I didn’t talk down Donoghue. He seems like a good guy, the Galway players clearly like him and he’s done a good job preparing them this year.
But he had a year’s learning curve where he was still quite green, and it’s very plausible that Galway would have got over the line in 2016 with Cunningham at the helm.
I note you haven’t debated the point about Kilkenny and Tipperary regressing from previous years.
What’s unarguable is the central role Cunningham played in the development of this Galway team.
Privately I’m sure many Galway players would now admit that.
Agree but for the life of me I can’t understand what happened them in 2013 . After a good 2012 I was expecting a lot . The way the year panned out it was a real chance lost .
Btw the conjecture and extrapolation on this thread, the leaps of faith and baseless inferences are a sight to behold, even by the August standards of this place. An especially honorable mention to sid here.
Galway won the all Ireland under Michael o Donohoe, won the league, and never even looked like folding in a competitive match. Under Anthony cunningham they did not, and they did.
That, as they say, is fact.
You’d get a much more balanced and evidence based assessment from the likes of @GeoffreyBoycott
I’m bored of debating you on this. I called this correctly two years ago at the outset when you called it wrong. I’m still calling this correctly two years late and you’re still digging yourself into a deeper hole as evidenced by your latest offering that Galway could have won the All Ireland in 2016 with Cunningham at the helm instead of O’Donoghue.
They nearly won it in 2012 and 2015 under him so why do you think they could not have won it in 2016 under him, especially given that Tipperary, who Galway had beaten the previous year, did in fact win it?
Your post is a classic case of outcome-based narrative.
Jim McGuinness got rid of Kevin Cassidy in Donegal and they went on to win the 2012 All-Ireland. That doesn’t mean McGuinness was right to dispense with Cassidy in the way he did.
And winning it this year doesn’t mean Galway were right to launch a heave against Cunningham in the way they did in 2015.
No, no, no - Tipp have gone back 15%, Galway beating them by a point proves that. Waterford have come on 5% but are still 5% off Tipp who if you remember one sentence back have gone back 15%. KK have gone back at least 35% whereas Galway haven’t improved at all since 2012.
Galway were beaten by 11 points in the replayed All Ireland Final of 2012 and by 4 in the 2015 final (reduced from a losing margin of 7 to 4 with a Joe Canning goal from a placed ball with the last puck of the game). That’s not nearly winning an All Ireland.
If Anthony Cunningham was at the helm in Galway in 2016, you were looking at a Limerick 2010, Justin McCarthy style team. That’s why I’m certain Galway would not have won an All Ireland in 2016 with Cunningham at the helm - they probably would have lost to Westmeath first day out.
For someone so keen to engage in conjecture about Galway in 2016 and the prospect of Anthony Cunningham delivering an All Ireland win in 2016, it should be noted that Galway only lost the All Ireland semi final to eventual champions Tipperary by 1 point after losing their best player Joe Canning to injury before half time and also losing one of their best defenders that day Adrian Tuohy to a first half injury.
My narrative is not outcome based. If you took the trouble to read my posts from October 2015, you will that I called the players actions in looking for a change of management, the correct course of action.
+1. It would be remiss (cc David Burke) of us not to acknowledge that Galway were only in the final this year because Tipperary got done over by the referee in the semi-final. Micheál Donoghue would in all likelihood have been out on his ear after overseeing two semi-final defeats to Tipperary in succession, as would have been the case had the game been refereed properly. Give me a lucky general any day as the man says. Now he’s a hero.
Once the knife is wielded there is no going back and Cunningham could never survive.
The point is the players should have manned up in the first place rather trying to shift the blame, which they did.
They’re lucky that Micheal Donoghue turned out to be a very steady hand at the wheel, because it could easily have gone tits up had a less able man taken over, as could easily have happened.
