Henry Shefflin ‘surprised’ by stand-off in Galway

Record All-Ireland medal holder Henry Shefflin has expressed surprise at the stand-off in Galway hurling.

Shefflin, who retired last April and was absent from Kilkenny’s line-up for the first time in 17 years, was in Croke Park on Monday to take part in a promotional event for Centra’s Live Well initiative, was asked about the vote of no confidence in Galway manager Anthony Cunningham by players.

‘Lot of depth’

“I am surprised. An outsider looking in, I thought they had a very good year. They brought on new players. There was a lot of depth in their squad and everything seemed to be going well. Even the Leinster final they performed fairly well, up until the second-half performance.

“At half-time, if we thought we’d be talking about this now, we’d have been saying, ‘absolutely crazy stuff’ to be honest.

“I’ve spoken to various different players over the years that things they weren’t happy about. I’d say ‘what is it?’ and they’d say ‘Henry, it’s small things’. – that to someone else might seem very trivial but to us could be the difference. Obviously there was stuff going on in the background that they weren’t happy about. I am surprised to see it, yeah.”

A decision was made last week by the Galway County Board to appoint a mediator in an attempt to resolve the impasse but as of yesterday no appointment had yet been announced.

Shefflin spent the first summer of his retirement as a pundit and he acknowledged that notwithstanding Kilkenny’s win, it hadn’t been a vintage championship for hurling.

“I suppose we didn’t have that many memorable games either, where it was absolutely flying by – where you’d go, ‘oh my God, would you be able for that?’ A lot of the games were a standard enough level.”

He pointed out that four of the five Munster counties had had disappointing years with only Waterford making significant progress. Nonetheless he believes that Derek McGrath’s team will have to modify their defensive system if they want to continue moving up in the world.

Sweeper system

When asked did he think that a team using a sweeper system in hurling could win the All-Ireland, he replied: “No I don’t think so, from personal experience. I think Waterford got to a very high standard this year and probably got to the level you can get to.

“If you think back to Dublin a few years ago, they did something similar against Tipperary in the 2011 semi-final – nearly beat Tipperary but didn’t beat them.

“You restrict one end and I feel you have to get the scores at the other. A lot of people say, ‘well Kilkenny play. . . defenders go back,’ and we talk about the second half of the All-Ireland final. Yeah, they went back, but they were back up the field again.

“They were just ravenous for the ball more so than tactics I would imagine. It’ll get you so far but you just need to have that attacking style. We have seen in the rugby as well, I think attack wins out.”

After a litany of high-profile retirements as well as his own last year, Shefflin believes that there won’t be any more in Kilkenny this time around.

“No, I don’t think so. Jackie (Tyrrell) is 33 and I can see Jackie continuing to play on. I don’t envisage any retirements whatsoever. We had enough of them the year before.”

He is confident that his Ballyhale club-mate Michael Fennelly, who has been troubled with injuries, will also stay around.

“Why when you could still achieve things and play in front of those big crowds, when the opportunity still avails? So no, I wouldn’t see that. You push through the pain barrier.”

On his club career, he says that he hopes to continue playing with Ballyhale next year, “whether it’s junior or senior”.