NEW GALWAY HURLING manager Micheál Donoghue, who has been appointed for three years, says he will be working from a “blank page” as he takes charge of the Tribesmen for 2016.
Donoghue declined to comment on the players’ heave which led to the resignation of Anthony Cunningham after a seven-week saga following their All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny.
But Donoghue acknowledged the great work carried out by Cunningham and his selectors over the past four years and said he hopes that they can achieve All-Ireland glory.
“It is not an event I can comment on,” said Donoghue in relation to the row between the previous management and some of the players.
“We will start with a blank page for everyone and go from there and all players will get an opportunity.
“But it is not as if we are starting from scratch. Anthony and his men did great work and I would hope we can continue that through.
“That is the hope,” said Donoghue, a former All-Ireland minor and U-21 winner with Galway, who also won a national league title during his senior career.
He managed his native Clarinbridge to the 2011 All-Ireland club title, a decade after captaining them to their first county title, while he has also managed Turloughmore.
And Donoghue said that the experience he picked up working in a number of positions with Eamon O’Shea in Tipperary over the past two years will stand to him.
It was a great experience and I learned a lot in that time. And it was good to have that experience at that level.
Donoghue is in the process of finalising his backroom team and expects to have it in place by the time Galway play their first match when they open the defence of their Walsh Cup title against DCU on 10 January.
Candidates were not obliged to name their backroom teams when they were being interviewed for the position by the Galway County committee this time around.
“It is a huge honour to be given this job. It has been an ambition for some time and I will try to give it everything I have,” added Donoghue.
