Mulholland still has belief in Galway

Outgoing Galway manager Alan Mulholland believes the county’s football team is on the brink of a breakthrough despite his decision to stand down after three years in charge.

“I do feel a breakthrough is going to come very soon,” he said yesterday. “It is a very hard thing to hand it over, but you can’t be selfish about these things. You can’t hold onto them just because you’ve done a lot of work over the last while.

“Whatever is best for the group of players and for Galway football is what we want to do, and we think at the moment this is best for them. Possibly the likes of Paul Conroy, Gary O’Donnell and Gareth Bradshaw need someone else to listen to in the dressing room because they have been listening to me long enough at this stage,” he told Galway Bay FM.

The former minor and U21 boss, who captured All-Irelands for the county at both grades, informed the county board of his decision not to take up the option of a further year in charge, citing work and family commitments as the reasons.

“It was very difficult. The last couple of weeks I’ve been away thinking about the future and what we were going to do. It’s a management team. Declan Meehan and Paul Clancy, we had a good chat before I headed away as well. They have young kids too, we are all considering our position here.

“This job is full on, it’s a serious job. You have a responsibility to the players, to your families, to your workplace, to the supporters around. We didn’t want to do anything lightly, we didn’t want to go at it again unless we could give it our full, unbridled dedicated attention.”

“When we were really honest with ourselves, we thought that wasn’t going to be the case. So that’s it, we are going to step down and let someone else take it on.”

It has been a testing time for Galway football.

Six years have passed since they last claimed a senior provincial title and Mayo’s hegemony – claiming five of the six since – must only add to the frustration among the GAA fraternity in the county.

That said, two U21 titles have been bagged of late with Mulholland’s side doing the honours in 2011 and the second coming last year and there were signs of renewal at senior level during the senior’s summer outings.

“Its probably not my place to look at how we’ve done. Maybe it’s for other people to judge that,” Mulholland said. “Personally I do feel we have made progress. Looking purely at the results, we’ve had ten championship games in the last two years. That was vital to the group of players that we have, that they get experience at the top level.

“That’s something that hasn’t been happening in Galway football in previous years. For that alone we have made some progress, and then I really feel within the group there is a strong work ethic and a good culture developing within the group; that to be successful at the top level you really have to work hard.”