Tribe felt it was right call to oust Ant, it brought us closer together
ALL-IRELAND winning Galway midfielder Johnny Coen has admitted that ousting former boss Anthony Cunningham was tough but brought the players together. Coen and his colleagues received a public backlash for strong-arming Cunningham out of his job just weeks after contesting an All-ireland final, their second under the St Thomas’ man. Cunningham slammed the players as ‘misguided’ and claimed he was the victim of a ‘kangaroo court decision, led by a core group of players’. But two years on they’re finally Allireland champions having claimed the Maccarthy Cup for the first time since 1988 under Cunningham’s replacement, Micheal Donoghue. Cunningham (below) is now set for a coaching role with Dublin and his first act could be to plot the downfall of Galway in next month’s AIG Fenway Hurling Classic in Boston. All-star nominee Coen stood over the decision to push Cunningham out – even if it was a torturous one. Coen said: “At the time, we felt it was the right decision. It’s not as if we were looking back afterwards saying it was a fantastic decision or anything like that. It was something nobody wanted to go through. “I worked with Anthony since U-21 and he brought us to the All-ireland at that level and we won it in 2011 against Dublin. He’s given a lot to Galway hurling, he was a fantastic player as well so I’d hope there’s no hard feelings.” Coen acknowledged that there was pressure on the Galway hurlers to perform in the aftermath of Cunningham’s removal. They pushed Tipperary, the eventual All-ireland champions, to within a point in the 2016 semi-finals and won the League, Leinster and All-ireland titles this year. Loughrea ace Coen said: “There would have been, yeah. It brought us together as a group, it was one-in all-in then and we rallied together obviously but nobody really wanted to go through it. But the team felt it was the right thing to do.” Galway ended up competing in the 2015 Fenway Classic, played under the Super 11s format, without a manager as Cunningham’s departure came shortly before that game. It was a memorable match which Galway won and included a melee at one stage which was described by a Boston Globe columnist as ‘a scene straight out of the NHL, circa early ‘70s’. Coen said: “Nobody went out with the intention of hurting anyone or anything like that. This is an exhibition game and it’s to promote our game so that’s what we’ll be trying to do again.” This year’s competition has been expanded to a four-team event including Tipperary and Clare. It was a one-off game between Galway and Dublin in 2015.