Galway chairman Bellew says Shefflin departure was entirely his own decision

Former Galway manager Henry Shefflin with Eamon O Shea

Galway GAA chairman Paul Bellew said they wanted Henry Shefflin to stay in charge of the county’s hurlers and that the decision to step down was taken entirely by the former Kilkenny star.

And Bellew said that while the preference was to appoint Shefflin’s successor from within the county, he did not rule out an outside manager if he was the right person for the job.

“The vast majority of managers come from within and our preference really always was to go inside. But you need the best candidate too,” said Bellew.

“Our preference this time round again, very strongly, will be to look to source a candidate from within the county, that is based in the county.

“But that’s not an iron thing that is … what if it doesn’t work out? What of those people aren’t available or don’t do it? Then you would look outside.

“But we have a strong preference now to stay within the county. There is probably a three or four year term to be offered up to whoever wants to take on the job. That would be our preference, and always is really to be quite straight about it.” Bellew told Galway Bay FM he was pleased that Shefflin did not make a hasty decision when they were knocked out of the championship when they were defeated by Micheal Donoghue’s Dublin in May and that he considered his position before deciding to step down.

“He took his time and I’m delighted personally he took every effort to think about it, five and a half weeks, and he came back to us yesterday morning to say he wouldn’t be looking to stay on for another year.

“The commitment he has given us over the last three years has been phenomenal in terms of coming from Kilkenny. It was a huge step for him to come out of the county and to Galway.

“This year did not end up where we expected it to. Our ambition was very much to be involved next Sunday (in the All-Ireland semi-final) and again after that. It was just a tough year and we have three years done now and Henry has made that decision himself that there is probably a need for another block of work to be done.”

Galway reached the All-Ireland semi-final in each of Shefflin’s first two seasons in charge but lost to eventual champions Limerick on both occasions — losing by 0-27 to 1-21 in 2022 and by 2-24 to 1-18 — but Bellew said that the Leinster final loss to Kilkenny last year when Cillian Buckley snatched victory with an injury-time goal, changed the trajectory.

“A massive turning point for me was last year’s Leinster final, psychologically for everyone. I always felt this year, not with the benefit of hindsight, there was a serious pressure within the group themselves, I think even publicly and from the management that we wanted to get back and rectify that this year. We were almost trying to get back to a Leinster final and play that game without doing enough to get there.

The Galway chairman said that Shefflin, whose only silverware was a Walsh Cup win, will leave a legacy from his first inter-county management term and that the Tribesmen will benefit in the years ahead.

“What did Henry bring in terms of his mentality, his will to win, his attitude? I think we are going to benefit from that. He has really ingrained what it takes to have the mentality to win at the top. We are going to have to ask questions of ourselves internally. Do we just want to hurl for Galway or do we want to win All-Irelands for Galway? And I think he does leave a bit of a legacy in that way. He was really challenging to the players, in a positive way, in what it takes.

“You have to look at it in the whole and the amount of players who have come through and the amount of players who are going to be ready to come through. We have nine or ten guys under 22 who have been on that panel for the last two years. We saw the footballers last Saturday, we had five or six guys who played who didn’t play for Galway two years ago when we got through to an All-Ireland final. I think he does leave us in a really good place,” added Bellew.