JOHN EVANS HAS hailed the “great appointment” of Liam Kearns as Tipperary’s new senior football team manager.
Ex-Premier County supremo Evans recruited the services of his fellow Kerry native for the 2015 campaign with Roscommon and the Connacht outfit claimed promotion to Division 1 of the Allianz Football League.
Evans has since left the Roscommon role and Kearns, the former Limerick and Laois boss, is now poised for a return to senior intercounty management with Tipperary.
A football board meeting ratified his appointment last night and county board chiefs are expected to give Kearns the green light in Thurles this evening.
Kearns was in charge of the Limerick U21 footballers when they won the Munster title in 2000, before contesting an All-Ireland final.
And under his tutelage, the Shannonsiders contested Munster senior finals against Kerry in 2003 and 2004, losing the latter after a replay.
Kearns takes over Tipperary on the back of recent underage success, with an All-Ireland minor title annexed in 2011 before another All-Ireland final was contested in the same grade in September.
Tipp have also been crowned Munster U21 champions in 2010 and 2015 and were unlucky to lose against Tyrone in the All-Ireland final last May.
“It’s a good appointment for Liam in that Tipperary have won an All-Ireland minor and have two Munster U21s,” said Evans, who managed the Tipp seniors from 2007-2012.
“There’s experience from the previous U21 win and there’s the new talent coming through.
“You have the two of them merging together with an experienced manager and I used the word experience in that Liam has been out of active duty for about eight years but in the meantime he’s done a degree and when he came on board (with Roscommon) he was looking to gain experience as to the present situation.
“He would certainly be up to speed and he’s a great appointment for Tipperary and the betterment of football.”
Kearns recently completed a strength and conditioning degree from Setanta College and while he hasn’t managed an intercounty team since leaving Laois in 2008, he managed Aherlow to Tipperary SFC glory in 2010.
“His strengths are that he’s his own man, he’s got knowledge from the practical and football sides of it,” Evans added.
“He has come up through Kerry football and he’s also now added the scientific side through his strength and conditioning.
“He’s now a rounded and potent manager but the very important thing is that he’s his own man with his own ideas.”
Evans indicated that he has no immediate plans to return to intercounty management at the present time – but will consider a club position in Kerry.
“No, I’ve taken three months out because I haven’t taken any break in 33 years consecutively.
“It’s a long time, I took three wonderful months out and I’m certainly going to go into club football here in Kerry and catch up with family affairs.”
