ON Tuesday afternoon, Fermanagh County Board confirmed that senior football manager Kieran Donnelly will remain in charge for a fourth season.
Joe Baldwin once again takes charge of the senior hurlers following their Lory Meagher Cup success this year.
At underage level, Maurice McLaughlin remains in charge of the under 20 footballers while Cyril Dunne continues as under 17 hurling manager.
Tempo man Niall McElroy will no longer be in charge of the under 17 footballers having opted out after two seasons at the helm.
Donnelly’s senior football backroom team of Fearghal Quinn, Ronan O’Neill, Ronan Gallagher, Leon Carters and Ger Treacy will remain as it was as they endeavour to get the team out of Division Three next season after narrowly missing out on retaining their Division Two status this year.
“It’s always a great honour, and that’s one thing I never take lightly, to manage your own county” said Donnelly.
“We feel as a management team we put a lot of work into these players and have a good relationship with them and that just made it easier to stay on.”
Donnelly will have to await the outcome of Ultan Kelm’s recent trials with AFL side Freemantle to learn of his availability next season with a decision on that expected in the next five to six weeks.
The Belleek man would be a big plus for Donnelly but he also acknowledged “he’s a good lad and he wants to be a professional athlete and Australia gives him that opportunity, so you wouldn’t begrudge any player that, but no doubt, we would love to have him with us.”
Baldwin will take the senior hurlers for a sixth season and he’s looking forward to the challenge;
“We talked it over with the rest of the management team and we decided we’d give it one more year.
“Last year was really good and we’ve earned the right to play in the Nicky Rackard. We felt the last time we were in it, we held it the first year and the second year we were very disappointed in the manner in which we lost games by a single score.”
Coaches Daíthí Hand, Peter Galvin, S&C Aaron Smiley, sports pyschologist Annie Higgins, kitman and logistics Ollie McShea, videographer Seamus Breslin and Dr John Porteous and Dean McDermott will all be on board again this season.
The hurlers will begin training in November but the management team plan to meet up early next month.
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