Gay Sheerin is the new Roscommon senior football manager. The former Roscommon goalkeeper takes over from Donie Shine. Sheerin gave 17 seasons of virtually-uninterrupted service between the Roscommon posts at senior level from 1978 to 1994. Earlier, he played for the county at minor and under-21 level.

The high-point of his senior career was an All-Ireland final appearance against Kerry in the 1980 decider.

Roscommon have decided to make a fresh start with a completely new back-room team. Sheerin's coselectors, Tony McManus, Sean Kilbride and Gerry Fitzmaurice, are also new to the job. McManus and Fitzmaurice were team-mates of Sheerin's in the 1980 All-Ireland final, while McBride had a term with Mayo.

John O'Keeffe has been reappointed as Clare's manager, a logical step given the former Kerry star's degrees of success with the county over the past two seasons. Clare, under O'Keeffe, were unlucky losers to Cork in last year's Munster semi-final, after a replay, and this year' defeated Cork to reach the Munster decider in which they went down to Kerry in Limerick.

Following the success of the Clare hurlers in last Sunday's All-Ireland final, the pressures on O'Keeffe to emulate Ger Loughnane may seem inevitable.