DONAL O’GRADY TOOK to the airwaves this morning to defend himself against claims he quit his post as Limerick hurling boss by voicemail.
O’Grady, who resigned from his role at the weekend, spoke about his departure on RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland show. He said he was ‘very disappointed’ with a statement, released by the Limerick County Board on Tuesday, that appeared to question his character.
O’Grady commented, “There has been an effort to discredit me as [that statement] would show a total lack of respect by me on the chairman’s behalf.” The former Treaty County boss says he did leave a voicemail for county chairman Oliver Mann but eventually reached him by phone to discuss an impasse arising from a statement that initially blamed O’Grady and TJ Ryan for Limerick’s failures in the league.
He said, “We decided I would ring Oliver Mann and send out emails to the players. We didn’t want them finding out by Twitter, on the internet or some other source… [Mann] said at the end of the call that he was sorry to see me stepping down.”
Trouble began just under two weeks ago following a statement released on Limerick GAA website in which it was implied O’Grady and Ryan took full responsibility for the county’s failings. A manager’s job, he said, was to protect his players and he wanted the board to retract the statement and put stories about ‘abysmal performances’ and ‘venom and fire in the eyes’ to bed. O’Grady said the board had agreed to retract the statement last week but ‘the goalposts shifted’ and there was no resolution.
Ryan, he added, would stay on in an interim role as training, media commitments and a challenge match against Cork are all on the agenda. Ryan, revealed O’Grady, had offered to stand down too but the duo agreed it was best that he stay on for the coming weeks until a successor can be found. Ryan may yet agree to stay on until the end of this season’s championship.
