Former star midfielder Walsh tipped to become new football boss

FORMER Sligo manager and double All-Ireland winner Kevin Walsh remains the red hot favourite to take over as the next Galway senior football manager from Alan Mulholland who stepped down from his position last week.

Galway County Board Chairman, Noel Treacy, gave a strong indication last week that the next manager will come from within the county, a strategy aimed at providing continuity following Mulholland’s three year stint at the helm.

The Galway County Board are also working within very tight financial constraints, something that again points the way to a local appointment, for what is likely to be a three year term.

Walsh, was generally regarded as doing a good job from limited resources during his tenure at Sligo, while his background as Galway’s top midfielder over recent decades, won’t do any harm to his cause.

The Killanin man is nearly an unbackable favourite to take the job at 1/5 with John Mulholland Bookmakers this week, although as we all know from past experiences there can be ‘many’s the slip between cup and lip’.

All the football clubs in the county have this week received nomination papers for the position that must be returned to the Galway County Board office by Friday, September 5. Nominations will also be submitted to appoint a new Galway minor manager on the same date to succeed John Donnellan.

Galway Football Committee Chairman, Seamus O’Grady, told Tribune Sport that the closing date for nominations for both positions was Friday, September 3.

“After that, all of the nominees will be consulted on their interest in the position with an interview committee made up of Football Committee and County Board representatives carrying out a detailed interview process. We would expect to have the new managers in place by early October,” said O’Grady.

In a statement last week, the Galway County Board confirmed that Mulholland was stepping down due to ‘work and family commitments’ – they thanked the Salthill man for his efforts over the past three years with the seniors and before that with the minors and under-21s.

Last week, Mulholland said that he had a chat with his two selectors after the Kerry match and they had agreed to talk again in a couple of weeks.

“We all have young families and when the lads decided that they just weren’t in a position to commit for the coming year, I decided that the time was right to move on.

“The job takes up your life – and I don’t mean that in any bad way – but the one thing I didn’t want was for things to drag on. There has to be certainty about those things and now the way is clear for the new man to be appointed,” said Mulholland.

In contrast to other times when managerial vacancies arose, Kevin Breslin of Mulholland Bookmakers said that there hadn’t been a strong interest in the betting.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.