*Michael Neylon (right) celebrates as St Josephs Miltown are crowned 2015 Clare SFC champions. Photograph: John Meyler
Michael Neylon is to stay on as manager of the Clare U20 footballers while he has also returned to the hotseat in St Josephs Miltown.
Neylon is eagerly looking forward to the 2021 inter county U20 football championship.
Following a meeting with members of the Clare GAA executive last week, Neylon has confirmed that he will again manage the Clare under 20 squad in the coming year.
“We are ready to go once we get details of when the championship will take place. The GAA has yet to confirm whether it will be club or county first in 2021 and I expect that a decision will be made following meetings in the coming weeks”, the Miltown Malbay native told The Clare Echo this week.
It promises to be a busy 2021 for Neylon who is also to take charge of his club side, returning to a role he filled three years ago when he led St Josephs Miltown to the Clare title.
Having lost their grip on the Clare title this year, Miltown are keen to return to the top and with Neylon at the helm club members are confident that they have a strong chance of winning back the Jack Daly cup.
In charge of the county U20 side in 2020, he saw his charges narrowly defeated by Cork in the provincial semi-final after they had overcome Waterford in the opening round.
“Players and management have the ambition to succeed. We need to be ahead of Cork rather than a point behind. It takes a lot of work to get ahead but we all believe that there is enough talent in the county to take that step”, the Spanish Point secondary school teacher said.
The manager can call on “quite a number of last year’s panel. We are looking at nine or ten of the team that played against Cork. Hopefully they will all have benefited from that experience. There are a lot of new guys keen to come into the squad having gained experience in what can only be described as an amazing club championship. We are looking forward to working with them”.
Michael’s backroom team will include David Geaney (Dingle), Eoin Murray (O’Currys), Martin Guerin (Liscannor), Sean O’Brien as goalkeeping coach, (St Josephs Miltown) plus strength and conditioning coach Oscar O’Dwyer (Arravale Rovers, Tipperary).
