Former westmeath star keane the new maryland bainisteoir

 

Maryland have appointed former Westmeath player John Keane as their new Senior football manager.

The Rosemount native is a teacher in the local Ardnagrath NS.

Keane was a pivotal member of Westmeath’s first and only Leinster Senior Football Championship winning team in 2004. He put in a ‘man of the match’ performance in that final and has the distinction of being the county’s only dual All Star – winning the awards in 2004 and 2008.

Maryland Chairman Paul Browne welcomed the appointment. “We are delighted to have John coming on board. His experience as a top class player and recent coaching qualifications make him an ideal candidate for the position," he said.

"The appointment has been met with great excitement and anticipation around the club and we are confident that his accession to senior management will be a resounding success,” added Browne.

The Drumraney based club came to national prominence as winners of the inaugural Celebrity Bainisteoir competition in 2008 and went on to win the Westmeath Intermediate Championship that year. They have competed in the Senior grade since, reaching the semi-final stage in 2012. The team is backboned by county stars Callum McCormack and Kieran Martin.

Last Sunday, Maryland defeated The Downs in the Senior ‘B’ football final (see report in this week’s paper).

Interestingly, if things had worked out differently, John Keane could have been part of the Westmeath senior management team for next season.

At various stages in the drawn out process, Jack Cooney was seen as the front-runner for the Westmeath manager position and had Cooney been appointed, it’s likely Keane would have been part of his backroom team.

But the Westmeath manager job went to Tom Cribbin instead and now Keane has a different challenge on his plate.

Maryland were managed by Brendan Clarke for the 2014 season and although they defeated Castledaly in their opening SFC game, they were unable to make it to the knockout stages.