[Sport] Former Kerry and Mayo coach Buckley joins forces with 'Banty' in coup for Monaghan.

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Monaghan have strengthened their backroom team with the addition of Donie Buckley as head coach for 2021.

 

Buckley’s link-up with Monaghan’s footballers comes just days after Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney confirmed that Kieran Donaghy, another Kerryman, would be part of his coaching team next year.

 

Buckley was controversially removed from the Kerry backroom team by manager Peter Keane earlier this year, a decision which is understood to have grated with some of the players.

 

He had been part of the management ticket in 2019 as Kerry brought Dublin to an All-Ireland final replay.

His presence on the management team was understood to have been a condition of acceptance of other candidates at the outset with the Kerry board keen that his experience could be tapped into by his native county.

 

Monaghan manager Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney has been looking to add to his backroom team since Peter Donnelly left as strength and conditioning coach to return to Tyrone and Conor Laverty accepted an offer to manage Down’s U-20 team. Jonny Davis, who had been in Tyrone, will be strength and conditioning coach.

 

The addition of Buckley should provide big impetus for Monaghan as they seek to pick up the pieces after a disappointing extra-time loss to Cavan in the Ulster preliminary round in October. Buckley is a much sought-after coach who spent six years under three different managers in Mayo, a period when they lost three All-Ireland finals to Dublin by a point.

 

Monaghan will have Ulster opponents – Donegal, Armagh and Tyrone – in their four-county Division 1 group in 2021.