AS COUNTY BOARD officials in Galway struggle to resolve the on-going dispute between the players and manager Anthony Cunningham, Tipperary star Padraic Maher admits he finds the whole situation “a bit unusual.”
The stalemate in the west is all the stranger for the 26-year old because he watched Cunningham lead Galway to victory over Tipperary in last August’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final, the Tribesmen eventually losing to Kilkenny in the decider.
However, he admits that, if the players are not happy, they’re better off voicing their disappointment now than during the inter-county season.
“I suppose it is a bit unusual,” Maher said yesterday.
“He brought the team to an All-Ireland final and had good wins over Cork and ourselves. It is unusual but we don’t know what’s really happening around the scene so I can’t really comment on it.
“If the players aren’t happy, they’re not happy and they’re probably better off saying it at the start of the year rather than the middle or the end of the league and kicking up ructions that they’re not happy about things.
“They might as well get it out of the way now.”
Maher says nothing like the goings on in Galway has happened with Tipperary during his time with the panel.
“We never really have anything like that with management. Obviously we had disagreements with Eamon at times as well, certain things that we thought would be changing. The way management is now, they’re very open to these things.
“With us around Tipperary they were anyway, they listen to certain possibilities about changing stuff, they’re willing to listen to them. Other than that the players have never really stood up and said, ‘we want a change’ or anything like that, definitely not in my time anyway.”
The three-time Allstar added that it’s vital that players and management are on the same page for a team to be successful.
“I think it’s very vital that you have to have the management and the players going the one direction.
“There’s no point in management making plans or anything like that if the players are not going to go about it in the right way.
“You definitely need everybody pulling in the right direction if you have any chance of being successful.”
