County board kickstarts process to find Cooney’s successor

At its monthly meeting in the Mullingar Park Hotel on Thursday night, Westmeath GAA’s county committee began the process to find Jack Cooney’s successor as the Lake County’s senior football manager.

Chairman Frank Mescall paid tribute to the departing Cooney, who has taken up a full-time national player development role in Croke Park, which he commenced last week.

“It’s nobody’s wish that we are in this position,” said Mr Mescall, saying that the Coralstown/Kinnegad man was a tremendous servant to Westmeath and that support for his management was Westmeath was unanimous within the county.

He said that they had known about Cooney’s appointment for some time, but “left it to Jack to go public in his own time”.

“I first came across Jack doing summer camps all the way back in 1991, and even then he was interested in coaching,” Mr Mescall remarked.

The chairman added that Cooney was “very proud of managing his native county” and will continue to work with underage development in Westmeath in his free time. Cooney is completing a PhD, and brings an impressive CV to his new role.

“He’s a huge loss to us,” said Mr Mescall, explaining that Cooney was a man of many parts as Westmeath manager. “There’s a great spirit in that Westmeath football team now, and we can’t lose that.

“It’s nice that Jack finished on a high, leading his team and his county to a national title.

“But life goes on, we have to find a new manager and get the process in place.

“I hope the process won’t be as long and arduous as the one to find a hurling manager, but I think with our appointment of Joe Fortune, it was worth the effort and the wait.”

Mr Mescall informed delegates that the county board has no shortlist of potential candidates for the football job. There was a process in place, and he would take further instruction from the clubs.

Barry Kelly (Mullingar Shamrocks) said that there was a “general feeling” in the county that the setup built by Jack Cooney should remain in place. He said that Cooney’s selectors, Dessie Dolan and John Keane, should be “the first port of call” and be given “first refusal”.

Mr Kelly said that the entire backroom team was immersed in the Cooney-led setup and worked really well together and with the players. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” he said, although adding: “We just have to fix the fact that Jack is gone.”

Delegates appeared to broadly agree with these sentiments – that a new appointment should not signal the complete uprooting of the backroom setup.

However, Garrycastle delegate Peter O’Halloran stressed the need to be “careful not to put the cart before the horse”, and to identify a manager who has “the full support of the county board”.

The chairman recommended that the process of forming a five-man appointment committee be resurrected. The committee will comprise Mr Mescall, secretary Pat Reilly, football committee chairman Des Maguire, football committee secretary Liam Daly and a past player who will be chosen by the board.

Niall O’Brien, Westmeath GAA’s coaching officer, said that it was important “that we move as quickly as we can to get the right person in place”.