Jarlath Cloonan calls on Galway parties to take step back

Jarlath Cloonan has called for all parties in the Galway hurling dispute to take a close look at themselves and pull back from the impasse that has arisen since news of player discontent with manager Anthony Cunningham emerged.

The influential former county senior manager and current hurling PRO said that he was concerned that the dispute, which shows no sign of resolution “would have serious consequences for Galway hurling down the road”.

Players and officials met on Wednesday night but the meeting broke up without little apparent progress beyond agreement to meet again next week. Neither party has commented on the situation, which arose when the county board ratified Cunningham for a fifth year in charge last week despite subsequent reports that players had already indicated they wanted a change in management.

The Connacht Tribune has named the delegation of players who spoke to Cunningham about the panel's vote of "no confidence" as Joe Canning, David Collins, David Burke and Andy Smith.

Cloonan believes that the issue has caused unacceptable hurt for all involved and that the impasse can’t be allowed to continue.

“I’m prepared to go on the record and say it’s time for everybody to review their position and look at themselves and their families and friends and the hurt and damage this has done to them.

“Think of how some of the players felt about some of the things that were put in the papers and said by pundits: hurtful, horrible things about how they’d let themselves down on the day of the match. Can you imagine the mother of a player reading that?

“Can you imagine what Anthony Cunningham’s family and his selectors’ families are going through? The hurt and the damage and the dismay of county board officials trying to run hurling championships? That’s not what the GAA I want to be part of is about.”

He told The Irish Times that he was taken aback by the controversy, as the year in his view had been a success for Galway.

"What is happening in the county is really sad, after the year we've had: if you look back we've won the Walsh Cup, the minor All-Ireland, won an intermediate All-Ireland effectively with a development squad and reached the senior final only last month.

“We had probably the biggest crowd ever supporting Galway in a big match [the All-Ireland final] and one of the best years we ever had with the sequence of matches and the enjoyment the public got out of it – and the players – the support that was built up and the good will and the positivity.

“There wasn’t one loose end or controversy in any newspaper, any incidents in the papers involving anybody during the championship this year. Trouble is an internal matter and any issue that comes up in a Galway dressingroom should stay in a Galway dressingroom, after a match or in training.

“When any problems with that bond between the management and players is reported and made public, whoever’s doing that is wrong.”

Cloonan was also quick to dismiss suggestions that there had been a row at half-time in the Galway dressing room.

“I was in the dressingroom and that did not happen. Every time we lose a big match there’s a rumour there was a row in the dressingroom. Absolute nonsense.”

Cunningham was backed by the county’s hurling board to continue in the position for a further 12 months. Last year he had been handed a new, two-year appointment – subject to yearly review – after completing his initial three-year appointment.

According to Cloonan, the manager’s mood was upbeat.

“When he went to the county board meeting and presented his report, he said at the meeting was that we’d the strongest panel in years with wonderful, young players coming in.”

Asked did he not feel it was unwise for the ratification to go ahead in the face of stated player discontent, Cloonan denied that there had been notice of that when the manager had been initially endorsed.

“I’m satisfied that whatever happened, in my opinion Anthony Cunningham didn’t mislead the hurling board.”

Further asked did he believe the manager’s position was still tenable, he replied: “It should be his decision. He was democratically chosen and got the full support of the clubs. He is the manager of the Galway hurling team. It’s an easy cop-out to blame the manager. We’ve been doing that for 20 years.

“Can we not ask everyone to look at their own situation and see can a resolution be got and let everyone walk away and stop the hurt? I know you can’t undo what’s been said – you can’t un-ring a bell – but let everyone look at themselves and say, ‘where is this going? Where will Galway hurling be in a couple of months’ time?’”