FORMER GALWAY ALL IRELAND winning minor manager, Jeff Lynskey, has criticised the appointment process that nominated Henry Shefflin for the Galway senior manager role.
Speaking to ‘The Maroon and White Pod’, the Liam Mellows man, who won three All Ireland titles at minor level before bringing a Galway U20 team to the All Ireland final in 2021, questioned the wisdom of former Irish Rugby manager Eddie O’Sullivan taking his place on the interview panel that appointed Shefflin in October 2021.
Galway’s progress has been stalled since and their involvement in this year’s championship came to a shuddering halt after last weekend’s round-robin defeat to Dublin in Pearse Stadium, on a scoreline of 2-27 to 1-24.
“…If we are playing politics with this position and it is about clicks on social media, we are in trouble. It can’t be about that. If we really care about it, we will put the right people in charge. That is going to steady the ship and develop these young fellas,” said Lynskey.
“You are talking to someone doing interview who has been doing interviews for 25-year period in terms of VP jobs, AP1s, education. You are well used to dealing with people. I did the last interview and you’d Eddie O’Sullivan inside in it. You’d county officers inside in it. That was my third interview with them. They will decide who they want at the end of the day.
“I would shake it up in terms of bring a better calibre of person in the interview process. Make sure it guides them as well.
“It is nothing against Eddie, but Eddie doesn’t have a clue about hurling. Not a clue. He doesn’t understand the workings of Galway hurling. I would go after somebody who understands us as a county, club hurling, what it means to wear a Galway jersey.”
Lynskey also admits that it is a sore point for him that the last two management teams of Dublin have hailed from Galway, with Mattie Kenny’s spell from 2019 to the summer of 2022, and Galway’s 2017 All Ireland winning manager Micheál Donoghue taking over.
“They have had two Galway managements in charge over the last six years. So let’s call a spade a spade. These are lads who should be working inside their own county, not outside. That’s the disappointing thing for me,” said Lynskey.
“Because all those lads are top, top coaches. Mattie, Micheál, and they are outside the county. Coaching for someone else, and I have an issue with that to be honest with you.”
Lynskey also questioned the deeper culture and asked if Galway had in place the best possible practise of bringing young players through.
“Are we doing a really good job in nurturing and developing the lads? I don’t think so. I think we need a high-performance community inside the county. Remove it completely from the county board. Get high-performance people inside, people who have the knowledge,” he said.
“Des Ryan is there at present with Setanta. He was with the Arsenal academy for the last eight or nine years. You have unbelievable people in ATU Galway. Denise Martin has written papers and helped academic publishers for hurling and Gaelic football over the past seven or eight years. Lisa Ryan is up there. She has worked in Australia, Olympic bodies.
“In the college Fergal O’Callaghan has worked at Olympic level as well. They need to go outside the county board and pull in the right people. The lads mean well, but obviously, we aren’t doing it right. I didn’t get it right either at U20.”
