Ger Loughnane gave a wonderful and lengthy interview to Joe Molloy which was broadcast on Off the Ball this afternoon. The discussion ranged across both hurling and non-hurling matters.
He spoke about his fondness for the historic generation of Clare players he managed between 1995 and 2000, the impact of that team on both the sport and the county, and their deep charisma.
I remember our very first meeting. I remember clearly saying to them "A lot of teams have way better hurlers than we have, but there is no team that has as many players with the character that we have." And that was a great starting point. It was a fluke that so many outstanding characters and leaders came through at one time.
He had a very different experience when he returned to the inter-county scene to manage Galway at the end of 2006.
Two seasons in 2007 and 2008 yielded no significant championship wins. Antrim and Laois were hockeyed a couple of times but every proper challenge was flunked.
Loughnane's best moments with Galway were the ten-point defeat to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final (the scoreline was deeply unfair to Galway who tested KK better than anyone in '07 or '08) and bringing the team to the League Final in 2008.
On OTB, he said he had a nagging feeling all along that his "face didn't fit" in Galway. He couldn't find enough leaders in the squad and admitted that they weren't his "type of people."
No, it never took off. I suppose it got off to a very, very bad start. I had just come in and you had the big controversy between Portumna and Loughrea. It started out on a very bad footing and I just never got the feel.
Anyone will tell you when you go into a place, you look at all the American managers in different sports, they'll always say some places your face doesn't fit. Definitely, I just never got the feel in Galway that I got here in Clare or that I got even with underage teams I trained. You'd get a feel and you'd say "Jaysus I'd do anything for those fellas." They (Galway) were always at arms' length. I just couldn't bridge it.
Now, I suppose I was looking for the same kind of leaders as I had (in Clare). Always with teams, even at underage, I'd always be looking to see who were the leaders. And they were my men to control things in the dressing room and to set the standard. I just couldn't find.... (Molloy: your generals) exactly. Now they might have been there... But they never clicked with me. They weren't my type of people, in other words.
In explaining his predicament with Galway, he returned to a theme he has hammered often, the unusually extreme bitterness of the club rivalries within Galway.
Loughnane is adamant that this problem is more pronounced in Galway than it is any other serious hurling county. He said he should have been aware of it before he took the Galway job, recalling a story from his time as Clare manager.
Clare were playing either a challenge match or a league game in Galway the day before the 1998 All-Ireland club final. Galway champions Sarsfields were due to meet Birr in Croke Park.
Joe (Molloy), you don't understand that Galway is unique in the level of its inter-club rivalries. Travelling around the country, I have never seen a county where the inter-club rivalries are just so bitter.
And I should have known better because I remember being up with Clare up in Galway when I was manager. We were playing a challenge match against Galway
And one of their teams - I think it was the Cooney's team actually, Sarsfields - were in the All-Ireland final and one of the officers of the Galway county board was there.
It was the day before the All-Ireland (club) final. So I said "You'll be all off to Croke Park, tomorrow," I says. "Oh, we will not!" he says. "Or if it is, it won't be to shout for Sarsfields."
And he was an officer on the county board!!
Those searching for an explanation for Galway's failure to translate underage and club success into All-Ireland success have often cited the excessive intensity of their club scene, and the resulting bitterness.
Many of the Galway hurling men that Balls has consulted down the years have insisted that this is either "total bullshit" or no longer the problem it once was. They point to the Kilkenny club championship and ask whether county finals are tame affairs up there.
But outside figures who've coached in Galway, such as Michael Duignan and Ger Loughnane, have consistently pointed to the bitterness and aggro in the club scene as a major problem for the inter-county squad.
Listen to the interview below:
