‘Henry Shefflin facing ruthless Galway GAA board as Canning hurls home truths’

Henry Shefflin has come in for criticism from Galway GAA’s biggest legend, Joe Canning, with top pundits speculating over the future of the Kilkenny man ahead of a meeting with the county board.

Canning, who has become a fixture on the analysts panel on The Sunday Game since his debut in February 2022, when he joined legends Davy Fitzgerald and Anna Geary as the Tribesmen held of the Rebels, and the Banner came from behind to beat the Yellowbellies.

However, Sunday 27 May’s analysis was a much less happy occasion for Canning, widely considered to be one of the most technically gifted hurlers of all time.

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The Portumna hurling icon did not let his allegiances to the Maroon hold him back as he slated the “depressing” state of Galway hurling laid bare in Pearse Stadium as Galway crashed out of the Leinster and All-Ireland Championships.

Canning also gave his opinion that Galway lacked of a gameplan for Dublin, while the Sky Blues had their homework done. The five-time All-Star said on The Sunday Game that the game was “fairly depressing to be honest as a supporter and an ex-player.

“I know a lot of the guys from playing with them. It is not in a good place at the moment.”

Canning added that the Tribesmen “never got going this year”, and that their draw with Kilkenny was “lucky” seeing as the Cats were shy a few of their key players.

The four-time All-Ireland Club champion offered his opinion that the Dubs had a game plan, but said he was “not sure” he could say the same about the Tribesmen.

Canning was cutting: “I couldn’t see how they were playing, how they were working the ball out and how they were feeding it into the forwards. There was no real structure as such.”

Karl O’Kane – our parent company Irish Daily Star’s GAA Correspondent – offered deeper insight into Shefflin’s future, saying that a “fourth season looks like it would be a hiding to nothing”.

“Outside managers haven’t tended to fare well in Galway.

“Ask Ger Loughnane, the man with the Midas touch who transformed the entire mindset and history of his own county, Clare, creating a winning culture and landing two All-Ireland titles. He couldn’t figure Galway out and was gone after one year (2008) after losing a County Board vote 28-26.

“Or Limerick man Shane O’Neill, an All-Ireland club winning manager with his own Na Piarsaigh, who had a cut in Galway for two years (2020-21), without landing any championship silverware. ‘Babs’ Keating had two goes at it in the late 1970s

“Galway’s sole All-Ireland win in the last 35 years came with a Galway man in charge, Michéal Donoghue, who, ironically, as Dublin boss last Sunday, may well have brought down the curtain on Henry Shefflin’s term.”

“Another Galway man, Anthony Cunningham, led his county to two All-Ireland finals (2012 and 2015), losing both to Kilkenny. No outsider has ever landed a senior All-Ireland title with Galway.

“Cyril Farrell won the other three in the modern era, with the first of the Tribe’s five coming back in 1923. Overall, Galway have won five All-Ireland finals and lost 20.

“Shefflin’s appointment at the end of the 2021 season was widely lauded as showing Galway’s ambition to change that damaging strike rate.

“He’d already landed back to back All-Ireland club titles with Ballyhale Shamrocks (2019/20).

“Although, it doesn’t really seem to matter who is in charge of the Kilkenny kingpins, they can get it over the line with forwards like Shefflin himself, TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen.

“That Shefflin/Kilkenny/Ballyhale winning mentality hasn’t transferred into Galway, where the base of success isn’t as broad.

“It’s difficult to see how Shefflin could go on into a fourth year, after last Sunday’s Leinster group stage exit, although he has a term that last for another two seasons, with a review set to take place.

“Back in 2019, a similar ending against Dublin at Parnell Park proved to be Donoghue’s swansong after four years in charge and two All-Ireland final appearances.

“Never one to shirk a challenge – and among the greatest on-field leaders the game has ever seen – it will hurt Shefflin if he decides to walk away. He is not used to failure.

“But it may be stubborn and unrealistic to remain – and detrimental to Shefflin himself – with the trajectory of championship results and performances on the slide. In practical terms, the age profile of the Galway team isn’t great.

“David Burke (34), Gearoid McInerney (33) and Joseph Cooney (33) are in the twilight of their careers. Daithi Burke and Conor Cooney are 31.

“They remain five of the mainstays of the side, along with Conor Whelan and the Mannion brothers – Pádraic and Cathal. From the outside, the job doesn’t look all that attractive, whether you’re Shefflin or someone else.

“Galway have been in 17 All-Ireland minor finals out of 24 since 2000. They won four All-Ireland minors in a row from 2017-2020. Those players should be flooding into the senior ranks. But they’ve only made one of the last seven under-21/20 hurling finals. This is a worrying structural hole in the development of players that has to be plugged.

“Much of the talk around Shefflin’s three years has centred on how Cillian Buckley’s last gasp winning goal in the 2023 Leinster final was the beginning of the end. It’s noteworthy that when Galway landed the 2017 All-Ireland title they had already won the National League, annihilating then All-Ireland champions, Tipperary in the final, before also landing the Leinster title.

“Maybe the Championship silverware many felt record 11-time All Star, Shefflin needed to frank his term in charge would have driven Galway on to another level. Looking at what Limerick did to Kilkenny in the second half of last year’s All-Ireland final, it’s unlikely it would have led to a Galway Liam MacCarthy triumph.

“Managing in the Limerick era hasn’t helped Shefflin either as he gets a dose of the medicine Kilkenny regularly served up by the bottle when he was playing over a decade plus to allcomers. But, in his first year (2022), Galway had Limerick properly on the rack in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“Three late wides cost them dearly in a game where they matched and surpassed Limerick’s work rate from the 20th minute mark onwards, after a slow start.

“Leaving Croke Park that day it might have occurred to Shefflin that his Kilkenny side, or any Kilkenny side, would never have let an opportunity like that slip. That would have rammed it home as they did to Limerick in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final.

“Shefflin has found out that as a county, Galway don’t have the same mentality as Kilkenny, as they don’t have the same history, and creating a new narrative and culture isn’t easy. They were beaten off the park by Limerick in the second half of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

“And their younger players have struggled to step up in the way an Adam Hogan has for Clare. Galway are always capable of one off, ferocious performances, but that will only take you so far.

“It’s difficult to identify many players that are on the upward trajectory over the past year that a Cathal O’Neill is. Cianan Fahy maybe, but a change of position has probably helped him.

“Shefflin was also caught in a time warp, with so many players from the 2017 All-Ireland final still the main men and the clock ticking.

“Joe Canning retired before Shefflin was appointed and wasn’t for turning. Very few others have retired on his watch, or been moved on. 10 of the 15 who started the 2017 final are still either starting or coming in as subs, seven years later. Very few new leaders of real substance have emerged.

“The dip for New York based Johnny Glynn showed that they knew there was something lacking and it was worth a punt. They didn’t pick a full team against Carlow in Round 1 and struggled, clearly with an eye on Kilkenny the following weekend. They just about managed a draw, despite Kilkenny being without Eoin Murphy, Eoin Cody, Adrian Mullen and Mikey Carey.”

“The following weekend in Wexford they crashed to a 1-28 to 0-23 defeat in a fixture where they have always held the whip hand when it mattered. How far off they were that day didn’t bode well.

“They were struggling in Antrim until Ryan McGarry was red carded before half-time and Galway pulled away.

“The first half red card David Burke received was pivotal in the defeat by Dublin on Sunday. But would the spark have come had they nipped past Dublin and made a Leinster final? It’s impossible to say, but there was no sign of it.

“Shefflin, so used to Kilkenny and Ballyhale always performing and going to the final whistle, must have been frustrated by Galway’s inconsistency.

“But it was difficult to identify a clear and discernible gameplan, or the type of forward movement that new coach Eamon O’Shea made his name with in Tipperary.

“The little things that set Limerick apart are when you look out onto the field weren’t there.

“For example, Limerick’s zonal defence on the opposition puck out, set up perfectly so if the opposition go long, they’re going to win the break as they have overloads everywhere.

“Or when the opposition go short – they’re almost too afraid to – Limerick invariably turn them over.

“Pressure on the ball, and the volume of contact and numbers. No-one sustains this like Limerick. These are principles of play deeply engrained over time that everyone buys into.

“If Shefflin weighs it all up, there may only be one sensible choice to make.”

“Three years as an outside manager without any significant silverware is a lot. A fourth season looks like it would be a hiding to nothing.

“It’s unlikely though that we’ve seen the last of such a competitive beast, at just 45 years of age.

“Whether he stays or goes in Galway, it’s likely that he’ll turn up on the line for Kilkenny in the future.”

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