Paul Rouse has described managing Offaly’s footballers this past summer as “an absolute honour” – but says he couldn’t give the commitment to manager the team full time.

Rouse came in to replace Stephen Wallace as Faithful County boss last May following the Kerry man’s dramatic departure and steered the team to a qualifier victory over Antrim before narrowly losing out in the backdoor to Clare.

There had been rumours after the team’s championship exit that the UCD historian could stay on but they proved false and John Maughan was officially appointed at the end of August.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Star, Rouse explained that he couldn’t give up the time to take the manager’s position on a full time basis.

“If I lived in Tullamore or the kids were a bit older, it would have been hard going, a huge commitment but I could have managed it,” he stated.

“The manager just has to be there all the time. I’d have had to leave UCD before 4pm, three evenings a week to beat traffic and be back up to Dublin after midnight.

“Maybe in May and June when college has settled but not the rest of the year. I teach in the evenings as well. I train kids’ teams.

“Ultimately I would have had to take a certain amount of leave from work and give up training kids’ teams, and I wasn’t giving up training my kids’ teams, whatever about leave from work.”

Make sure to join the hoganstand.com match tracker on Sunday afternoon for live updates from the provincial club senior football and hurling championships.

Tweet

Most Read Stories