Joe Canning: Tough rebuilding job in store for next Galway manager as Henry Shefflin bows out

On the week of the All-Ireland semi-finals Galway hurling people would hope to be thinking about Croke Park but instead we’re thinking about a new manager.

After Galway were eliminated by Dublin I wrote here that I hoped Henry Shefflin would stay for another year and as the weeks went by I thought that possibility was more likely. But it’s over now.

He wouldn’t have wanted it to end like this, with Galway further away from an All-Ireland than they were when he took over three years ago. In all sports it’s easy to blame the manager, but in every dressingroom there must be collective responsibility. Some of the performances this year were unacceptable and the Galway players must look at themselves in the mirror.

Looking back, 2023 was probably the pivotal year, when they should have beaten Kilkenny in the Leinster final. The goal that Cillian Buckley scored in the last minute was a bit of a freak and, for any team, a season can turn on fine margins. As Leinster champions they would have avoided Limerick in the semi-final and they would have arrived in Croke Park with momentum. None of that happened.

For Shefflin, juggling family and work with the Galway job must have been a serious grind at times over the last three years. From Ballyhale in Kilkenny to Loughgeorge where Galway train for a lot of the year is a 400km round journey and not much of it is on motorways. The time and energy that goes into intercounty management is hard to comprehend.

I don’t know what the Galway County Board are going to do next. The talk is that it will be a local appointment. Micheál Donoghue was approached before Shefflin was appointed and he might be approached again – even if he said after the quarter-finals that he planned to stay with Dublin for another year.

Would Eamon O’Shea do it? He’s better known as a coach, but he managed Tipperary for three years. Maybe a management team could be built around him. Mattie Kenny applied for the job in the past and it wouldn’t surprise me if he threw his hat in the ring again. One way or another, I can’t imagine it will be a quick process. The team is heading into a crucial rebuilding phase now and everyone will need patience.