The announcement on Monday night of Galway hurling's worst-kept secret will reinvigorate Galway hurling fans after the disappointment of last season's Championship run.
That run came to an end against Micheal Donoghue's Dublin side on a disappointing day in Salthill. However, the confirmation by the County Board this week has set the pulses running of not only hurling fans, but a whole new tranche of club players who will be looking to impress and win a coveted place in his rebuild project panel for 2025.
The scale of the rebuild is evidenced by the duration of the four-year-contract and the fact that of the 18 players who featured for Galway in the 2017 All-Ireland final win, 10 of them - Daithi Burke, Adrian Tuohy, Padraic Mannion, David Burke, Jason Flynn, Joseph Cooney, Conor Whelan, Conor Cooney, Cathal Mannion and Johnny Glynn - played in the defeat to Donoghue’s Dublin side that brought their summer to a premature end last May.
Galway's 2017 All-Ireland winning manager returns to the post he left abruptly in the autumn of 2019, taking over once more on a four-year term.
His regular coaching duo of Francis Forde and Noel Larkin, who were part of the All-Ireland winning set-up in Galway and subsequently joined him for the past two years in Dublin, will again be centrally involved.
The return of the Clarinbridge man was welcomed by star forward Conor Whelan.
“"It’s a massive lift for the county and the group of players. It’s a massive boost to the county. He obviously has massive experience and he has been there and done it all before," Whelan said this week.
Former Galway dual star Alan Kerins, who was part of the Clarinbridge side that Donoghue managed to an All-Ireland club title in 2011, said he left in 2019 and it was much-publicised.
"He’s a man of very high standards and he expects a high standard of himself and his players and everyone and he’d like to have all the systems streamlined.
“He’d like to have everyone aligned, basically, in accordance to those systems and standards. Obviously he left in 2019, was in Dublin then and did a great job there and obviously there’s a sense of unfinished business there, definitely, I’d imagine.
“It’s great that he’s back because he is the best candidate for the job. He knows the underage and club system very well, what’s out there, and he has Francis and Noel back and Eamon O’Shea is a huge addition.
“He would have always wanted Eamon. Even when we won the club, Eamon was in giving us speeches and talks and a couple of sessions with us back in 2011 so they always had a good relationship and he’s a big fan of Eamon’s so it’s great that Eamon has come on board with Micheal as well. It’s a huge coup for Galway and for Micheal and for Franny Forde and Noel Larkin to have Eamon with them.”
O'Shea's involvement, however, was up in the air until news filtered through Tuesday that the two-time All-Ireland winning coach will be remaining with Galway for another year.
O'Shea, a long-time resident of Galway and University of Galway academic, joined Henry Shefflin's management team at the end of last year.
However, 2024 proved a dismal year for the Tribes, with the team exiting the championship before the All-Ireland series with Leinster SHC losses to both Wexford and Dublin.
Donoghue had masterminded Dublin's victory over Galway, during which there was notable tension on the sideline in the wake of David Burke's first-half red card. Four months later and Donoghue is back in charge of his native county.
He previously worked with O'Shea as an analyst in the Tipperary management set-up during the 2013-15 period. O'Shea's three year stint in charge of Tipp yielded only a Munster title in 2015 and a narrow loss after a replay in the thrilling 2014 All-Ireland decider.
However, it is for his influential role as coach in Liam Sheedy's two spells as manager that marks him out, a period where he was widely credited for Tipp's fluid attacking play during the 2010 and 2019 All-Ireland victories.
