Former boss Michael Neary has been charged with readying the Wicklow senior hurlers for their Walsh Cup campaign after the shock departure of manager Willie Carley.
Dublin native Neary, who was the Garden county's player/manager previous to Carley taking over last March, is putting a panel together for Wicklow's Kehoe Cup tie with Carlow on January 29.
Neary, who still lines out for local club Kilcoole, cannot take the Wicklow position on full-time under the terms of his new job as one of four hurling development administrators appointed under Leinster’s Hurling Development plan.
Carley, who is also the manager of his native Wexford's senior camogie team, stepped down after arriving for a training session in Arklow, three weeks ago, to find nobody else there. The session had been cancelled without Carley's knowledge.
Carley said: "To a man they (the players) wanted me back (for another season). But I had the feeling there was some stuff going on behind my back so I took a week to think about it. I had too much doubt in my mind.
"While you could say we didn't do well, I feel a lot of progress was made last year. There are still good players in Wicklow, still good talent up there but as far as I can see the players are not happy," he told the Wicklow People.
The Wicklow County Board are hoping to fill the full-time position "quickly" with "one or two candidates" already in the frame, according to County Secretary Michael Murphy.
