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Sports Desk: Kerry favorites to reach final

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Amazingly, next Sunday’s semifinal between Derry and Kerry at Croke Park will be the first meeting between the counties in the championship since then. This time Kerry will be hot favorites following their impressive second-half performance against Dublin. William Kirby is likely to regain his place from Paddy Kelly at midfield and it will be interesting to see if Mike Francis Russell is retained in the full forward line. The Kerry selectors wasted no time in calling Russell ashore when he wasn’t doing the business against Dublin. Kerry manager Jack O’Connor may opt for the more powerful Johnny Crowley or Liam Hassett instead. Seamus Moynihan is unlikely to be fit in time, but as one confident Kerryman put it to me last week “he’ll be fit for the final.”
Derry didn’t win any friends when they ground out a hard fought win over Westmeath in the quarterfinal. Several times in the second half Derry players went down with mysterious injuries just when Westmeath were on a roll. Paddy Bradley and Enda Muldoon are decent forwards, who can score goals, but unlike the sub-editor of 46 years ago I will not sit on the fence and confidently predict a Kerry win.

SANCHEZ PREDICTS
REPUBLIC VICTORY
Northern Ireland extended their unbeaten run to six games when they drew 0-0 with Switzerland last week. New Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez is certainly making a difference since taking over from Sammy McIlroy. And while one shouldn’t read too much into friendlies, Sanchez reckons that the Swiss will be no match for the other Irish team next month.
“On the performance against us, I honestly can’t see the Republic having too many problems in their World Cup qualifiers,” he said. “I know the Swiss did very well against them in the European championship qualifiers last time, but I believe the Republic will reverse it this time. If you compare the Republic with Northern Ireland they have more quality in certain areas of the pitch. The way I look at the Republic side is that they are a Premiership team, made up of Premiership players unlike us.”

MCGRATH READY
FOR RULES TESTS
Irish International Rules manager Peter McGrath will announce his preliminary squad of 40 next Wednesday for the two tests against Australia on Oct. 17 and 24. McGrath, who had great success as Down manager, said that he will not be holding any trial games. “We decided against extended trials . . . [as] quite often players are not available because of the championship,” he said. “So, rather than fatigue people and maybe sicken people we decided to have a more compressed approach this year.” The squad will be reduced to 28 after the All-Ireland football final.

BOHS TAP
FARRELLY
The first trophy of the domestic soccer season will be decided on Monday evening next when Longford Town play Bohemians in the Eircom League Cup final. Longford, who went down to St Patrick’s Athletic in last season’s final at Inchicore, will have home advantage on Monday as the game will be played at their own Strokestown Road venue. It could be a winning start for new Bohemians player-manager Gareth Farrelly, who takes over at Dalymount Park tomorrow. Last week, Bohs confirmed that they had gone for the former Irish international to replace Stephen Kenny, who was sacked following the home defeat by Levadia Tallinn last month. Farrelly, who will be 29 this week, will be the youngest manager in the league.
Meanwhile, Kenny last week was appointed manager of Derry City on a two and a half-year contract, taking over from Peter Hutton, who was acting manager at The Brandywell since Gavin Dykes quit at the end of May.
And Roddy Collins, who is faced with the difficult task of trying to keep Dublin City in the Premier division of the Eircom League, last week put 14 of his squad on the transfer list. Collins said he will bring in new players from England and one of the first to arrive is former Northern Ireland international Keith Rowland.

MULLINS FAVORED
FOR DUBS’ POST
Tommy Lyons hasn’t yet stepped down as Dublin senior football manager, but already the bookies are offering odds on his replacement. Favorite to take over is former Dublin star Brian Mullins. The powerful midfielder, who had a brief stint in charge of he Dubs with Sean Doherty and Bernard Brogan, also had a spell in charge of Derry when he was working as a teacher in County Donegal. Now back in Dublin as director of sport at University College Dublin, Mullins is seen as the ideal man to revive the Dubs fortunes.
Other likely candidates include Val Andrews, currently in charge of Louth; John O’Mahony, who has just stepped down as Galway boss, and former Galway star Brian Talty, who has managed several Dublin club teams. Another name who may be in contention, but not featured on the betting list, is Jack O’Shea. The former Kerry star had a brief spell in charge of Mayo. O’Shea lives in Leixlip, which is close to Dublin. We are unlikely to hear anything definite until the next meeting of the Dublin County Board on Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, Lyons’s predecessor, Tommy Carr, has agreed to stay with Roscommon for at least another year. Carr initially got the job for two years with the option of a third year, which he has now taken up. And we will know on Sept. 2 if the Offaly County Board are going to re-appoint Gerry Fahy as their football manager.

OLD FIRM MEET
It’s early days yet in the Bank of Scotland Premier League, but already it looks like old rivals Celtic and Rangers will be disputing the lead. The first Old Firm meeting of the new season will be played on Sunday when the Bhoys meet the Gers at Parkhead.

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BANNED PLAYER
SWITCHES CODES
Brendan Devenney, who picked up a six-month ban after pushing a referee while playing Gaelic football for Donegal, has now switched his attention to soccer. Devenney, who previously played soccer for Finn Harps, has joined Irish League club Limavady United.
Meanwhile, Limerick footballer Stephen Kelly is currently on trial with Cork City.

TIPP’S BROWNE
DENIES RMORS
Tipperary football star Declan Browne has denied rumors linking him to Limerick. There had been speculation in recent week that Browne was fed up with the internal wrangling in Tipp and would declare for Limerick.
Also, Kerry’s best hurler Shane Brick, who is studying in Limerick, could be about to declare for Pat Joe Whelahan’s team.

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