Liam Sheedy: ‘If players didn’t want me, I’d walk’

Liam Sheedy has expressed bewilderment at the ongoing conflict between the Galway hurling team and Anthony Cunningham, insisting that he would walk away from a managerial position if he lost the trust of his dressing room.

Tipperary’s 2010 All-Ireland winning-manager is a firm believer in the mantra that “players play, managers manage’ and cannot understand the current stand-off, given the Tribesmen were 35 minutes from All-Ireland glory two months ago.

“I don’t know the ins and outs or the goings on and it is a pity that it ever gets to this situation in any sport, but ultimately, if I found myself in a situation where my dressing room has lost trust in me, I would go,” Sheedy said at yesterday’s Club Limerick breakfast morning.

“I would go to those involved and I would say, ‘if ye don’t want me and I am surplus to requirements, I am out of here’. That is a personal view of mine. It is really interesting to see how it develops [in Galway]. It is certainly not nice to be in that situation.

“It is hard to fathom. He has brought through some players in the past 12 months that were not featuring. Some of them played in their first All-Ireland, some of them won their first All Star. They were 35 minutes away from winning an All-Ireland title. Certainly, as a manager, if you can get yourself into a situation where you are three points up at half-time in an All-Ireland final, I’d take the hand off you right now. They certainly put themselves in a winning position. To me, they lacked leadership on the pitch in the second half.” With the mediation process having ended without a resolution, club delegates will be asked to vote on Cunningham’s future at an emergency meeting of the county board on Monday; a two-thirds majority is required to oust Cunningham.

Limerick manager TJ Ryan was slow to comment.

“Two things I would say: first of all, from a player’s point of view, the requirements of a modern day player and lifestyle choices are huge. Social media probably doesn’t help. No matter what you do, it will be portrayed in a different light. The other thing I would say is that I wouldn’t always believe what you read about certain situations. Unless you are inside the walls and know exactly what is going on, it is very, very difficult to comment on it. I know myself, personally, stories have been and can be portrayed that mightn’t be true.”

Henry Shefflin, similar to Sheedy, is confused how a county who came within half an hour of All-Ireland glory can now be mired by such controversy. Citing the manager he played under for 16 seasons, Shefflin is adamant that Brian Cody’s consistency ensured civil war never materialised in Kilkenny.

“You look at Galway and you say to yourself, why? The one thing about Brian is he is there, he is constant. So when you do have a bad year, all the toys don’t come out of the pram and we start again. We have always had that consistency there with Brian. But as well as that, the county board are there, the supporters club are there; the whole environment within Kilkenny hurling is just all together.”

Sheedy interjected: “Go back to Brian Cody and his initial tenure; Charlie Carter and Brian McEvoy… there were questions asked at the time, some of them at that stage were waiting for Kilkenny to fall and for the hammer to come down on top of him.”

Shefflin reckons Cody’s ruthlessness sustained him.

“Go back to the All-Ireland a few years ago. Brian Hogan, Tommy Walsh and I were sitting on the bench. To be in that position, to make those calls, you have to be ruthless.”