GALWAY PLAYERS WILL have a role to play in the selection of their manager as the Tribesmen bid to find a successor for Micheál Donoghue.
The job was offered to Donoghue’s selectors Franny Forde and Noel Larkin on Sunday night but they reiterated their stance that they did not want it.
A special meeting of Galway hurling board was convened for last night where a representative group was drawn up and tasked with finding the new manager.
Galway hurling board chairman Michael Larkin confirmed that the players’ leadership group would be consulted during the process.
“We have now started a process and all the various stakeholders will be involved in it, from the clubs to the players. We hope to proceed as quickly as possible but the key thing is to find the right person for the job,” he said.
He said that a meeting of the board had decided on Friday evening to approach Forde and Larkin, who had withdrawn their nomination last week, and see if they had a change of heart.
Former All-Star and Galway manager Noel Lane was tasked with approaching the pair but they turned down the job on Sunday night.
That led to a meeting of delegates being called for last night where the process of finding a successor for Donoghue, who surprisingly stepped down in August, started all over.
The managerial crisis dominated conversation at the four quarter-finals of the Galway SHC in Athenry and Ballinasloe over the weekend, with many supporters reckoning that speculation that Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald might be taking charge clouded the initial hunt to find a successor.
That issue, coupled with a reluctance by clubs to stand in the way of Forde and Larkin if they wished to continue, is believed to have curtailed the number of nominations and a wider field is now expected.
Successful underage managers Jeffrey Lynskey and Brian Hanley are among a number of candidates who are now likely to be proposed as Galway try to put a management team in place just two years after winning the All-Ireland title.
Clubs will be asked to make nominations as soon as possible so that the new manager can start preparing for next season in the coming weeks.
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