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13th Sep 2024

Paul Galvin lands new coaching job at title-chasing club

Ryan Price

The former Kerry wing-forward had recently been linked with a role on the new-look Kildare panel.

Paul Galvin has joined the Kilmacud Crokes coaching staff, a week before they’re due to face Ballyboden St Endas in the Go Ahead Ireland Senior Club Football Championship quarter-final.

The four-time All-Ireland winner was linked with various other coaching roles, including Brian Flanagan’s Lilywhites backroom.

Instead he has chosen to team up with Robbie Brennan at the Dublin club, who are chasing their fourth county senior football title in a row.

The three-in-a-row Dublin and Leinster champions also won the All-Ireland club title in 2023.

Brennan revealed that they brought in the Lixnaw native at the close of last season, and he has been working behind the scenes with the team all summer.

“He’s got two or three really specific things he goes after and we can actively see it in our games and see it in our numbers and what we do,” Brennan told Paul Keane of the Irish Examiner.

“It’s been brilliant to get him,” he added. “He’s got certain things he goes after and he’s been driving those standards with the lads and our numbers would show that that’s went up since he’s come in so it’s a big plus to have him.”

14 December 2019; Wexford manager Paul Galvin, right, arriving to St Patrick’s Park with Sami Dowling, Strength and Conditioning coach, prior to the 2020 O’Byrne Cup Round 2 match between Wexford and Laois at St Patrick’s Park in Enniscorthy, Wexford. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Galvin joins an already impeccable outfit. Crokes shared the spoils with Thomas Davis in their final group game last weekend, extending their unbeaten streak to 21 games in the Dublin SFC, going back to 2018.

Galvin was present in O’Toole Park last weekend, taking a section of the team’s warm-up before taking his place to watch the game at the side of their dug-out.

The footballer turned fashion designer has some valuable coaching experience behind him already. Galvin managed the Wexford footballers for two years, and was also a part of Kildare’s backroom team under Glenn Ryan.

Crokes’ star man Shane Walsh is still recovering from the ankle and hamstring injuries which affected him in the All-Ireland series with Galway, but once he returns, all signs suggest the southside club can secure their fourth title in a row.