FOR THE LOVE OF IT

Galway have been hurling’s sleeping giant for years but success isn’t that far away, insists Anthony Cunningham

ON THE face of it, Galway hurling has not known stability like this since its last golden era. Should Anthony Cunningham see out his twoyear extension, he will become the county’s longest-serving manager since Cyril Farrell’s seven-year stint. Between 1984 and 1991, Farrell won two of his three All-Irelands in 1987 and 1988.

But beneath the still water, there was enough uncertainty between Galway’s Championship exit (at the beginning of July) and Cunningham’s ratification (at the end of September) for a story to gather legs that a tentative, but short-lived, approach had been made to Anthony Daly.

The suggestion is that Galway’s interest cooled quickly when the penny dropped that it was not in their gift to resource the kind of backroom support which the former Clare and Dublin manager had outlined.

Like so much in the shadows of the GAA marketplace, what is important is not how much substance there was to the story but the amount of traction it generated.

Cunningham’s two-year extension is almost certainly not worth the paper it is not written on if real progress is not delivered over the next eight months.

But while all the mid-summer focus was on the security of his position, the real intrigue is why he was so keen to stay put in the first place.

‘The key thing is that you must love it. After that, you have to be able to answer the questions; can you bring development to the table, can you bring winning to the table and I think I can do that. We have been very, very close, probably a lot closer than people think.

‘We brought Kilkenny to a replay last year, and through tiredness and one or two other things, should have beaten a team [Tipperary] who were a Hawk-Eye moment from winning the All-Ireland, so we were very close,’ argues Cunningham (below).

That argument is only sustained depending whether you choose to view the glass half-full or halfempty.

If you look at it as being halfempty, then you can argue that Galway have not beaten a top-tier team in a game of significance since Cork in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final. Since then Dublin, Clare, Kilkenny and Tipperary all have had their measure, while Laois were far too close for comfort in Leinster last year.

Had he not taken them to the AllIreland final in 2012, then it is safe to assume that Cunningham would no longer be in place. There is only so long he can live off that.

But the flip side, in a county that has never been trigger shy – he is the ninth manager since Galway’s last All-Ireland win in 1988, and Mattie Murphy had two stints – it will hardly be harmful to invest in patience for a change.

If changing managers was the answer, then finding success could hardly have been the question – in the last 13 years, they have made it to the last four of the Championship just twice – a shocking statistic given their reputed talent base and the shallow pool in which hurling’s elite swims.

CUNNINGHAM has been a developmental force all the way through, right from that bloody cull of established players which announced his arrival in 2012. Thirty-seven players have played Championship ball over the past three seasons, but, for all of that, nine players featured in at least 12 of the 13 games he has been in charge. He has trawled for talent, but not to the point where it has unsettled them. He also armed them with a new game-plan – the deep-lying defensive strategy that took them to a first Leinster title and a place in the All-Ireland final in 2012 a reminder of Cunningham’s successful stints as a manager in the big-ball code – but it worked for just a year.

While the inevitable focus falls on the manager, the harsh reality may be that they just have not had the stuff to follow up.

That excuse, mind, is something that their manager cannot lean on, so he is going to have to make the best out of what he has.

As ever, and this may be wearisome, much hangs on what tune he can get out of his best player, Joe Canning. The short answer to that is “not much for now”, given that, due to the broken finger sustained in the Walsh Cup, Canning will miss the regular group stage of the League, starting with today’s clash against Clare. That may be a blessing in disguise in that it will give others the chance not to just nail down places, but also show that they can shoulder responsibility.

In some ways, they have already undertaken that journey; the transfer of free-taking duties to Conor Cooney over the last 12 months has been successful.

The trust invested in Johnny Glynn – a serial impact substitute back in 2012 – to become the primary target at full-forward is full of promise, and partly fulfilled in the havoc he wreaked against Tipperary last summer.

And there is that whiff of the unexpected which Jason Flynn can offer, although he still needs to beef up for the physical demands at this level. For too long, Canning was expected to lift all those loads, shoulder the scoring responsibility, anchor the full-forward line when needed, and produce acts of genius on request.

If his form has tapered, and it did in periods last year, is it really a wonder?

But if others can lift the load then it might just provide Canning with a new focus. It would certainly arm Cunningham with the options he needs.

‘It allows Joe or any player who is burdened with being the leader of the attack to concentrate on his own game and progress that way,’ said Cunningham.

‘He is such a gifted player. But Joe will realise that you have to perform on the big stage same as any player.

‘There is only so much training and so much expectation and talk that you can do. It is down to big performances on the big days. He is no different from any other player.

‘We have been close, but we need more and that’s what we’re really looking for.’

We brought Kilkenny to a replay last year and should have beaten Tipperary