Joe Canning, Unquestionably the GOAT

[balbec]

Who?

[Sidney]

@GeoffreyBoycott

Talking up failures under Andy Cunningham and talking down results under Micheal Donoghue. Surprise, surprise.

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.

[Ashman]

Taking Wexford for granted has been a problem for Limerick .

[Ashman]

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 .

[flattythehurdler]

Greg Kennedy marked him nicely.

[flattythehurdler]

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

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@GeoffreyBoycott

Talking up failures under Andy Cunningham and talking down results under Micheal Donoghue. Surprise, surprise.

@Sidney

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.

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.

@Sidney

The Galway players have picked the wrong fight here. Public perception is everything in these sorts of struggles.

@GeoffreyBoycott

So Fidelma Healy Eames is shocked. Public perception has nothing to do with it. Public perception wasn’t exactly behind the players in Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary when they got rid of Kevin Fennelly in 1998, Bertie Og Murphy in 2002 and Babs in 2007 but their successors all delivered an Ireland fairly pronto. Cunningham stood there like a statue for the second half of the All Ireland Final as Galway threw away a winning position to a distinctly non-vintage Kilkenny side. It was the same in the semi final, he stood there for an hour looking at Seamus Callinan destroying young Mannion but they just about got away with it there. It was the same in the 2012 drawn final as Galway blew a 7 point lead. He may have many virtues but the shrewdness and guile needed on the sideline to win an All Ireland doesn’t appear to be one of them. After four years its not unreasonable for players to seek a change of direction.

@Sidney

The evidence would firmly suggest that Cunningham was better placed to deliver an All-Ireland to Galway than anybody they’ll get in.

@GeoffreyBoycott

Well he’s had ample time, four years and he hasn’t delivered. He had two golden opportunities in 2012 against a Dad’s Army Kilkenny team on its last legs then this year against an average Kilkenny side and he couldn’t deliver. New man, new ideas needed.

[Appendage]

Corner back though. Any mug would keep Shefflin scoreless from corner back.

[Bandage]

[Sidney]

@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.

[anon61956325]

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.

[Sidney]

Interestingly, a number of Galway posters here said at the time of the Cunningham heave that an All-Ireland had to be delivered in 2016. It wasn’t.

@anon7035031

+100. An all Ireland win in 2016 or they can go fuck themselves. Cunningham wasn’t the one hitting 50 yard frees in front of the posts wide.

@ironmoth

The players have well and truly backed themselves into a corner. Cunningham’s comments after the Leinster Final were what really piqued my interest in the team this year. Granted, Cork were a fucking shambles but previous Galway efforts would have left them hanging in there 'til the death. The turnout and support for the Semi-Final and Final wasn’t just for the players. A lot of the fans had bought in to the direction he was taking the team. Then we get news that there was a revolt and, surprise surprise, the whole thing fell to pieces in the end.

Yup - backed into a corner now and nothing but a gold Celtic Cross medal next year will do.

[GeoffreyBoycott]

@Sidney

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.

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.

[Bandage]

+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.

[flattythehurdler]

Glad that’s been cleared up.

[flattythehurdler]

“a number of Galway posters have said”

This, even by your own high standards, is top quality.

[Sidney]

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.

[Sidney]

@flattythehurdler

“a number of Galway posters have said”

This, even by your own high standards, is top quality.

Read back over the reactions to the Cunningham heave. Galway posters were almost entirely unanimous about it being a bad idea.

Some of the words used about Joe Cooney and Gerry McInerney at the time are quite hilarious by the way.

@Lazarus

Heard it was at the Burlo that Josie went for Cunningham. It was doing the rounds as well that Gerry Mac and Joe Cooney Sr also had strong words for him on the night. Worse than fucking soccer moms the lot of them.

@ironmoth

Seriously, the shit that Cunningham has had to deal with is bordering on farcical.

@KinvarasPassion

One more year for Anthony Cunningham

believe

@maroonandwhite

Same backroom team?

IWANTTOBELIEVE

@KinvarasPassion

Fact remains though… They had a 3 point head start and 35 minutes to beat KK and failed miserably. They need a good look at themselves in all of this.

@anon7035031

Some of them do anyway, especially the more senior players who showed no leadership when it was needed. 3 point lead is nothing, they could have been 8 up and still wouldn’t have won the way they played in the second half. This whole thing has a smell of Cork 2008 about it which is quite depressing. Players need to show leadership on the field not leading coups against management, but human nature being what it is, it’s always someone else’s fault.

@anon7035031

That’s the question. The game was there to be won and required the players, especially the senior players, to grab it by the scruff of the neck and win it. They didn’t and now it’s management’s fault, and by the way to rub it in we senior players didn’t want Cunningham all year anyway so its truly not our fault. In other words, had we had another manager we surely would have won. I don’t doubt the players intentions are good, but they are pointing fingers in the wrong direction here. If they want an AI medal then go out and win it when its there to be won (strangely enough like the man they are critical of did, twice in fact).

@ironmoth

The only thing worse than a soccer prima donna is a GGA one.

Cunningham’s next meeting with the players should go something like this:
(substitute winning all-irelands for inventing the necktie)

@Lazarus

Hardly a spoofer, his management track record holds up very well.Every team he’s coached he has left them in a better place than he found them. Some strange rabbit in headlights moments in games for sure but overall one of the better managers out there. He’s based in Athlone so could end up doing a job for Dublin, Clare, Limerick, Offaly or some other run of the mill County.

@KinvarasPassion

Elder players have backed themselves into a corner here.

If I was the new manager they’d be first guys I’d drop.

@KinvarasPassion

There will be a few internal candidates who’ll be pushing their heads above the parapet immediately. Cuala’s coach Mattie Kenny being one of them… Oh wait, the players refused to work with him after 2013.

@ironmoth

Yup - there’s a common denominator there alright. Fucking pity really, as we’ve got some fantastic hurlers and I like the approach Cunningham was taking.

@Lazarus

Kev is right. This was personal and the spinelessness reflected by the greater squad is something we’re all to used to seeing on the pitch. Bar a handful Cunningham brought most of the current squad through and within inces of the ultimate prize. Maybe a change was needed but he deserved better treatment and the whole episode leaves a sour taste in the mouth with the senior players, the ringleaders,(and those advising them) looking like nothing less than prima donna cunts.

@anon7035031

+100. An all Ireland win in 2016 or they can go fuck themselves. Cunningham wasn’t the one hitting 50 yard frees in front of the posts wide.

@ironmoth

Agree rating on both counts.

The players have well and truly backed themselves into a corner. Cunningham’s comments after the Leinster Final were what really piqued my interest in the team this year. Granted, Cork were a fucking shambles but previous Galway efforts would have left them hanging in there 'til the death. The turnout and support for the Semi-Final and Final wasn’t just for the players. A lot of the fans had bought in to the direction he was taking the team. Then we get news that there was a revolt and, surprise surprise, the whole thing fell to pieces in the end.

Yup - backed into a corner now and nothing but a gold Celtic Cross medal next year will do.

@ironmoth

The players have now confirmed my decision to view them in a bad light.

@ironmoth

That’s it in a nutshell pal. Accountability would have seen the “players” demand that management clarify the confusion regarding who was marking Callinan. The fact that they’ve raised it as an issue in the letter is horseshit. It’s common knowledge that knowing how to manage your boss is as important as the reciprocal. Managers fuck up from time to time, and it’s up to the leaders on the team to have their back. It’s called teamwork - instead, Galway got prima donnas with an us-versus-them complex.

puke

[flattythehurdler]

It could.
It didn’t.
Fuck off with this rubbish.

[flattythehurdler]

“almost entirely unanimous”