Anthony Cunningham’s term as Galway manager under review

Galway hurling officials are to carry out a thorough review of Anthony Cunningham’s term as manager, but have stressed that the probe has been scheduled to take place after his second year in charge.

This will be the first review of Cunningham and his backroom team of Mattie Kenny and Tom Helebert since they took charge in 2011. While Cunningham’s deal has another year to run, it will still need to be ratified by the county committee before he gets the green light for a third year in charge.

Cunningham came within a point of ending Galway’s 25-year All-Ireland famine last year, but he did manage to lead the Tribesmen to a first ever Leinster title when they defeated Kilkenny in 2012.

Disappointment
However, this year has been a huge disappointment. While Galway survived a nail-biting battle to avoid relegation from Division 1A, they tamely relinquished their Leinster title to Dublin, having struggled against Laois, before bowing out of the championship after a poor showing against Clare at the quarter-final stage.

Chairman of the Galway hurling committee, Joe Byrne, confirmed that the review into the senior management has already begun, but that no recommendations will be made for at least a month.

“When Anthony was appointed two years ago it was for a three-year term, with a review scheduled to be heard after the second year. All we are doing is implementing that process. It has not been prompted by anything that happened in the last six months,” said Byrne.

“I have not spoken at length to Anthony since the Clare game, but he understands that the review has to take place.

“The review will look at all aspects of the senior team, from the performance of the manager in the last two years, to losing out this year. It has already started but it could take up to a month to finish,” he said.

Byrne moved to deny speculation that Cunningham had threatened to step down in the aftermath of Galway’s Leinster final defeat to Dublin.

“I can categorically refute it. That was never brought to my attention. I never got word of anything like that after the Leinster final. I can categorically deny that,” he said.