No shortage of potential candidates to succeed O’Neill as Galway manager
THE race is on to become the next Galway hurling team manager after Shane O’Neill stepped down from the post late last week.
The Limerick native opted against extending his term to a third year after communications from the Galway players seeking a revamping of his coaching staff.
O’Neill had brought in fellow Na Piarsaigh clubman John Fitzgerald as head coach when appointed Galway boss in the winter of 2019, but cracks in his relationship with the squad began to develop during the team’s disastrous championship campaign which resulted in losses to Dublin and Waterford.
With Galway having suffered four defeats in their last six championship outings under O’Neill, some resistance was emerging to handing the former Limerick attacker a third year in charge before he pulled the plug himself.
In response to O’Neill’s resignation, the Galway Hurling Committee met with club chairmen and delegates at a specially convened meeting in the Lough Rea Hotel on Tuesday evening.
It was decided that clubs would have until Friday, September 17, to submit nominations for the position, while ‘declarations of interest’ would also be accepted by the primary officers of the Hurling Committee.
A slew of potential candidates have already been linked with the vacant Galway job, headed by former team boss Micheál Donoghue, who resigned in the wake of their shock Leinster championship loss to Dublin in June of 2019.
Family responsibilities and a fractious relationship with Galway GAA officials were the chief reasons behind Donoghue’s departure, but with the five-year terms of both County Chairman Pat Kearney and Hurling Secretary John Fahey set to end in December, that scenario may encourage Donoghue to throw his hat back into the ring.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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