No transatlantic commute for Glynn this year

GALWAY manager Micheál Donoghue spoke with Johnny Glynn only days after the county’s All-Ireland success and asked him to remain in Ireland for the duration of the Liam MacCarthy defence. The powerful attacker caused a stir last summer when he commuted from New York — where he is employed as a project manager — as the Tribesmen captured their first All-Ireland in 29 years. However, Glynn has been back in the Galway camp for the past three weeks and will stay at home for the summer. Donoghue told Glynn (right) that another summer of transatlantic commuting would be a no-go this year. ‘He showed massive desire last year to come back,’ the Galway boss conceded. ‘But it’s probably not an ideal situation where you are going back and forth. We had a chat after the AllIreland final last year that it probably wasn’t going to work for us again. ‘And testament to him. He showed a huge desire in wanting to do that, to come back. We set him a date and that was a date we agreed a long time ago. He was still working on a programme with [strength and conditioning coach] Lukasz [Kirszenstein] until he came back. ‘He’s back three weeks now and he will be with us until the end of the season, hopefully.’ Glynn’s physique and ball-winning ability will be crucial as Galway look to successfully defend their AllIreland title and Donoghue points out that his company in New York — owned by two Leitrim brothers — have been very accommodating in allowing him to work from Galway. ‘The job that he has is such that he is able to do a lot of it from here for them. There is huge co-operation from them as well and flexibility.’ Donoghue also revealed that when he got the Galway job, he had a conversation with Damien Comer, the star forward in Kevin Walsh’s football side, about joining the hurling panel. But it was a short conversation. ‘He is an equally capable hurler but football is his first love,’ added Donoghue.