There’s been a big turnover in club management positions within the county since the conclusion of the club championship back in October and the New Year has begun with news of a notable appointment.

County champions Ballintubber have been in the market for a new jefe for the last few weeks following Tony McGarry’s unexpected pre-Christmas decision to leave the club for Ballina Stephenites, having steered the Tubbermen to a second county title and league honours in his twelve months in charge. It’s now been announced that the man who will take Tony’s place is Peter Forde whose most recent management gig was with Castlebar Mitchels, where, ironically, his charges there lost out to Ballintubber in the 2010 senior county final.

Confirmation of the Ballinrobe man’s appointment is here. While Mike Finnerty is obviously correct in this report to point to the new man’s management pedigree, it’s obvious that he’s being more than a little charitable where it comes to his age. If Peter really was 39, that would mean that he was just a tender ten years old when he won his All-Ireland U21 medal with the county back in 1983. While I recall well from following that campaign at close quarters what a formidable gent Forde was back then, even he wouldn’t have put himself about like he did in 1983 if he had just a mere decade of living on the clock.

It’s not just the Ballintubber vacancy that has now been filled, with that same Mayo News report stating that former Tourmakeady manager Jack Grimes has taken over at Garrymore while Michael Moyles is expected to be installed as the new Crossmolina boss where he’ll replace John Maughan. Before Christmas it was confirmed that Pat Holmes would be staying with Castlebar for another year and that former Roscommon selector Mark O’Dowd had replaced former Mayo coach Kieran Gallagher at Ballaghaderreen.