He may not be willing to leave quietly but it seems Anthony Cunningham's grip on the Galway management job is beginning to slip. The Galway players have made their feelings clear with a vote of no confidence but, in ratifying Cunningham for another year in charge, that's not something that the County Board would appear to agree with.
We've seen in Mayo over the past couple of weeks the affect that player power can have. Put simply, without the confidence of the players, there's very little that a manager can achieve. As much as he may be keen to hold on, Cunningham's options look to be running out.
It has been speculated that there was a core group of players at the centre of the move to oust Cunningham and that would appear to have been confirmed by the Connacht Tribune today.
John McIntyre has the inside track on the upheaval and he has revealed that David Collins, Andy Smith, Joe Canning and David Burke were the players who met with Cunningham the day before he was cleared to take charge for another year.
In that meeting, the four players told the Galway boss of the unhappiness within his squad and the fact that they had voted for change. With those personalities looking to drive the change in Galway hurling, it's very difficult to see how Cunningham can possibly turn things around from here.
In keeping with that belief, a meeting between officials and players was held on Wednesday night and the following statement was released.
Following a further meeting between Galway GAA Officers and the Senior Hurling Players, held this evening, it was agreed that ongoing consultations will continue and that further meetings will be held next week with the view of finding a satisfactory resolution. In the meantime, showing respect for all parties involved, no further statement will be issued by the Galway GAA, until the matter has been resolved.
In other words, Galway hurling fans will just have to wait a bit longer to find out exactly how thing are going to pan out.
