Former Galway Hurling manager Anthony Cunningham feels he was ousted by a small number of players who weren't ready to let go of the inter-county careers.
Despite being the first man since Cyril Farrell to get Galway to more than one All-Ireland Final, Cunningham was pushed through the exit door after Galway hurlers voted against keeping the manager for another season. Cunningham, who was speaking on Newstalk's Off The Ball, believes it was a small group of players that really pushed for change.
I think there’s a lot of different factors. Everyone sort of knew it was pushed by a few guys who wanted to extend their existence at inter-county level.
That led to a few meagre souls being unhappy and wanting to stay there.
There was huge work put in, it wasn’t just one year, I was there since 2012 with backroom teams, improvements annually, trying to get to a professional level.
You’d almost rear a number of these guys, a lot of guys need help as well, 19, 20, 21-year-olds looking for guidance on work, life, hitting low spots and (needing) help with different aspects.
Ultimately everyone wants to win and we were in a leading position in the two All-Ireland finals, and didn’t go on to win.
They were hard to take, bitter disappointment for everyone involved, players, management, county board. However, it was a bolt out of nowhere.
At the time Cunningham called the whole episode a "kangaroo court decision" but hee has since moved onto a number of coaching roles throughout the country, working with Clonkill and the Laois footballers. Management and coaching is still something Cunningham enjoys and the "soul destroying" way the Galway experience came to an end hasn't turned him off.
I’d love to manage teams again, day in day out.
I could never say where it will be, I’d like to be freelance for a while to do what I did for the last year, a number of very enjoyable weeks with Clonkill, working with Laois, and coaching days with various clubs, working with young and adult players.
There’s great variety in it. I would love to return to inter-county management, yeah, but it probably won’t be this season. Maybe this time next year.
