Look out Ireland, here comes Sheedy

Sheedy, the AFL's longest-serving coach, will replace Garry Lyon for the annual Australia-Ireland competition.
He will be the first to combine club and international coaching.

Sheedy, 57, will take up his duties immediately after Essendon completes its commitments this year, and will take a team to Ireland in 2006.

The appointment gives further credibility to the international rules concept and comes on top of an AFL commitment for another 10 years.
Collingwood coach Michael Malthouse and former Richmond coach Danny Frawley had been linked to the role, but the AFL will be thrilled to have Sheedy.

Not only is he a four-time premiership coach, he is the busiest and most imaginative marketing force in the game. Despite his origins, he is bound to have the Irish scratching their heads.

Sheedy always has been a staunch supporter of representative football and toured Ireland as a player with Harry Beitzel's teams in the 1960s and '70s
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Today's appointment is the first hint of Sheedy looking beyond a career as a club coach, which started in 1981.

He has two seasons to run at Essendon, but there has been a school of thought for several years he will finish with the AFL in an ambassadorial role.

Lyon coached Australia from 2001-04. He followed Dermott Brereton, who followed Leigh Matthews.