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Ger Loughnane Mounts Savage Attack On Galway Players And Ridicules Their 'Fr.Trendy' Manager

Ger Loughnane Mounts Savage Attack On Galway Players And Ridicules Their 'Fr.Trendy' Manager
Conor Neville
By Conor Neville
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Yesterday's Leinster Final defeat for Galway has offered Ger Loughnane another chance to express his contempt for the current generation of Galway players.

In his Star column today, he seized on that opportunity. Not only that, but he has upped the ante considerably.

Nothing enrages the older generation of hurling pundits, particularly those with experience of management, more than player agitation.

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You may remember Loughnane's stint in charge of Galway in the late noughties. He was crowned Galway manager in late 2006 amid great fanfare and satisfaction.

Two years later, he was sacked by the county board after guiding Galway to a pair of wins over Laois and Antrim in two seasons.

Aside from these understated triumphs, they contrived to lose to a mutinous Clare team who were in utter disarray in 2007 and, the following year, to a fourteen-man Cork side who also held their manager in very low esteem.

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The latter match they conspired to lose despite the fact that Joe Canning scored a staggering 2-12 on his debut. His colleagues chipped in with a grand total of 0-3.

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In between, they rattled Kilkenny for sixty minutes in the '07 quarter-final, before succumbing to a couple of Eddie Brennan sucker punches in the final ten minutes.

A ten-point loss to Kilkenny (the scoreline was admittedly harsh) was the high-point of his reign as Galway manager. It is whispered that the county board delegates who voted against him after the '08 season were acting partly on the advice of the players.

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In the Star today, he offers what is, even by his own lofty standards in this department, a lacerating critique of the Galway players.

In Ger's view, yesterday'second half proves that the Galway players 'have no guts whatsoever'. They are always looking to shift the blame after a defeat.

After the stance they took against Anthony Cunningham, this was the day when Galway had to stand up and be counted.

Otherwise, they'd rightly be regarded as a laughing stock. This defeat showed they are made of absolutely nothing. You can forget about this Galway team - they have no guts whatsoever!

Galway are always looking for a crutch. There's always someone or something to blame. The manager, the trainer, the physio, the length of the grass on the training pitch, the weather...

After pushing Cunningham out the door, the crutch was kicked away from the Galway players. they had to stand up for themselves. No-one would listen if they played the blame game again.

Loughnane lambasted the players following the putsch against Anthony Cunningham last autumn. It was little surprise that Loughnane dragged up the Cunningham coup once more.

It was more surprising that he chose to deride his successor. Ger is not impressed by Micheal Donoghue's manner on the sideline.

Micheal's sideline presence makes Ger nostalgic for 1980s RTE light entertainment, when Dermot Morgan used to appear on the Live Mike.

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Apparently, Galway would stand a better chance if Micheal's body language was a bit more aggressive, perhaps they'd win altogether if he started jostling Cody and Mick Dempsey on the line. He was appointed manager late last year, his CV boasting an All-Ireland club title win with Clarinbridge in 2011.

Galway had a very aggressive manager on the sideline in Cunningham who was prepared to take on Brian Cody. Now they have a manager who reminds me of the Dermot Morgan character 'Fr Trendy' from RTE in the 1980s.

Micheal Donoghue comes across as an amiable curate coming into a new parish - and they're expecting to win with him? Compare Donoghue's body language on the sideline with that of Cody. You don't need to be a genius to work out who's king of the jungle.

Ger also let us know that he is privy to some juicy insider info on the Galway coup.

Perhaps he is hinting at what Cunningham himself said in his resignation statement. That the coup was organised and pushed by a resentful clique of influential older players who were sore at being overlooked in favour of younger lads.

If people only knew the inside story of how the coup against Cunningham was organised... it was a farce from beginning to end.

The day came when the Galway mutineers had to stand up. What happened? The usual Galway story. They collapsed.

Read more: KNEEJERK: Our Controversial Columnist Knows Exactly Who Is To Blame For Galway Loss

 

 

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