Coyle appointed manager of Meath senior footballers

News: Colm Coyle has been appointed the new manager of Meath's senior footballers. This brings to an end after just one year the tenure of Eamon Barry, who succeeded the legendary Seán Boylan 12 months ago.

Since then, Meath have been relegated from Division One of the NFL and lost in the Leinster senior championship to Wexford before going down to Laois in the qualifiers.

Coyle - who is joined by former All-Ireland winning captain Tommy Dowd and Dudley Farrell as selectors - was a member of Seán Boylan's team in the 1980s and played in both the 1987 and '88 All-Ireland finals as a replacement before being selected to start the latter year's replay.

An extremely versatile footballer, he regularly played in both defence and attack during a senior career that lasted up until 1998 and included a third All-Ireland win in 1996.

That year he was, along with Martin O'Connell, the only survivor of the 1980s teams, although the success ended controversially for Coyle personally when, having equalised to force the replay against Mayo, he was sent off in the second match along with Liam McHale.

He had already begun to make his name in coaching by bringing Seneschalstown, for whom he was player-coach, to a Leinster club final. Having served with Boylan as a selector, Coyle accepted a managerial position with Monaghan and in 2003 took the county to a famous victory over then reigning Ulster and AllIreland champions Armagh.

Meanwhile, Pat O'Connor has withdrawn from the race to succeed Conor Hayes as manager of the Galway senior hurlers. The Loughrea manager last night told Galway Bay FM in a statement that he had entered the race because of the desire there was in Galway for an outside manager. He went on to say that he felt that desire could be best fulfilled by the election of Ger Loughnane as team manager.

Tonight's meeting of the Galway hurling board will hear nominations for the vacant position. The overwhelming speculation since the weekend is that former Clare AllIreland winning Loughnane - who has been nominated for the job by the Castlegar club - will be appointed.

A number of players in contact with media in the past few days indicated that the, at times, controversial Loughnane would be the choice of the hurlers.

If these indicators are correct and Loughnane has the support of both players and administrators, his appointment looks assured.

Currently heavily involved in media work with both the broadcast and print sectors, the 1995 Manager of the Year has declined to comment on the situation ahead of the meeting, but has indicated that he is willing to take the position provided he is the consensus choice and that no Galway man runs against him.

So far, O'Connor - one of three Clare men nominated along with Loughnane and current county goalkeeper David Fitzgerald - is the only withdrawal ahead of tonight's meeting.

Others still in the race are: Former Galway manager Matt Murphy, one of Hayes' selectors and All-Ireland winning hurler Seán Silke and Portumna coach Seán Treacy, who led his club to the All-Ireland title last March.

Meanwhile, also in Galway, the county's women footballers have decided to lodge an appeal against Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Armagh.

The basis of the objection is video footage of a shot signalled wide at the end of the match. Had it been deemed a point, Galway would have led, but instead their opponents broke quickly and were awarded a free at the other end, which Sharon Duncan converted for a 1-13 to 1-2 victory.

The appeal will go straight to Thursday's meeting of Central Council.