Kerry native Tomás Ó Flatharta, who was ratified last Thursday night as the manager of the Galway senior footballers for the next three years, is expected to attend Sunday’s football final in Pearse Stadium
It will be his first look at some of the talent available to him since delegates ratified his appointment for three years with a review at the end of every year on a vote of 33-6.
The feeling among many delegates and supporters was that the appointment was handled poorly, which was reflected in a tempestuous debate among the delegates who had been summoned to Lough George at very short notice.
The controversy was not that the former Westmeath manger Ó Flatharta got the job - he has strong experience and hopefully will be a major success in his new role - but that other interview candidates, Gerry Fahy and Peter Warren, were not treated in the manner that their service to Galway football merited.
They were told at the interview they would be informed early last week of the selection committee’s decision, yet despite reading about the process in the media on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, they were not informed that they were unsuccessful until Thursday.
Peter Warren, who gave sterling service to Galway as a selector with John O’Mahony for seven years, had received text messages of congratulations and been contacted by the media on Thursday morning.
Another fact worth considering is that Tomás Ó Flatharta is Galway’s fourth outside appointment of the last five managers, which included John O’Mahony, Peter Forde and Joe Kernan, and it is time there was some thought put into a structured method of developing young Galway managers to be able to take up the reins at some stage in the future.
Ó Flatharta is to interview some candidates as his possible selectors over the coming few weeks.
