GAA: THERE ARE currently just five senior football managerial vacancies amongst football counties. Mayo, Galway, Meath, Fermanagh and Monaghan are all in the process of making new appointments over the coming weeks whereas Limerick are set to ratify outgoing selectors and under-21 manager Maurice Horan to succeed Mickey O'Sullivan at a meeting tomorrow night after the former Mayo and Limerick player's recommendation by sub-committee.

Mayo are likely to make known the county’s successor to John O’Mahony later this week. Interviews for the position were taking place yesterday and a name is expected to go for rubber-stamping on Thursday evening.

Speculation that former Dublin and Offaly manager Tommy Lyons will get the nod has been slightly complicated by the strong showing of former Mayo player and All Star James Horan, who at the weekend took his club Ballintubber to a first senior county final in 100 years of existence.

The third candidate, Anthony McGarry, is regarded as the outsider in what is likely to be a straight choice between the extensive intercounty experience of Lyons, who won an National League and Leinster title with Offaly and took Dublin to a provincial championship in 2002, and the evident promise of Horan, who will presumably benefit from the fact first-time appointments have enjoyed a good season with three of the All-Ireland semi-finalists under the baton of managers in their first intercounty jobs.

There is an urgency to the process in Mayo in that the county has to head for New York next month for the final of the FBD Connacht League.

Neighbours Galway, who successfully made the transatlantic trip last year for then manager Joe Kernan’s first competitive match with the county, are also in the midst of filling a vacancy after the Armagh man’s departure.

The sub-committee charged with interviewing the candidates has been established and is expected to start work this week. Under consideration are former Westmeath manager Tomás Ó Flatharta and four home-grown candidates, Pete Warren, who was a selector with John O’Mahony’s All-Ireland winning management in 1998 and 2001, former Offaly manager Gerry Fahy, former Mayo player Pat Fallon who lives in Galway and coaches Barna, and Matt Duggan.

The sub-committee will be headed by football board chair John Joe Holleran, vice-chair Michael Ruane, treasurer Milo Costello and club delegates Gerry Hussey from Dunmore MacHales and Gearóid Denvir from Micheál Breathnach’s.

Controversial vacancies arose in Meath and Monaghan. The Leinster champions’ county committee delegates refused to ratify Eamon O’Brien despite his two years having yielded an All-Ireland semi-final place this year and a Leinster title, albeit won amidst uproar over an invalid winning goal.

Next Monday the Meath county committee will announce the five candidates proposed by clubs, the deadline for which was last Friday. Speculation suggests that O’Brien’s name may have been resubmitted by some clubs.

Others believed to be under consideration are Damien Sheridan from Seneschalstown, Dudley Farrell, who managed Kingscourt to the Cavan championship on Sunday and who was previously a selector with Meath during Colm Coyle’s tenure, former manager Eamonn Barry and Paddy Carr, who took Kilmacud Crokes to the 2009 All-Ireland club title and also previously managed Louth and under-age teams in Meath.

In Monaghan Séamus McEnaney walked away rather than submit to an interview process after six years in charge of the seniors. He was subsequently linked with the Meath job but that is unlikely to go to an outsider.

There remains speculation that McEnaney may resubmit himself, as well as about the candidacies of former player and manager Eamonn McEneaney, and selector Bernie Murray.

The other county still to announce a new manager is Fermanagh. That decision is expected to be made known at next Monday’s county committee meeting. Names mentioned as possible successors to Malachy O’Rourke are under-21 manager Darren Chapman, Seán Maguire, who managed St Patrick’s to the county title two years ago and was one of Charlie Mulgrew’s selectors and another of Mulgrew’s management team, John O’Neill.

So far there are four rookie managers getting ready for next season: former Armagh defender Justin McNulty, who takes charge of Laois, John Brennan in Derry, Maurice Horan in Limerick (assuming ratification) and Donegal’s Jim McGuinness.