesbrough manager] and one or two other people, [I’ve] started to think along those lines about getting my coaching badges and being a manager some day. It’s a road I think I would like to go down, but again it is dangerous thinking too far ahead.”
Meanwhile, Keane’s best-selling autobiography was pipped at the post for the title of Book of the Year in England last week. The book, written by Eamon Dunphy, has been top of the best selling list in Ireland since it was launched last August and has also done well in England. Michael Moore’s “Stupid White Men” won out against the Corkman’s memoirs. The Keane book was also nominated in the biography category, but the award went instead to the late Roy Jenkins for his study of Winston Churchill.

GAA INTEGRATION?
It may surprise some to learn that women’s football and camogie organizations are still separate entities from the official GAA.
Next year’s All-Ireland camogie final, though, could be played as a curtain-raiser to the All-Ireland senior hurling final at Croke Park. This possibility follows the announcement last week of a pilot program to integrate women’s Gaelic football and camogie with the GAA in Counties Down, Galway, Laois, Limerick, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tyrone and Wexford. There’s also the possibility of the football final being played before the men’s final at some stage, but how do they fit in the minor final in each instance?
The program will run from March to October in the eight counties mentioned and will highlight the various challenges integration poses and provide solutions ahead of closer liaisons between the three associations on a national level. “We share common goals and ideals and there is already significant crossover in our activities on the ground in terms of shared facilities, coaching and games promotion strategies,” said GAA President Sean McCague. The GAA was founded in 1884, while the Camogie body will celebrate their centenary in 2004. The Ladies Gaelic Football Association was established in 1974.

SONIA BOWS OUT
Sonia O’Sullivan has abandoned plans to compete in the World Cross Country Championship, following her failure to shake off an Achilles tendon injury at her winter training base in Australia. Last week, O’Sullivan flew to Albuquerque to get treatment from Irishman Gerard Hartmann, who has a clinic there.
“It was a big decision for me to pack my bags and travel with my young daughter Sophie for 28 hours to get to Albuquerque, but I know that it was the right decision for me,” O’Sullivan said. “I know that this injury is going to take time to heal, but I have every confidence in Gerard Hartmann and I know that he cured a similar problem for me seven years ago. I will follow his advice to the letter and I know that I will have to be patient.”
Hartmann, who is in big demand everywhere he goes, recently moved his clinic to the high-altitude base in New Mexico, where he’s treating some of the top athletes in the world, such as men’s marathon champion Khalid Khannouchi and English marathon runner Paula Radcliffe.
“An Achilles tendon injury has brought the curtain down on the careers of several top athletes, but I know that Sonia is prepared to do everything I ask of her in order to get well and I am confident that I can get her back running again,” Hartmann said. “It will take at least six weeks of treatment to heal this injury and at present Sonia cannot even attempt to jog.”
Hartmann is also based in Limerick and O’Sullivan will travel back to Ireland with him on March 9.

GALWAY CAPTAIN OUT
Michael Donnellan could be out of action for the remainder of Galway’s league campaign. The Dunmore clubman broke down in training last week, his first session of this year. Donnellan’s pelvic problems have restricted him to just 30 minutes of football since Galway lost to Kerry in last year’s All-Ireland quarterfinal. “Its not actually a groin problem, but it’s in that area and it’s related to the pelvis,” said Galway manger John O’Mahoney. “It’s a very problematic area and in Michael’s case has obviously not responded to rehab.”
Galway may call on the medical specialists at Glasgow Rangers to try to solve Donnellan’s injury. Rangers midfielder Barry Ferguson apparently suffers from the same complaint as the Galway captain. Sligo’s Paul Taylor and Noel Kennelly of Kerry have had similar problems. Kennelly recently traveled to Australia, where his brother Tadhg is playing Aussie Rules, in search of a cure for his problem.

ASSISTANT REPLACES DOLAN
Eamonn Collins is the new manager of St Patrick’s Athletic, taking over from Pat Dolan, who’s moved to Cork City. Collins, who was assistant to Dolan at Inchicore, in September 1980 became the youngest player to play in a first-class game in England when he lined out for Blackpool against Kilmarnock in the Anglo-Scottish Cup at the age of 14 years and 322 days. Despite this early debut, Collins never really made the grade in England and became a journeyman professional with clubs like Portsmouth, Southampton, Gillingham, Exeter and Colchester. However, he is now making a name for himself as a coach. In their next game, on April 11, St. Pat’s will take on Cork City and former boss Dolan.

SLIGO MAY CONCEDE
The row between the Sligo and Kildare County Boards is expected to be resolved at Croke Park tonight’s meeting of the Games Administration Committee in Croke Park. Sligo initially objected to the fact that Kildare didn’t name their substitutes on the team sheet for the recent league game, nor did they name the starting 15’s clubs. However, Kildare are now claiming that one of the Sligo players was ineligible, having played in the North American and Sligo championship last year. Kildare won the game, but following the discovery of new evidence, Sligo may withdraw their objection and the result would stand.

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MICK TO MANAGE HOMELESS
Mick McCarthy will be back in charge of an Irish team later this year. The man who quit as senior international manager last November will now take charge of the Irish team for the Homeless World Cup in July. The UEFA backed competition will have 24 teams and will be staged in the Austrian city of Graz from July 5-24. The Irish team is being organized by the Big Issue, a magazine that is sold exclusively by the homeless in various towns and cities around Ireland and Europe. The competition will be based on street soccer rules and the squads will be comprised of just 10 players. And hopefully none of them will want to “do a Roy Keane” and return home before the competition gets under way.

IRISH TAKE ON AUSSIES
October is going to be a great time for the Irish Down Under with our rugby and GAA teams both visiting. Dates have now been set for the International Rules Series against Australia. The first test will be played in Perth on Oct. 24, with the second test in Melbourne seven days later. Ireland play Australia the following day in the Rugby World Cup at the city’s Telstra Stadium. The following week it’s the Australia Spring Racing Festival, with the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 4 the main attraction. Last year Media Puzzle won the Melbourne Cup for trainer Dermot Weld. In addition to the huge Irish contingent in Australia, it’s expected that around 500 GAA and rugby supporters will be traveling from Ireland.

KINGDOM TO BUY LAND
The Kerry County Board are in the process of buying 31 acres of land near Killarney, which they’ll develop as state-of-the-art training facility for Kerry’s county teams. The site is at Crohane, between Fossa and Milltown.
“We have been trying to buy some land for the training of Kerry teams for over a year. Most of the county teams have good pitches developed and they want to keep them for the county league and championship,” County Board Chairman Sean Walsh said. “I believe one of the biggest winners will be the colleges, who are finding it very hard at this time of year to get pitches.”

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