TWO-TIME ALL-Star Declan Browne will be confirmed as Tipperary’s new U21 football team manager this evening.
Browne, 38, is stepping into the role vacated by Tommy Toomey, who has left the Premier County to link up with Peter Creedon’s new senior regime in Laois.
Moyle Rovers clubman Browne, currently working with the Graigue-Ballycallan hurlers in Kilkenny, is now ready for his first taste of inter-county management.
He will be joined for former Tipperary senior team-mates Philly Ryan (Clonmel Commercials), Peter Lambert (Ardfinnan) and Liam England (Inane Rovers, Roscrea), along with Andrew Lacey of Arravale Rovers.
Meanwhile, senior manager Liam Kearns is adding Jerome Stack to his backroom team as coach for the 2017 campaign.
Stack, a former Kerry U21 coach, worked alongside John Brudair with the Limerick seniors in 2015 and he spent the previous two seasons alongside former Laois boss Tomás Ó Flatharta.
Stack guided Dromcollogher-Broadford to Limerick SFC glory in 2012, and will now link up with fellow Kingdom native Kearns. Previously Stack managed Feale Rangers in 2007 to win their first Kerry senior football title in 27 years.
Kearns is also confident that he can fill the void left by Toomey, as former Tipperary and Kildare star Brian Lacey and performance analyst Michael Byrnes will perform key roles behind the scenes next season.
Kearns, who brought Tipperary to the All-Ireland SFC semi-final this year, is retaining the services of selectors Shane Stapleton and Paul Fitzgerald, while David Moriarty (strength and conditioning) and Ian Dowling (physio) are on board once again.
There’s a change at minor level where Mick O’Sullivan and Mattie Doherty are essentially swapping roles – with David Power returning to his native county.
O’Sullivan was manager this year but is now stepping back to a selector’s role, with Doherty taking over as boss.
There’s an added bonus for the minor set-up as Power, who managed the Wexford seniors for the past two seasons, is also on board as coach.
Power guided the Tipp minors to All-Ireland glory in 2011 before serving a stint with the U21s, and latterly Wexford.
Kildare man Johnny Nevin, principal at Maynooth Post Primary School, remains involved as a minor selector and Jason Coffey will continue as strength and conditioning coach.
All proposed appointments have been given the green light by Tipperary football board chiefs but are subject to ratification at county board level, with the monthly gathering pencilled in for tonight in Thurles.
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