The shambolic conga line that is Galway GAA continues its glorious dance through the autumn with more statements from sponsors featuring more disappointing claims, no sight of the two reports on Galway's finances and still no football or hurling manager in sight.
Yesterday it was revealed that Galway's search for a replacement for Micheal Donoghue had essentially ceased for the time being without a manager being found.
RTE Sport understand all candidates for the Galway hurling job have now withdrawn from race to replace Micheal Donoughe. Noel Larkin & Francis Forde were considering working together, while former camogie and U20 manager Tony Ward was the other name being linked to job #RTEGAA
— Darren Frehill (@Darrenfrehill) October 8, 2019
Then last evening, Galway's main sponsor Supermac's issued another statement one week after it felt compelled to call for financial transparency from the Galway county board. It's latest, four bulletpoint statement claims that the recent austerity in Galway GAA has resulted in Galway underage teams being denied a range of resources and being forced to wear mismatched jerseys and feed themselves at matches. It also again calls for the publication of two reports into the finances of Galway GAA.
You can read the statement below:
Following on from our request for the reports into the finances of Galway GAA to be made public, Supermac’s would like to clarify the reasons behind our initial statement:
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Supermac’s fundamentally believes that in order for the Galway teams to be successful, there needs to be transparency at all levels. Supermac’s sole objective is to assist the Galway teams to achieve success on the field. Parents, mentors and management teams have approached Supermac’s on numerous occasions to bring several incidents that have taken place to our attention including revelations of underage teams having to bring their own lunches to tournaments in other counties, teams competing while wearing mismatched jerseys against fully kitted opposition and management teams requiring further resources that weren’t being made available to them due to budget cuts.
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Supermac’s has no interest in seeking to influence the decision-making process of the Galway GAA but while a cloud hangs over the organisation it has an effect on the competitiveness and success of our teams. Supermac’s acknowledges that a lot of honourable people contribute at all levels of the GAA and whilst there are the beginnings of a necessary change in culture, the path forward cannot be laid until the issues of the past are revealed. Supermac’s seeks the transparency and accountability which are vital to confidence going forward. The first steps in this journey require that the two concluded reports into the finances of Galway GAA be published in full or otherwise further investigated by the relevant authorities. Supermac’s is at a loss to understand why these reports have not been published. We re-iterate that players, management, supporters and volunteers who willingly give their time for the promotion and administration of our games, deserve no less.
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As previously stated, our concerns in relation to financial matters in Galway GAA were brought to the attention of the Galway County Board 4 years ago and, shortly afterwards, to the attention of Croke Park and nothing happened. We raised these concerns again at a meeting with the County Board in January of this year following the findings of the Mazars Report.
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In the interest of clarification, Supermac’s has separate sponsorship arrangements with the Galway Camogie Board and the Galway Ladies Football Board. The figures released in Supermac’s statement last week were not inclusive of these other sponsorships.
Today's Examiner reports that a panel from Galway GAA clubs will convene again towards the end of the week to restart the hunt for a new hurling manager, while the Independent reports today that the Padraic Joyce and Liam Kearns have been interviewed recently about the football vacancy. With Galway's main sponsor doubling-down on calls to have those two financial reports published, it seems that the chaos in Galway GAA is set to rumble on for a while.
It's hard to imagine any wannabe intercounty manager taking on a job where the county and its main sponsor are engaged in press release war. It seems the best and only way forward is for the Galway county board to publish these reports so everyone can begin to move on.
