*Emmet McMahon in action against Kerry’s Sean O’Shea. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE may be one of four counties without a senior football manager for 2025 but efforts to appoint Mark Fitzgerald’s successor cannot be rushed, one of the county’s top footballers has said.
On September 13th, there was widespread surprise when Clare GAA issued a statement to confirm that Mark Fitzgerald had stepped down as manager of the county senior footballers after one year in the role. The Tralee man had been appointed on a two year term, Clare were within inches of promotion to Division 2 of the National Football League and reached a successive Munster final during his season in charge.
Scant detail has been released by Clare GAA on the process in place to appoint Fitzgerald’s successor.
The Clare Echo understands that a shortlist of six to seven names has been compiled but even officers on the County Executive have not been informed if a committee has been established tasked with appointing the next manager.
As first reported by The Clare Echo, Michael Neylon, Declan Downes and Declan O’Keeffe are among the candidates interested in the role along with personnel from outside the county.
Speaking on The Clare Echo’s sporting podcast, The Water Break, Clare forward Emmet McMahon said time must be taken to make the right appointment in what he expects to be a big year for the county in 2025.
“It is important not to force these things, it is a massive year for Clare football and for everyone to rope into it and have full commitment from everyone and funding, it is very important to not rush something and pull something together out of nothing either, if it means taking an extra two or three weeks for a manager to get their ticket together if they are waiting on some club managers coming back from outside the county, it is important not to rush it and I know we’re gone into October, as long as it is the right man for the job and has full commitment and support from everyone involved then hopefully it will be a big year for Clare football and we’re all looking forward to it as players,” he said.
McMahon admitted that players already out of the club championship were “in a bit of limbo” in terms of preparation for next season. He outlined, “Lads exited the club championship this weekend and there’s some lads out of it two weeks now, usually after two or three weeks of downtime you would be getting onto a S&C coach or a coach to work on skills to see what you can improve on or get better in the gym, without that guidance now you’re in a bit of limbo, I know there’s good lads around that you could ask but over the next couple of weeks we’d want to get going”.
Kildysart’s Emmet said the announcement of Fitzgerald’s exit came as a big surprise to players. “I was actually only talking to him two weeks previous to his announcement that he was leaving at a Shannon Gaels game against Clondegad, it was a big surprise and a pity. I know we had a bad end to the championship but it wasn’t a bad year, I know a lot of people would have called on us to go down after all the players that had left but we’ve still a very good group there.
“It was a pity he left, we were having a joke that our regular group chat is nearly just the players group, they seem to be all leaving us but whoever takes over the job needs to have full and utter commitment to bringing Clare senior football to the next step and that goes for everyone, it was a big surprise and it’s big boots to fill. We go again, that is the ruthless nature of it, we’ll have a little bit of a bee in our bonnet for next year and have that extra bit of grit, knowing that if lads go away to Kerry that we will always be here in Clare as players, we’ll always be around and keep plugging away,” he added.
According to the St Caimin’s secondary school teacher, the new manager must have the drive to bring Clare forward. “It was a very tough job for anyone to fill Colm’s boots and when we were down at the very bottom with so many lads gone, in fairness to Mark he stepped up and put his boots in for what wasn’t an easy job, we can carry that torch on to the next person that comes in. As long as we get full backing for everyone and one hundred percent commitment from whoever takes over, hopefully we’ll be in a good place to drive on from Division 3 and have a good Munster and All-Ireland championship”.
