O'Brien officially confirmed as new hurling supremo

Clonkill man Kevin O’Brien was officially ratified as the new Westmeath senior hurling manager, at a meeting of the County Committee in Bloomfield House Hotel, Mullingar on Tuesday evening.

Putting forward O’Brien, Frank Mescall, chairman, said he is someone with a vast knowledge of Westmeath hurling and will bring a lot of experience and knowledge to the role.

“He’s one of our own; we’re going in-house. He knows Westmeath hurling inside out. He has twice been in charge of the (county) U20 hurlers, two different stints. He was very successful with Clonkill. He has been involved in the development squads all the way up - at some stage in all of the development squads,” remarked Mr Mescall.

O’Brien was put in place for a two-year term, with the option of a third. He was proposed by Karl Moran (Clonkill), seconded by Conleth McCormack (St Oliver Plunkett’s).

Martin Williams, Lough Lene Gaels, asked about O’Brien’s backroom team.

“It’s not announced. Kevin is on holiday at the minute. I asked him not to tell his backroom team; to keep this process as confidential and as tight as possible," replied Mr Mescall.

"I don’t think his backroom team knows at the minute, so we are not going to announce it tonight. He has a full backroom team in place and that was a key part of the process. There will be a few little things to be discussed in it - gym, strength and conditioning, that type of thing. But he has 90% of his team in place. Part of that, the people within the county who he has, are really experienced and really good. He has a very high profile coach who is hugely respected across the island of Ireland. But we are going to leave it to Kevin to announce that team.”

Ronan Farrell, coaching officer, noted that Kevin O’Brien is involved with the U15 Westmeath hurlers, who are performing well, while Conor Raleigh, a talented hurler in that grade, won the All-Ireland Poc Fada competition. They had a fantastic win over Limerick recently and you could sense O’Brien has great enthusiasm for Westmeath hurling, said Mr Farrell. “Hopefully that shines through at senior level,” he remarked.

Barry Kelly, Coiste na nÓg secretary, raised the term of the appointment and the chairman said hurling clubs have asked for a three-year term for the new manager. “I would be looking at this one as a long appointment,” he said.

Brian McCabe, Fr Dalton’s, agreed with an initial two-year term, with the option of a third, and there was no counter proposal.

Meanwhile, the chairman was critical of how the appointment of a new hurling manager was covered in the media.

“I’m really disappointed that the whole process seemed to play out on media - social media, newspapers. How it happens, I do not know. But almost everything we did was on social media. It’s fine for the person who gets the job, they won’t mind. But you have other people involved who are not successful and you have to be respectful of them,” he said.

Mr Mescall paid tribute to the committee involved, including Keith Quinn (secretary), Willie Murphy (hurling committee chairman), Ian Corrigan (Castletown Geoghegan) and recently retired Westmeath senior hurler Cormac Boyle (Raharney).

“I want to thank them for the professional way they approached the whole process, and the time they gave to it. They were really exemplary,” he said.