Tom Carr was overwhelmingly ratified as Dublin's new football manager at last night's county committee meeting in Parnell Park and has named two of the selectors on his management team, leaving one vacancy to be filled at a later date. Richie Crean, whom Carr knows well from his club Lucan Sarsfields, and Dom Twomey of Kilmacud Crokes are the two selectors named. All three are holding a press conference tomorrow and are not available for comment until then. Their appointment is for three years.

Crean coached Lucan up from intermediate to senior, whereas Twomey was a selector with current Offaly manager Tommy Lyons when he led Kilmacud to the All-Ireland club in 1995. A former under-21 selector, he also worked with Lyons - who recently named Twomey as the biggest influence on his football career - in Offaly last season.

Last night's meeting wasn't without its moments of truculence as delegates protested the overlooking of the candidates put forward by the clubs at last month's nominations stage. In the end the vote in favour of the new management team was 47 out of the 58 present, with two against and nine abstentions.

At the start of the extraordinary meeting, chairman John Bailey announced the names of the proposed management team. There were immediate queries as to when the sub-committee appointed to make the recommendation had actually made its decision, given the high levels of accurate speculation in the media last week. The management committee was accused of "only treating delegates in Dublin as robots".

Bailey replied that the decision hadn't been reached until the previous Monday night and had been communicated to Carr on the Tuesday. Disappointed candidates were informed personally.

Gerry Brady, a member of the sub-committee, said that a lot of work had gone into the process. "We interviewed people over 12 hours and the quality of the candidates was exceptional. They talked to us about the problems facing Dublin football and as a result we had a very tight situation. I would have been happy with any one of four of the six interviewed. Hopefully we won't be shown up. Maybe we will."

Although the appointment is for three years, Brady pointed out that Carr had agreed that should things go very badly, he will have to step down. "We told him that we can't run into trouble," according to Brady.

Not all the delegates' contributions raised queries about the nomination. One asked: "How come we accepted Mick O'Grady (Dublin hurling manager) without this bloody nonsense?"

Bailey closed the debate with a belligerent call to arms. "I'm hoping tonight that we send a clear signal that we have one aim, one objective. There are enough knockers knocking Dublin over the last seven months. It's time to put them to bed and put them out of existence. It's time to stop all this bullshit. We have to be positive, not negative."

After the vote was taken, Bailey called it as 56-2 in favour. On a recount caused by objections that a number of delegates had abstained, the vote was declared as 47-2 with nine abstaining.

Meanwhile, the Leinster Council confirmed yesterday that they will be calling a number of people in connection with the fight that broke out in the last minute of Sunday's Leinster club final in Navan between Erin's Isle of Dublin and Kildare champions Clane.

According to provincial secretary Michael Delaney, video may help identify some of the participants from the sideline. He also acknowledged that there was a possibility that Kevin McLoughlin, the Clane player dismissed with Charlie Redmond at the end of the match, may have been confused with another player.

"The scenes that took place weren't acceptable. I know it was near the finish and over in a flash, but it was not acceptable. I didn't know it had been televised, but either way we'd have had to act. It's a pity because it was a smashing game and an investigation is the last thing we'd want, but when you enlist you must soldier."

The provincial executive will meet on December 17th and those involved will have plenty of notice and the right to attend.