KERRY GAA CHIEFS are closing in on appointing Eamonn Fitzmaurice as the county’s new senior football manager  in the wake of Jack O’Connor’s tenure drawing to a close last week.

This morning’s Irish Examiner reports that Fitzmaurice is set to be rubber-stamped after this weekend as the new man at the helm for the 2013 season. The Finuge man was understood to be initially reluctant to walk away from his current role as U21 manager but has now decided that the senior job is too great an opportunity to turn down.

Fitzmaurice is a three-time All-Ireland senior football medal winner with Kerry in 2000, 2004 and 2006 and previously had won All-Ireland U21 football medals with Kerry in 1996 and 1998. At club level he has the unique record of winning a Cork SFC medal with UCC in 1999, a Kerry SFC medal with Feale Rangers in 2007 and three Kerry SHC medals with Lixnaw in 1999, 2005 and 2007.

A selector under Jack O’Connor in the Kerry team that won the All-Ireland senior title in 2009, Fitzmaurice subsequently made the step up to management with the county U21′s this year. He was also drafted in by O’Connor as a coach to the Kerry side midway through this season in the wake of Donie Buckley’s departure from the back room team but  their season ended in defeat at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage against Donegal.

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