Gaelic Games

Eamonn Fitzmaurice rules out a return to management

All-Ireland winning Kerry manager says he is happy to support Kerry from the sidelines

Eamonn Fitzmaurice has ruled out a return to management in the near future. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Wed Aug 10 2022 - 14:15

Former Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice has ruled out a return to management in the near future. Speaking on The Sideline View Podcast, Fitzmaurice, who left his role in 2018, said he is happy to support Kerry from the sidelines after spending as long as he has in the backroom set-up.

After a playing career that featured nine Munster titles and five All-Irelands, Fitzmaurice spent two years as a selector before taking up the manager’s job between 2014-18. He won a solitary All-Ireland title as manager in 2014.

Fitzmaurice, a school principle, said the time current manager Jack O’Connor can dedicate to the job now that he is retired is something he cannot match. He has also ruled out the prospect of managing another county.

“I couldn’t ever see myself managing another county to be honest,” he said. “I couldn’t manage against Kerry, I’d find it very strange. I think when you’re involved in your own club or your own county, there’s something in you inside in your soul that kind of drives you to another level that maybe if you were involved with a different group you wouldn’t quite have but in terms of Kerry, I don’t know, I don’t know.

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“You never say never but at the moment it would be a definite because of the thing that Jack has, and I think he’s mentioned it himself, is the fact that he’s retired from teaching. He has the time to put absolutely everything into it and I think if you’re doing it, that’s the way it has to be. You have to be able to put your whole time into it to do it to the level it needs to be done now. In the short-term it’s not something I could see happening.

“I feel that between playing and being involved as a selector and being involved as a manager, in management alone I was involved for nine years between, I was six years the manager and I was two years a selector with Jack, I was in charge of the under-21s so I feel almost like I’ve done my bit and I really enjoyed it and there’s loads of other lads within the county that are chomping at the bit to get a cut at it as well so I’ll be happy out to support them from the sidelines rather than putting myself in the firing line again.”

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