Big name but that adds unwanted pressure. Also I'm not sure if his reputation is preceding him. I don't think he ever lit it up as Kerry manager despite the win in 2014. Most of all, as you've mentioned John, outside managers just don't work in the GAA.

I'm surprised Kevin O’Brien for what he did and won with Corofin has never been given a chance to manage Galway Seniors.

As for Eamonn Fitzmaurice he was asked recently about a possible return to Inter county management and said you really need to be retired to give full commitment. I wonder what has changed since to convince a Dingle based principal to choose Galway.

Kerry in 2014 had steel.
Literally put a saddle on Murphy and got away with it.
Need a goalie or at least decide which of the two to play as number one
Need two tight corner backs,I would play Kelly as one of them.
In the middle 8 they have a plethora of the same type of players.
They need a few with real pace,like Kobe and Neary last year for Mayo.
No problem with forwards, Finnerty one of the best this year

How could any manager and in this case, Padraic Joyce, be accused of celebrating winning provincial honours a bit too much. Life is for living.

Wonder will he convince Paul Conroy to give it one more year?

Its amazing, and amusing from my perspective, how quickly the nearly men tag has shifted to our neighbours. Yeah the provincials are meaningless where weirdly coming third in the league a greater prize. Savage pressure on galway already with Sam or bust media comments associated with the fitzM appointment

25 years since they last won Sam, lot of pressure on the Kerry man.

I think he'll improve them. I mean they were generally pretty good under Joyce but definitely a sense that some staleness had set in the last 2 years. They hadn't really changed how they played at all even after the new rules came in. It was all very lateral possession based stuff. Fitzmaurice will change that for good or bad. He's a shrewd enough operator to recognise that. They'll be in the mix anyway but will need some luck with injuries. Comer is flying fit at the moment for example but no guarantee he will be next spring/summer.

Galway will give it a good go next year thats for sure but so will Donegal Kerry the Dubs and that county in white that won the All Ireland this year oh yeah Mayo. Fitzmaurice will improve them no end anyway we have too much basking in glory to do to be worrying about Galway. And if you think youve celebrated too much think back to how you felt leaving the gaelic grounds in 2014 heading up the motorway and then go back and celebrate some more

Hi all, I'm hoping to make the Castlebar v Breaffy game today. What's the best for parking near the pitch in Charlestown? Thanks

He might go with youth.Maybe some of the older guys will have to make way for younger talent.I am not sure whats there in Galway in that regard.Its often forgotten that 2014 was abig acheivement for Kerry .....they won that year without Cooper who was their best player.Anyway our job is to retain it now!!

I don’t rate this Galway squad as highly as certain sections of the media and Galway themselves seem to do. They have some good middle-eight players, but a lot of them are quite similar in style: midfield/half-forward/half-back hybrids.

They also seem to lack players who can really lock down opposition forwards. McGrath is probably their best option in that regard, but he’s too small for a lot of the bigger forwards he’ll come up against. Finnerty is their best inside forward, but they’ll need to find another one or two forwards who can complement him and give them more variety inside.

The new rules haven’t really suited the make-up of this squad either, so it’ll be interesting to see whether Fitzmaurice can shake things up, introduce some fresh blood and get them back into the last four. There’s certainly plenty of talent in the county, but in my opinion they have a few more holes to fill than just the goalkeeper position.

I'm amused to see school principals managing elite county teams (Fitzmaurice, Kiely, O'Rourke) - which, as Andy Moran remarked, is a job that consumes all waking hours. I was on a secondary school Board of Management a few years ago, and the principal, never left the building (slight exaggeration). If he had announced that he was going to manage a county team, involving a couple of hours travel there and back a few times a week, we, as board members, would have been astonished.

Fitzmaurice seems to have been head hunted. No mention yet of a backroom team, which is the small print of these appointments, and constitutes the package that aspirants use to impress interview boards.

A question that arises is whether he will do a clean out and go with young blood - Galway seemed to have plenty of up-and-coming youngsters in the league last year. That would be a big call, but it's the type of call that was being urged on Mayo by outside observers over the past few years. I don't know how many well-meaning friends said to me that Mayo needed an outside manager who would come in and wield the axe, because only an outsider would be capable of doing such a thing. Andy ended up doing just that, and yet he kept a fair few established players whom I would have considered vulnerable in a cull.

As Kevin Mulcahy said in his analysis of the All Ireland win, Mayo were able to do the combination of gegenpress and vollgas, because it is in the team DNA, but the idea that it can be instantly adopted by others in a complete turnaround of tactics is something completely different.

Fitzy may have to come up with new ideas, but he's well capable of that, and also well able to maximise whatever talent he has at his disposal.

Catcol,one of the most pleasing things for me on the All Ireland win(of which there were many)was that it was achieved whilst playing the 'Mayo way' by and large. The way we were accostomed to seeing Mayo play through the teen years but without the cherry at the end. The high press and tough tackling of Cillian and Aido back in their hayday,was carried on by Ryan, Daragh and co.
Then the scattergun approach from the back where everyone is an attacker ...ah, poetry in motion.
Them few years of wasted effort confined to the past thank God.

He's a very good analyst. Whether that translates to good management in this new era remains to be seen. I do think they'll get a bounce off him coming in. Things had undoubtedly become stale under Joyce.

Would agree with a lot of that Dreamy . I consider him to be one of the better analysts, fair and very knowledgeable. In fairness he was on the Football Review Committee which breathed huge life into Gaelic Football. It will be interesting to see what style he opts for. He was a big fan of the way Mayo played this year. Whether Galway can replicate that with their big middle 8 I am not so sure. Will also be interesting to see what he does with Walsh and Comer, 2 good players when fit but I don’t see Walsh tackling manically high up the pitch like the Mayo full forward line do. Overall I’d prefer if Galway appointed someone else but it will make for a fascinating Connacht Championship with the AI champs, Galway under new manager and a very decent Roscommon all battling for success. I actually still think the Connacht title is worth winning

Have to say I'm happy with this appointment. There is no one in Galway at the moment capable of hopefully pushing our team on..
Kevin o Brien won All Irelands with Corofin, but that squad he had at his disposal was unreal in fairness.
From what I believe Eamon will have a few Corofin lads in his backroom team..
The change will give everyone here a much needed pep in our step..

Don’t mean to be pedantic but did Jack OShea not mange us in the early 90s?? So we have gone external twice I believe.

Where were Mayo as contenters in 1993 though we were well off competing for Sam, Connacht Football at an all time low in early 90s.Jack O'Shea had just retired from playing with Kerry in 1992.
Not really comparing like with like, he had a really bad 2 years getting hammered to Cork in 93 and losing Leitrim in 1994 and getting relegated to Divsion 2.Thank god we are in such a great position these days.

We have gone external more than twice but just once since 1997 which was the time period referenced by John above.

@Wayne,4 times,oShea,Liam oNeill,Mickey Moran and Brian McDonald

Liam o Neill was probably the start of putting an edge into Mayo football.
An honorary Mayo man.
What a wing back he was and a great player for Knockmore

Fitzmaurice looks a serious appointment for Galway. Has been there and done it, is well used to pressure from all the years with Kerry, and as an FRC member he'll know how to get the best out of Galway under the new rules.

But will all that be enough? Sin scéal eile. Galway fans remember the excitement when Joe Kernan, Ger Loughnane and Henry Shefflin were appointed, but also remember what happened next. There are no guarantees.

It'll be fascinating to watch though.

He will do a good job with Galway, will he win an All-Ireland, maybe. What is more significant in my eyes is his role as principal of a school. How can you give your best to two jobs, one of which is a three-hour drive from the other? The role of school principal is a serious role, or at least it is meant to be.

I am struggling with the fact that he will leave Dingle at 4 pm, get to Galway by 7 pm, leave Galway at 10 pm, and be back in Kerry at about 1 am. Do that 4 days a week; how can one be ready for school and the pressures and responsibilities it brings after that schedule?

Twisted wheel..He admitted he's got a great DP who is Brian O Beaglaioch's mother..In other words she'll be carrying the can for the year !!Don't know how anyone can realistically do either job properly but clearly he feels he's up to it..

I would celebrate beating Galway or Ross in a Connaught final for days.

Great Book John . Read it in a day.

Minor opinion quibble with where you felt Mayo were in decline either side of the millennium. We were favourites to win the All Ireland after that famous day In Tuam in 1999 and already looking at the final. In 2001 after winning the national league, I honestly believe we would have gone all the way if that epic connaught final defeat in The Hyde had gone our way. We were caught by Westmeath six days later, first year back door, Cross won the club all Ireland.

So much of the book resonated with me, and thinking back to where I was, when that game was played, in person and in life.

Congrats.

Good luck to Eamonn (not too much of course). It will make the next years interesting.He has big Castlebar connections I understand

You'd expect they'll get a bounce with a new manager. Unless he has improved his in-game management I think he'll struggle. He got damn lucky in 2014.

I think he's a class appointment for Galway and shows real ambition. Great to see Connacht teams being so high profile now. They're our neighbours and our biggest regional rivals. Driving each other on will benefit one or both of us.

say he try a lot of players in league, making a bold statement. I think galway be relegated into league 2, but still win Connacht, and be a dangerous animal in all ireland series

I'm so intrigued by this appointment. My initial reaction was that it was a shrewd move by Galway, but as the days have passed, and I've listened to the various media bits, I'm not as convinced.

I do think he has an exceptional football mind, and while I know he gets a bit of stick about being so monotone, I think he was head and shoulders above any other co-commenter or analyst on RTÉ. I liked what he said about being curious, and feeling so eager to try new things with these players. I suspect he will be an excellent man manager too.

Watching Joyce consistently fail to get the best out of the riches he has had available to him and maximise their potential as a team has been both a frustration (as a football fan) and a source of great amusement (as a Mayo fan). Galway (as a team) were always inexplicably hyped up by the media, but there is no doubting the individual talent Joyce had available to him, which is probably the reason. Expectations for Fitzmaurice will be very high now, and time is ticking for some of those players, Comer in particular (who I'd actually kinda like to see land the big one - I have gone pure soft since 26/07).

Fitzmaurice however managed Kerry for seven years (albeit with not their finest crop of players, relatively speaking) and only managed to win one All-Ireland. And while no All-Ireland is ever soft, the only reason 2014 wasn't is that we made them work damn hard for it. (GloryDays, I can just about let that go now, maybe). That said, like ourselves, Kerry were unfortunate that the Greatest Team of All Time were around during his tenure. I'd question how he will manage the commute and balance it with full time work and family. but I suppose others have done similar, even if it seems a bit unfathomable.

His choice of backroom team is critical and given that we are already into October, he will need to move quickly. He'll need feet on the ground, and people who know Galway club football inside out.

One of my biggest fears in life (and I am not exaggerating here) was that Galway would, in fact, make good on their threat of winning another All-Ireland before us. Now that they have failed to do that, they can do their worst. A competitive Galway means a competitive Connacht, which is what we surely all want.

And sure, if seeing Fitzmaurice in Galway winds up a few Yerras, sure all the better.

@KOB: Indeed. For some reason I watched the 1999 All-Ireland semi-final against Cork on Youtube (full game coverage there), and we really kicked that one away whilst on top in the first half. Some shocking wides in that period really killed us when Cork came on strong later on.

It was a trip back to the bad old days, thankfully banished now!

@Anne-Marie: You're more generous than I am! I have made my peace with them eventually winning it again- but only after we had captured Sam a few times more ;) I was actually kinda hoping that they would beat Limerick in the hurling final this year, in order to weaken football there for a while. Keeping PJ in the hot seat was also very much a part of that hope!