Sports Desk: Speculation growing that Mick will quit

But unless McCarthy agrees to a severance deal with the FAI before Friday, it’s highly unlikely he will announce a decision to step down to the nation before informing his employers. He is due on the show to talk about his World cup memoir, which has been selling slowly in Irish bookshops. Whatever about the row in Saipan, Roy Keane certainly won the book war by getting his book, written with Eamon Dunphy, out at the end of August. It has been selling like hotcakes since then.
In the meantime, we have had three more World Cup books: “The Gaffers,” by Paul Howard of the Sunday Tribune, which examines the relationship between
McCarthy and Keane; Niall Quinn’s autobiography, written with Tom Humphries of the Irish Times, and, finally, McCarthy’s book, written with Cathal Dervan.

NEW KERRY CAPTAIN
Kerry will have a new football captain next year, but we will have to wait until Nov. 10 to get an idea of who will replace Dara O Se as captain of the
Kingdom. The general feeling in Kerry since the All-Ireland final loss Armagh was that An Gaeltacht would probably win again and give O Se another
opportunity to bring home the Sam Maguire Cup, while his uncle Paidi was in charge of Kerry.
But last Sunday, An Gaeltacht were beaten by Kilcummin, while Kerins O’Rahillys beat Dr. Crokes in the other semifinal. Corner back Michael McCarthy is the only Kerry player in the Kilcummin team, while Kerins O’Rahilly have two county players in Declan Quill and Barry O’Shea.
Meanwhile, D.J. Carey gave what many observers regarded as his best-ever display as Gowran Young Irelands beat Dunamaggin in the Kilkenny county final. But Carey has gone on record to say that he doesn’t want the captaincy of the county team, having had his term as skipper. Carey says the honour should go to his club colleague Charlie Carter, but then Carter was not even a regular in Brian Cody’s team this year and the honor could go to some other Gowran player.

RULES TEST
A SUCCESS
Following the huge turn out for the second test at Croke Park 10 days ago, the GAA are set to continue the International Rules series with Australia. A crowd of 71,000 attended the second test, the biggest attendance ever for an Irish team, in any code, for a home game. But the GAA has rejected Australia’s suggestion that next year’s series be held in Ireland again. The Aussies fear that attendances Down Under could be affected because of a clash with the Rugby World Cup.
“We would see the series as being very much based on a two-year cycle,” Dermot Power, the GAA’s marketing manager, said. “Our management teams are appointed for those periods and for players you would have to say the possibility of travel is part of the attraction involved.”
The tests may be put back to late October with the suggestion that one of the games be played on Oct. 31, 24 hours before Ireland play Australia in the Rugby World Cup in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, at home this weekend the focus is on the ailing Railway Cup competition. The football finals will be played in Galway with the hurling competition in Kilkenny. Once again Ulster football manager Brian McEniff seems to be the only one taking the competition seriously. The Donegal man has even had trials games to select the Ulster team.

MAUGHAN BACK
AT MAYO
John Maughan has returned to the job of Mayo football manager. He takes over from Pat Holmes. Maughan, who has also coached Clare and Fermanagh, has confirmed that former Mayo star and international basketball player Liam McHale will be one of his selectors. And Mickey Moran is the new Derry football manager. The Derry native had spent the last six years managing outside the county, two in Donegal and four in Sligo. But there’s been a shock in neighboring Tyrone, where Art McRory has stepped down two weeks after being reappointed along with Eugene McKenna. McRory’s says he is opting out for personal reasons. Now it’s expected that McKenna will reapply for the job on his own, but there’s also speculation that Tyrone could promote the Under-21 joint managers Mickey Harte and Fr. Gerard McAleer.
In Offaly, Paul Kelly of Edenderry should have his appointment to replace Padraig Nolan as senior football manager clarified at a County Board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Kelly’s selectors are expected to be Eddie Fleming (Clara) and Kevin Gavin (Ferbane). But there is no news yet on a new hurling boss in the Faithful County.
Meanwhile, Nicky English, who quit as Tipperary hurling manager a few weeks back, may be tempted into an advisory role with Dublin in the future where he now lives and works. Former Kilkenny star Kevin Fennelly is still expected to be offered another year in charge of The Dubs. And former hurling captain Conor Hayes is favorite to take over from current manger Noel Lane in Galway.

DUFF AILING
A hamstring injury suffered playing for the Republic against Switzerland at Lansdowne Road two weeks ago could prevent Damien Duff from achieving his lifetime ambition to play against Glasgow Celtic. The young Dubliner has always been a big Celtic fan and he is certain to miss Blackburn Rovers UEFA Cup game against Celtic at Parkhead tomorrow night. And Blackburn manager Graeme Souness says that Duff could also miss the second leg at Ewood Park a week later.
“Damien won’t be back until the Aston Villa game early next month or even beyond that,” Souness said. “It’s a massive blow for us, but with a hamstring problem you just can’t push things. Time has to come into play with injuries like these, but Damien is a young lad and hopefully he will heal quickly.”

CONNACHT DRAW
MONT DE MARSAN
Connacht’s reward for beating French club Mont de Marsan in the first round of the Park Pen European Challenge, is a date against another French club in
the second round. The Westerners will now play Narbonne in France on Dec. 7 with the second leg in Galway on Dec. 15.

BERTIE BOWL LIVES
There is still hope for the so-called Bertie Bowl or National Stadium in North Dublin. Last week, Sports Minister John O’Donoghue said there had been
expressions of interest from 23 groups in the private sector. The submissions will now be examined in consultation with the Office of Public Works, Campus Stadium Ireland, the National treasury Management Agency and the attorney general. I would like to see a new corporate sponsor for the stadium as we are all fed up hearing about the “Bertie Bowl” by now.

NO OPEN SPONSOR
No news yet of a sponsor to replace Murphy’s for next Irish Golf Open. Already Ireland has lost its traditional date at the end of June, which has now gone to the French Open. If a sponsor is not found by November, Bord Failte may step in.
Last week, the Irish government signed up Ryder Cup star Padraig Harrington to promote Irish tourism up to 2006, the year the Ryder Cup comes to the K Club in County Kildare. Golfing vacations are now worth euro 144 million to the Irish economy with about 220,000 people visiting the Emerald Isle for golf each year. Harrington says he would like to see an Irishman captain the European team four years from now.

WANTED: STRIKER
The Irish soccer team badly needs to find an old fashioned striker to replace Niall Quinn. Over the years, we have always had big old-fashioned center
forwards who were good target men and who scored goals — players like Frank Stapleton, Don Givens and Noel Cantwell. It was obvious in the game against Switzerland earlier this month that Robbie Keane and Damien Duff are not able to get their heads to crosses. And Clinton Morrison, is not a great header of the ball.
On the same day as Mick McCarthy’s team were going down to the Swiss, Millwall’s Richard Sadlier, who has been touted as a possible replacement for Quinn was having another hip operation in London. Sadlier, who made his senior debut against Russia last February, will be out for at least three months. Sadlier almost made the World Cup squad, but a persistent hip problem necessitated an operation. Now Millwall physical therapist Gerry Docherty is confident that this operation will finally solve Sadlier’s problem.
“The surgeon is 100 percent sure that this is the solution,” he said.