Kearns chosen as new Offaly football boss

Offaly GAA has selected Liam Kearns as the new manager of the county's senior football team.

"The Management Committee of Offaly GAA is pleased to recommend Liam Kearns as manager of our senior football team for a three-year term," Offaly GAA posted online tonight (Thursday).

The appointment of Kearns is subject to ratification at the next county board meeting, but this will surely be a mere formality.

Kearns was proposed to the Offaly management committee by the specially-convened sub-committee of Michael Duignan (chairperson), Colm Cummins (secretary), Dervill Dolan (treasurer), Stephen Darby and Paul Rouse.

His selectors and backroom personnel will be announced in due course.

Kearns succeeds Mayo's John Maughan, who stepped down in the aftermath of Offaly's Tailteann Cup semi-final defeat to Westmeath.

A native of Tralee, Kearns has huge experience in the Gaelic football scene and is a former manager of Limerick, Laois and Tipperary.

Kearns came very close to winning the Munster senior title with Limerick. And during his time in charge of Tipperary, Kearns guided the county to the 2016 All-Ireland semi-finals, claiming a famous win over Galway en route.

Kearns will be seen as very much a steady hand at the tiller, with a huge depth and breadth of experience all across club and county football.

Most recently he took charge of Clann na nGael in Roscommon for two seasons, and while that didn’t yield a senior championship, the group were consistently competitive, losing out to Pádraig Pearses in the 2020 semi-final and the 2021 final.

Kearns departed his role with Clann na nGael in the early part of this year.

With a significant tranche of key players likely to return to the county panel over the winter, he comes into the Offaly role at a time of real opportunity. And Offaly supporters will be looking forward to the continued development of players from last year's All-Ireland winning U-20 team.