MARC Ó Sé is set to be named the new Kerry minor football manager next week doubling up the family’s involvement at inter-county under age with brother Tomás to remain as Kerry U20 manager in 2026.
The appointments will bring to a close a fevered spell of behind-the-scenes activity at executive level with a number of high profile GAA figures in the county expressing an interest in a role at inter-county level. This could also be seen as limbering up for the starting gun to be the next Kerry senior manager once Jack O’Connor finishes his third term next year or in 2027.
The imminent appointment of the youngest of the Ó Sé brothers means Wayne Quillinan will not be continuing as minor manager into a fourth campaign. Quillinan was believed to be eyeing a step up to the Under 20 gig and had a heavyweight sidekick lined up in club colleague Kieran Donaghy, who left his position as assistant coach in Armagh after this year’s Championship.
There is a well-founded view in Kerry that Donaghy should be brought into the inter-county coaching realm in his home county with an eye to the future, but Kerry chairman Patrick O’Sullivan was keen to keep Tomás Ó Sé on board for a fourth season with the Kerry U20s. Former Kerry senior manager Peter Keane also had an interest in getting back involved as a potential Under 20 manager but that option was not pursued.
Appointing Marc Ó Sé to the minor gig would be seen as a statement move by O’Sullivan and the executive, but it is not without risk. Ó Sé has coached, with some success, at local level with Listry and Listowel Emmetts and also with Tralee CBS in Munster colleges. On that basis he should have a good sense of the crop of talent coming through for the U17 grade in 2026 but this will be his first management/coaching foray into the inter-county arena. Local sources indicate he will bring Listowel’s Noel Kennelly in with him on the minor ticket.
WAYNE’S WOE: Wayne Quillinan will not be continuing into a fourth campaign with the Kerry minors and has not got the nod for the U20 gig. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Quillinan has had three campaigns as Kerry minor manager, losing All-Ireland semi-finals in 2023 and 2024, and agonisingly coming up shy by a point against Tyrone in the decider this year.
Tomás Ó Sé’s Kerry U20 management team will be slimmed down next year. Aidan O’Shea, the son of Jack O’Shea and coach to Mercy Mounthawk’s formidable Corn Ui Mhuiri squad, will no longer be involved on the coaching side, and neither will selector and former Kerry chairman Sean Walsh from Moyvane. However, there is talk of another former All-Ireland winner coming on board as a selector – Laune Rangers’ Mike Frank Russell.
NATIVE PRIDE: Former Kerry footballer Kieran Donaghy at July’s All-Ireland final in Croke Park. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Tomás Ó Sé is still seen by many as the favourite to succeed Jack O’Connor as senior manager but the presumption by some that the Dromid man (who turns 65 next month) will only remain in charge for one of his new two-year term is a suspect one. O’Connor has been reinvigorated by the game’s rule changes and the Kingdom’s 39th Sam Maguire success this year and is already meeting senior players and eyeing up fresh squad material for the new year. No decision has yet been taken whether Kerry will participate in the McGrath Cup in the new year.
Austn Stacks’ Donaghy may take a year out from inter-county involvement, though he has been approached by a number of high-profile counties sounding out his interest in coming on board. He is very unlikely, despite persistent whispers, to get involved with Padraic Joyce’s Galway as coach. The Tralee man will be a live and formidable contender to be involved in the next Kerry senior management.
However, the queue for that prestigious posting has already formed.