GALWAY HURLER AIDAN Harte has been reflecting on the player heave that ousted Anthony Cunningham as Tribes senior boss.
A vote of no confidence in Cunningham was issued by the players and following his strong resignation statement, a number of issues emerged in a players’ letter leaked over the weekend.
Speaking to Newstalk’s Oisin Langan in Boston, where Harte played for Galway in the Fenway hurling classic against Dublin, the Gort clubman insisted that no player was “bullied” into accepting the majority view.
And Harte rejected rumours of a dressing-room meltdown at half-time in the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny.
Harte said: ”The players have released their statement and stuff like that. Things carried on for six or eight weeks, the vote was the vote and players thought it was best for Galway hurling going forward. That’s all we can do now, look to the future.
“It was important to note that guys weren’t bullied into anything, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, everybody shared their own opinion and collectively as a group, we thought it would be better for Galway hurling going forward if we just had a fresh start.”
Harte was asked if the players’ stance has heaped even more pressure on their shoulders ahead of the 2016 campaign.
“There’s always pressure, we go into Pearse Stadium in February when the National Hurling League starts again and there will be pressure.
“There’s pressure every year, that’s the way it goes. I can’t guarantee we’ll win the All-Ireland next year or anything next year but we’ll be there next February/March starting off like every other team and every team has a great chance of winning the All-Ireland in my opinion.
“If you’re asking in terms of the dressing room at half-time, nothing happened in the dressing room. I’ve heard false stories about that, I can 100 per categorically deny that anyway. Things went well at half-time, we were three up, keep it going.
“Came out in the second half and they (Kilkenny) just suffocated us. I haven’t seen a whole pile of the game back but they just snuffed out our forwards totally, stopped the supply of ball going up and they started winning a lot more primary possession. That’s what they do, they came out a different animal in the second half.”
Harte also accepted that the Galway players must accept a degree of responsibility for the final defeat, given that they were in a good position at half-time.
“Players have to take responsibility, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. It’s a collective thing, we win together, we lose together.
“Players have to think for themselves on the field too. No, we wouldn’t be showering any blame on anybody, there’s no doubt players to have to take responsibility.
“Look, it’s common knowledge that we went to Anthony and aired our views. He felt he wanted to hold on, he probably thought that some guys were bullied into their opinion but everyone shared the same opinion.
“It went the way it went and maybe it dragged on a small bit. But that’s the way it goes, that’s life and we’re just looking to the future now.”
And Harte believes that the views of Galway players might be taken on board when it comes to picking Cunningham’s successor.
“I don’t think it’s player power. I think every player that gives 10 or 11 months of the year is entitled to an opinion and what he thinks might be best.
“As things go forward, the county board have stated that players won’t have an input.
“That’s fine, what they do is what they do but all I’ll say is, we were last year’s players and we’re all looking to make the panel for next year. It doesn’t go any further than that.
“We all get back into the gym now on our own personal regime through the months of November and December. We’re all last year’s players, there’s none of us on the Galway senior hurling panel at the moment. It might sound a bit ironic that we’re here but there’s none of us on the panel. If we’re selected, we’re selected, we’ll give it all for Galway as we always try to do.”
Galway celebrated wildly after defeating Dublin in the Fenway clash – and he described the mass brawl that broke out in the first half as “a few handbags.”
And he defended the manner in which Galway hailed victory at the final whistle.
“It wasn’t for show or anything like that. We really tuned in, set ourselves well for the last two days and came here hoping to win, as I’m sure Dublin were.
“As you saw there in the second quarter, there were a few handbags, it meant a lot to both teams. To be honest, when the final whistle went at the end, having come from behind in the fourth quarter, it meant an awful lot and showed a bit of steel.”
