There was no dressing room row and no bullying, says Galway’s Harte
GALWAY star Aidan Harte has di s - missed claims that players were ‘ bullied’ into supporting the heave that ended Anthony Cunningham’s four-year reign as county manager.
As the players broke their silence on the eight-week saga at the weekend after the contents of a letter sent to the county board was leaked which detailed their issues with Cunningham, Harte went further when he told Newstalk last night that the players had not been ‘bullied.’
It was Cunningham’s assertion in a previous letter to the board that a minority of players had orchestrated the vote of no confidence to his tenure which angered players. That prompted their written response, which was due to be read out to delegates at an emergency board meeting last week but was cancelled when the manager tendered his resignation just hours before.
Harte, who played in Sunday’s Fenway Park exhibition match against Dublin, is adamant that at no stage were players coerced into moving against Cunningham in what were effectively three separate votes of confidence — in April, September and this month — conducted by the players. The Galway manager lost all three polls.
‘It’s common knowledge now that we went to Anthony and aired our views and he felt he wanted to hold on.
‘I suppose he thought that some guys were bullied into their opinion.
‘Collectively as a group it’s important to note that guys weren’t bullied into anything, everybody 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,’ insisted Harte.
The players’ decision to end their vow of silence on the controversy is also likely to have been influenced by the public relations bruising they have taken in the aftermath of Cunningham’s resignation. Former Galway manager Ger Loughnane labelled their actions as ‘cowardly’, while they were also accused of using Cunningham (left) as a scapegoat for failing to see out a three-point half-time lead in the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny. Feeding into that narrative was a rumour that there had been a ‘row’ at half- time in the final, which Harte claimed was ‘100 per cent false’, and he insisted that the players had no i ssued wi t h ‘taking responsibility’ for losing the final.
‘Nothing happened in the dressing room. I’ve heard false stories about that and I can 100 per cent categorically deny that anyway.
‘We came out in the second half and I suppose they just suffocated us. I haven’t seen a whole pile of the game back again, but they just snuffed out our forwards totally.
‘They stopped the supply of ball going up and they started winning a lot more primary possession, it’s just what they do. They came out a different animal in the second half.
‘Players have to take responsibility and there’s absolutely no doubt about that. It’s a collective thing, we win together and we l ose together.
‘Players have to think for themselves on the field too, there’s no doubt about that. We wouldn’t be shouldering any blame on anybody or anything like that,’ he added.
The Galway board, which is expected to begin the process of appointing a successor to Cunningham this week, has already ruled out players having an input in the process.
In the aftermath of the third Cork players’ strike, that board bent to allow — through the presence of a former player on the appointments committee — players have a role in the selection process.
This does not create a difficulty for the Galway players, said Harte, who insisted that their stance over Cunningham’s management was not about ‘player power.’
‘I don’t think there’s any player power.
‘But 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 I think the board has stated that the players will not have an input so that’s fine, what they do is what they do.’
One of the prices Galway supporters fear their team will pay for the player heave is that it will undermine the team’s bid to win a first All-Ireland since 1988 — they are currently third favourites at 13/2 — as a result of the pressure it will put on the players to justify their actions.
However, Harte insists that ‘pressure’ is something that the Galway players have become ‘accustomed’ to dealing with.
‘There’s always pressure, when we go into Pearse Stadium in the first or second week of February when the National Hurling League starts again there’ll be pressure.
‘ There’s pressure every year, that’s the way it goes.
‘We can’t guarantee we are going to win the All-Ireland or anything next year but we’ll be there next February and March again starting off like every other team.’