By John Fogarty
Galway’s hurling managerial crisis shows no signs of abating as the hurling board have asked officials to approach Francis Forde and Noel Larkin to reconsider their decisions to step away from the managerial appointment process.
At a meeting on Friday night, county chairman Pat Kearney and hurling board secretary John Fahy were requested to speak to the pair about putting their names forward again for the role. It had been expected clubs would put forward other candidates to recommence the selection process. Instead, they backed overtures to be made to Micheál Donoghue’s former selectors.
Along with the other candidate Tony Ward, Forde and Larkin removed themselves from the race due to reported differences with Kearney during their time assisting Donoghue.
The attempt to persuade to pair is not expected to be successful. As the Irish Examiner reported last Monday, a mediation group had been formed to try and address the concerns of Forde and Larkin but that initiative fell flat on its face when they both stepped out of the running early in the week.
One club delegate at Friday’s meeting also called on the board to contact Donoghue to see if he would be interested in changing his mind, but it is considered highly unlikely that the Clarinbridge man would perform a u-turn as long as the status quo in the county board remains.
Players are known to be extremely concerned about recent developments particularly the reasons behind Donoghue’s departure, which are understood to be similar to those that prompted Forde and Larkin to withdraw their candidacies. However, they are wary of getting into a public war of words with the county board following their ousting of Anthony Cunningham in late 2015.
Galway’s management committee meets on Tuesday where the crisis will be discussed and Pádraic Joyce’s selection as senior football manager is set to be rubberstamped.