Galway sensationally sack Loughnane

GAELIC GAMES: GER LOUGHNANE was last night sensationally sacked as Galway senior hurling manager by just two votes. Loughnane lost his position after Galway Hurling Board delegates voted by 28 to 26 against his ratification.

Loughnane was not present at the Raheen Woods Hotel in Athenry as he was relieved of his duties two years after being appointed by Galway in a blaze of fanfare.

Loughnane was given a three-year term when he was appointed but proclaimed at the time he would be gone in two if he didn't deliver Galway's first All-Ireland title.

The Clareman indicated after this year's championship loss to Cork that he might step down, but then made it clear he wanted to stay in charge and try to end the Galway famine.

But an intensive behind-the-scenes campaign in the past few weeks, which has split Galway hurling down the middle, ended last night when delegates voted narrowly to end his reign.

At the outset of the meeting the media were barred as delegates voted by 30-11 to hold the decisive meeting behind closed doors.

Loughnane's ratification was barely discussed before a vote was put to the floor.

Delegates and officers decided to hold the ratification process by secret vote and county board officers Frank Larkin, Bernie O'Connor and Michael Monaghan could be seen recounting the votes several times given how tight the outcome was.

But at the end Galway delegates had spoken and Galway Hurling Board chairman Miko Ryan summed it up: "He failed to be ratified," he said.

The process to select a new manager will now begin. Already Michael Bond, who led Offaly to All-Ireland glory in 1998, has declared his interest in a team which also includes Joe Cooney, Michael Coleman and Steve Mahon.

Jimmy Heverin, who has led Portumna to two All-Ireland club titles in the past three years, has teamed up with former Galway hurler Anthony Cunningham as part of an alternative team which said were available if a vacancy occurred. That position became available shortly before 9.30pm last night.

Loughnane led Clare to All-Ireland titles in 1995 and '97 but success proved elusive with Galway. This year they recorded easy wins over Laois and Antrim in the All-Ireland qualifiers but lost to 14-man Cork in the final qualifying round.

In 2007, Galway also ran up big scores against Laois and Antrim in the qualifiers but lost in Ennis to Clare. Loughnane didn't help his cause before that game after some derogatory comments about his native county who were then managed by his former selector Tony Considine.

That defeat proved critical as they then had to play Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. They lost by 10 points but had been neck-and-neck with the champions for 60 minutes.

This year he led them to the National League final where they lost to Tipperary.

In Waterford, Davy Fitzgerald, who guided the team to this year's All-Ireland hurling final, was reappointed as manager.

However, the Meath County Board failed last night to reach a decision on a successor to Colm Coyle as football manager and have deferred an appointment for a week.

Meanwhile, Brian Whelahan has set himself up toequalthe record haul of Offaly senior hurling medals after steering Birr to their county final victory over Kinnitty. Whelahan now has 12 senior county awards to his name, with former star goalkeeper Damien Martin holding pole position with 13 medals won with St Rynagh's between 1965 and 1987.

But Whelahan, who celebrated his 37th birthday in August, is unsure whether he will try next year to equal the tremendous achievement of the Banagher clubman. "At my age, your body starts telling you things, and at this stage, it's hard to say whether I will be involved with Birr next year," said Whelahan, who won his first county medal in 1991.

"It was easy enough for me to commit myself for this year's championship, because we won the Leinster club championship in 2007, and went on to play in the All-Ireland final.

"So we were training right through the winter up to the middle of March, and that meant that I had a good base of fitness to carry overto our training for the county championship. But it would be much more difficult for me to come back next year if we got beaten in Leinster this year.

"In that scenario, I don't know if I'd have the motivation and the desire to start training all over again early in the year. So we'll just have to see how things work out," added Whelahan.

Birr face the Dublin representatives in their opening-round Leinster club tie, which has been switched from November 2nd to either Saturday November 8th or the following day.