Ciarán Sheehan appointed as Cork minor football selector

Ciarán Sheehan will serve as selector of the Cork minor football team next year.

The appointment of the Éire Óg man, a member of the county’s successful All-Ireland-winning side in 2010, was confirmed at Tuesday night’s monthly county board meeting at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Having guided Cork to the All-Ireland minor title last year, manager Keith Ricken is continuing in the post for a third season and the only major change to his backroom team is Sheehan coming on board to succeed John McNulty.

Maurice Moore and Billy O'Connor continue as coaches with the other selectors being Vincent Cronin and Clive Cremin.

Sheehan, who played senior for Cork from 2010-13 before moving to AFL side Carlton Blues and then again in 2020 and 2021 following his return home, had been part of Bobbie O’Dwyer’s U20 set-up following his inter-county retirement. In recent years, he has played hurling for Russell Rovers and captained them to the 2024 Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier JHC.

As expected, Kieran Morrison (St Catherine’s) and Fergal McCormack (Mallow) were confirmed as the minor and U20 hurling managers respectively, having been proposed by the appointments sub-committee last month. Their selectors will be confirmed at a later date.

Debate on the make-up of the county hurling and football league produced mixed views, with some dual clubs in favour of reducing the number of games played.

Currently, the codes alternate each weekend from March-June, with seven ten-team divisions, meaning 18 weeks of consecutive action for those playing at such a level.

A vote on the format will take place at the November board meeting. The future of the county U21 championships was also a source of discussion.

Elsewhere, the report from the recent Munster Council meeting confirmed that the next provincial club SFC final between Cork and Kerry representatives will take place at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, with Páirc Uí Chaoimh or Páirc Uí Rinn hosting the one after that and home-county venue alternating thereafter.

It was also revealed that each county in the province is to receive €500,000 from Munster’s strategic infrastructure fund.