Loughnane goes mad again!

[The Wedger]

Got mailed this!

From "The Clare Champion"

Fanaticism drove him in Clare but, Peter O'Connell finds, Ger Loughnane couldn't give the same commitment to the Tribesmen.

NEITHER love nor hate infiltrated Ger Loughnane' s emotions during his two-year stint in Galway. In the end, that dearth of feeling cost both the man and the county.
Deep down, he didn't care enough. A decade back, he would have gladly laid down his life for Clare. Organisationally, he says, he gave everything to Galway but he could not donate every fibre of his being to the Tribesmen.
Last Christmas, Loughnane peered into a book of war poems, given to him by Colum Flynn A single line from WB Yeats- An Irish Airman Foresees his Death resonated most: 'Those I fight, I do not hate, those I guard, I do not love'. L
"I couldn't say that about Clare," Loughnane reflected. "Those I fought for Clare, I hated them and those I guarded, I loved them. But in Galway, that was never the case," he says, encapsulating his feelings for Clare but not for Galway. "It was dangerous," he says of the depth of his fanaticism throughout the 1990s,
"When I was with Clare, it was fanaticism brought to a degree that few people in their
whole life will ever bring it to.You could never repeat that fanaticism. I look back on it now and I say. 'Jesus Christ', the commitment in my own mind was just absolutely total," he says.
He just couldn't spill himself, to the same extent, on Galway's behalf. 1
"Can you ever do that again? And I suppose you have to realise the answer is no. I suppose Galway made me realise the answer is no. I was relying so much on organisation in Galway, on Sean Treacy and on Louis (Mulqueen) but I was never going to give of myself in the same way as I gave to Clare. Never,never. You couldn't
do that," he reiterated.
"I know now that I will never get to that depth again. And I suppose that's what makes all the difference," he believes.
Yet if he'd got his way, Loughnane would be preparing for his third year as Galway manager. Internal politics, he claims, led to his overthrow, in a secret ballot last October.
"Everybody knows that Miko Ryan, the (hurling) chairman, was against me from the
first day I went in," Loughnane maintains.
"Sean Treacy actually told me that he [Miko Ryan] asked him to go against me, even when I was in. The man who was coming with me, he asked him to go against me!" he exclaimed.
"But of course Sean, the most loyal, the most genuine person you will ever meet, wouldn't even contemplate that. There were massive obstacles there but at the same time, it was two years I will never regret and two years that really, really enjoyed," he stresses.
In tandem with the hurling chairman, some of Galway's best-known hurling figures,
Loughnane says, wanted rid of him.
"The campaign was there from Miko Ryan the chairman, Mattie Murphy and those associated like Cyril Farreir and Jarlath Cloonan.
People who were there before. They were the ones who campaigned against going into Leinster," he suggests.
Loughnane expanded on the Galway hurling chairman's role in his demise. "The only time the chairman did any work was to get us out. He was campaigning from the very start. He was hoping that the situation wouldn't be a success. As well as that, he never turned up to a training session. He never saw what was going on and yet he passed all these judgements about what was going on," the Feakle man laughed.
On Monday, October 13, 2008, a Galway County Board meeting voted 28 to 26 in favour of jettisoning Loughnane, Sean Treacy and Louis Mulqueen.
"I would never back down from any challenge. We were determined we wouldn't back down. So if they were going to get rid of us, Miko and his gang, they were going to have to campaign and canvass as hard as they could, he said.
"But they needn't have had because even if they were beaten by two votes, we would still have gone. We weren't going to go in next year, into a very divided and divisive situation.
Remember the Three Priests, '98 and all of that? Three has become four, albeit at a 10-year remove.
"The funny thing is, I have no luck with priests!" he chortles. "It was a priest from
Killanena a Fr [Martin] McNamara, who is now in a club in Galway, who had promised to vote for us and then 20 minutes before the vote started, he told John Fahy (hurling secretary) that he had to vote against us, because the (club) chairman had rang him up. So we were tripped up by a priest again."
Although acknowledging that the priest in question has contributed to Galway hurling, Loughnane was disappointed to have lost his vote.
"I still don't accept that from him. He had his mind made up. Why would you change your mind 20 minutes before the meeting?"
If he was still Galway manager, Ger Loughnane is adamant that he would be working to a clear plan.
"We knew what course we were on. Our next step was to get rid of all the old fellas and start with a younger group and try and train the younger group into a new way of thinking, a new way of operating," he explained.
With Galway due to compete in Leinster next year, Loughnane is convinced that the game in the county will benefit hugely.
Yet just a few short years ago, he remembers attending a meeting with the Galway County Board, in his guise as a Hurling Development Committee member. Galway officers Loughnane suggests, were not jumping out of their skin to send their hurlers into Leinster.
"I was on the Hurling Development Committee that tried to persuade Galway to come into the Leinster championship," he outlined. We met them. Miko Ryan fell asleep at the end of the table. That's a fact. Frank Burke talked about the last time they were in Munster in the 1960s that they never won a match. Phelim
Murphy's only concern was that the kitchen was closing at 9pm, so the meeting had to be over before then, so that he'd get his meal.
"They weren't the slightest bit interested.
Bemie 0'Connor was talking about the only system that suited them was getting into an All-Ireland semi-final straight away and taking their chances. One year out of four, they'd win it and they'd be in the All-Ireland."
Loughnane says he had his eyes opened by a couple of his players, when the Leinster debate was at tipping point in Galway.
"They were unanimous that they would go into Leinster. So they chose three players to go into the Galway County Board meeting; Ollie Canning, Conor Dervan and David Collins When push came to shove and when men needed to stand up, the boys bailed out. Canning bailed out, Dervan bailed out but Collins faced the crowd," Loughnane stated.
The crucial county board meeting was held last September, during which delegates voted 66 to 54 in favour of competing in the Leinster hurling championship. Along with David Collins, hurling secretary John Fahy argued in favour of Leinster.
"They still swung the meeting," Loughnane is certain. "I thought that was really, really significant. Collins is a fantastic leader. It just shows Fahv being a man of absolute steel. I think that is a real bonus for John Mclntyre next year.
"Let them play Kilkenny, I still think that Galway will be in the All-Ireland quarter-final next year and from then on, you never know what could happen," he speculated.
So what is his take on John Mclntyre, Loughnane's successor?
"I don't know John that well," he replied."His record in Offaly was very bad. Offaly
got relegated and got beaten by 31 points by Kilkenny. He seems to be an intelligent type of guy so maybe; he knows the Galway scene very, very well," he pointed out.
"He knows where the bodies are buried!" Loughnane added. "For example after he
wrote an article about Miko Ryan, the chairman, which was very, very justified; Bemie O'Connor wouldn't let him into the sideline in Athenry the following Sunday. Maybe somebody like that might be the man to bring them along to the next stage," he mused.
During his time in Galway, Loughnane was stunned by the absence of modem GAA facilities in the county.
"There's no pitch in Galway where you can train for championship hurling," he says,
shaking his head. "They've nothing like Cusack Park, the Gaelic Grounds, not to talk of Thurles. Some nights we had to abandon training in Athenry because the pitch was so bad. It's dangerous to the players," he suggests.
"There was a huge neglect there for years and years," Loughnane added. "The great eras of the ' 80s and ' 90s. when the Clares and the Limericks and all the other counties developed their pitches, Galway did absolutely nothing.
"As a matter of fact, they've regressed because Ballinasloe was a very good pitch when I was playing hurling. Now there's no county match and no senior championship club match played in Ballinasloe. It's now a field for sheep basically," he noted.
"Their whole infrastructure has been totally neglected by the Frank Burkes and the Phelim Murphys, who built a big reputation for themselves outside of Galway but did nothing for the game within Galway," Loughnane stormed.
As Galway manager, surely Loughnane admits that he wasn't flawless himself? Revealing the starting 15 to his players, minutes before throw-in, last June in Ennis hardly helped?
"I didn't care about Clare," he retorts. "The Clare match didn't matter one bit to me. All I was aiming for was to get Kilkenny in the quarter-final and have a right cut at Kilkenny.
"Now an awful lot of people in Galway maybe wouldn't agree with that. But you saw last year with Waterford for example, getting to an All-Ireland final and being absolutely trounced, humiliated, decimated; call it what you like.
That is the worst thing that can possibly happen you. You should never get to a final unless you are ready to compete," he warns.
Loughnane is convinced that Galway nearly got it right in 2007. "They were vulnerable," he said of All-Ireland quarter-final opponents, Kilkenny.
"With 63 minutes gone, we were level with them. A mistake by our comer-forward led to a mistake by our full-back. They got the goal and went on and won the match and they won it handily in the end," Loughnane acknowledged.
"But it wasn't the Clare match that undid us that year. I thought we went as far that year as we possibly could. The injury to Fergal Moore, when our resources in the backs were very, very scarce anyway, was what really fecked us in that game," he reckons.
A year later, Galway fell to Cork in Thurles. A freak Cork display capsized them, the former Galway manager is adamant.
"I thought that the Cork display this year against us was of the greatest displays I've ever seen," he marvelled. "You'd have to be on the sideline. Forget about being above in the stand, forget about watching it on television. You'd have to be on the sideline to see the absolute fanaticism of the Cork players in the second half."
For example?
"There was one stage in the second half, the sun was shining in Shane O'Neill's eyes. A ball came down between himself and Ger Farragher. Farragher lost the view of it in the sun but Shane O'Neill didn't. He caught it and he was snorting like a bull as he was driving forward.
"It reminded me of Clare in 1998, when we played Cork in similar circumstances, when we had to win. Cork were absolutely brilliant on the night and I wouldn't take anything away from them. We were so fortunate to finish within two points of them," Loughnane admits.
"But how could we come from nowhere?" he queries. "From playing Laois and playing Antrim, up to the intensity that Cork had after they playing Tipperary and having a hard match with Dublin.
"They were set up for that game and then with Cusack sent off and he crying at half-time, telling them he'd let down the team, he drove them ballistic. You met a team that was absolutely ballistic. Now, that wouldn't happen again," he states with utter certainty.
Although finished with Galway, Loughnane ponders on what might have been if he had been afforded more time.
"It was going to take a lot more time than I imagined when I went in there at first. But it would have proved to be a great challenge. I loved the two years I was there and I'd have loved another two years in it. I think in two more years we'd have really changed it around," he says.
These days hunting and not hurling, keeps him occupied.
"My biggest pastime now is hunting," Loughnane confirms. "Anything that goes
across the hunting, I nearly resent it. I find it very hard to see myself now having the same passion for the hurling," he revealed.
A bit like, while in Galway, he couldn't transport his passion for Clare north of his own county's border.
"I think that never again in my life would I be able first of all, or would I be willing, to give what I gave to Clare. Nobody knows, except myself and those who are closest to me, nobody knows exactly what energy I gave to Clare," he says softly.



Fr McNamara 'hurt' by Loughnane's claims
FR Martin McNamara has expressed his "disappointment and hurt" at Ger
Loughnane's claim that he changed his mind and voted to ditch the former Gal-
way manager at a crucial county board meeting.
Fr McNamara, who is a member of Killimordaly GAA Club near Athenry, refuted
Loughnane's suggestion that he told Galway hurling secretary, John Fahy, that he
had been instructed to vote against the outgoing Galway manager shortly before the
meeting.
"First of all, I had no contact with John Fahy before that vote," Fr McNamara told
The Clare Champion on Tuesday. "I wasn't talking to him at all about it," he added.
Fr McNamara cannot comprehend how Ger Loughnane can suggest that he voted
against him.
"To say that I voted against him is completely wrong because he had no knowledge
of which way I voted," the priest, who is a native of Killanena, stated.
"It was a secret ballot. There was no pressure on people either way. I could have voted any way I liked," he pointed out.
Fr McNamara said that he has been hurt by the vote controversy.
"It hurts me and disappoints me to say that I had voted against him. But even though he said that about me, I still have great respect for him. It's just a pity that he would say that about me," he said.
In fact, Fr McNamara said that he was keen that Ger Loughnane remained in place
as Galway manager for a third year.
"There was nobody more disappointed than me, when he didn't get the job for a
third year. He was appointed for three years and as far as I was concerned, he deserved to get another chance. So many people around here- felt he should have been given the chance," he maintained.
Fr McNamara's admiration for Ger Loughnane hasn't diminished, despite their clash.
"We always talked about hurling when we met and about the fortunes of my own
home club, Killanena, it being co close to Feakle. He always put his heart into hurling
in Galway, it just didn't work out for him. I wish him all the best in whatever he does
next. Clare wouldn't have won any of the AU-Irelands without him," Fr McNamara
concluded.
When contacted by The Clare Champion, Galway County Board chairman, Miko
Ryan said that he had no comment to make at this stage, as did Galway hurler, Ollie
Canning.

Further Article in Section 1 of "The Clare Champion".

Canning and Dervan deny players' meeting claim
GALWAY'S 2008 hurling captain, Oilie Canning and teammate, Conor Dervan, have rebutted Ger Loughnane's claim that they were selected by the panel of players to attend a Galway County Board meeting in September.
Ger Loughnane also claimed that David Collins was elected onto the same committee but that Canning and Dervan "bailed out". In a joint statement to The Clare Champion, however, Canning and Dervan pointed out that to attend any county board meeting, they need permission from their respective clubs to act as delegates.
"Ger Loughnane has been misinformed about the players' meeting on the Leinster issue. We were not nominated, selected, voted or even agreed to attend the county board meeting, at the players' meeting on the night," the statement read.
The county board meeting in question voted 66-54 in favour of playing Leinster championship hurling from 2009.
• FOR FULL INTERVIEW WITH GER LOUGHNANE
SEE SPORT AND LEISURE PAGES 1&4

[thejuice]

Its terrible to hear of the stagnation in the infrasturcture and facilities in Galway though its hard to believe considering all the underage success so things cant be all that bad. Its true about Ballinasloe, cant remember when the last time a County game was played there.

[mouview]

Nothing wrong with Pearse stadium for training - was good enough to hold Galway / Tipp there in '03 (?) - not the most optimal location I know. I have some sympathy with Gerlock in his dealings with Miko Ryan but this is typical of him - lashing out in all directions, hoping some darts will hit the target.

[magpie seanie]

Yeah - nothing worng with Pearse Stadium exept its in the worst possible place it could be in.

Loughnane is Loughnane. He says what he thinks. I'd say a lot of what he says is on the mark. It can't just be bad luck how Galway are continually underachieving.

[orangeman]

Great article and as usual some very, very forthright views on hurling, GAA, Ireland and religion from Loughnane. He's a great character.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Well he was bound to have a cut at some stage. I'm surprised it took this long.

As for his points the bit about the training facilities is total bunkum. With Clare he did half is training on a boggy hillside while while his talking up of Cusack Park as a great venue is mind-boggling as I've been there a fair few times in recent years and it's bascially falling down and half-derelict. There are no shortage of pitches or gyms in Galway to train in. Indeed the Galway county hurling centre is due to be opened soon out in Athenry making Galway one of the few counties in the country to have football and hurling centres of excellence with floodlit pitches, indoor areas and gym available on site and this is where the hurlers will train from now on. Granted the hurling centre was only being built while Loughnane was in charge. Given that Pearse Stadium had a complete redevelopment it's not quite true that some of the people he named have done nothing in recent years. However Ballinasloe is definitely in need of a facelift as it used to be quite a nice little ground at one time. Is he trying to say that Pearse Stadium wasn't good enough for him? It's not like there would be 10,000 there to watch them train so there wouldn't be any traffic. Seems like it was just too far away for him to drive to from Clare.

The cut he had at Ollie Canning and Conor Dervan is completely unwarrented IMO.

However he is probably right about certain members of the board wanting him out since day one. Especially Miko Ryan. Can't be easy to work in those circumstances.

Personally I would have given him another year but there's no doubt his record with Galway was poor. Their only wins in the championship in his two years were against Dublin and Laois I believe while before him Noel Lane and Conor Hayes both reached All-Ireland finals with Galway. Maybe the biggest injustice is why were the other two let go so easily?

[GalwayBayBoy]

There's no pitch in Galway where you can train for championship hurling," he says, shaking his head. "They've nothing like Cusack Park

or

Ger Loughnane believes that "Armageddon" looms for Clare GAA if Cusack Park is deemed unsafe for health and safety reasons.

Make up your mind Ger.

[magpie seanie]

I don't think the stand and terraces have any bearing on hurling training. The pitch and its surface is surely what he was on about.

[Roashter]

Here is another rant from Gerlock this week, giving out about Clare county board this time

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Loughnane fears Armageddon for Clare GAA

Ger Loughnane
12 December 2008


Ger Loughnane believes that "Armageddon" looms for Clare GAA if Cusack Park is deemed unsafe for health and safety reasons.

The former Galway hurling manager's comments come in light of the collapse of the Clare County Board's move to sell the Ennis venue and their abandoned proposal plans to construct a new stadium on the Quin Road of the town.

"I see a massive problem facing the Clare County Board," Loughnane told the Clare Champion newspaper last week.

"I hate to say this because it's really Armageddon for Clare. If Cusack Park, because of the rust in so much of the iron works, if it is declared a health hazard, if it is declared unsafe, what are the County Board going to do? Where is the money going to come from?"

"It could actually be closed down. Now that's apart from the objections that Aldi and Tesco will have about first of all having matches in it and secondly about its development," he added.

The Feakle clubman also indicated that the would-be crisis could see a number of Clare's top officials resigning from their positions, including county secretary Pat Fitzgerald, who he has great admiration for.

"It is a very, very precarious stage for Clare," Loughnane stressed. "Will Pat Fitz stay on as county secretary? If he doesn't stay on as county secretary, who's going to take it up? How are they going to raise the money to develop Cusack Park? There are huge, huge problems facing the county. They put all their eggs in the one basket of this 84 million euro (project). I always thought that was absolutely crazy and I said that from the very start," he stated.

Loughnane suggested that the sale of a plot of land beside Cusack Park to Aldi earlier in the decade was under the going rate at the time, and has pointed the finger towards Fitzgerald and former chairman Fr Michael McNamara.

The Banner County native cites the underselling of the site as the initial cause for Clare's current problems, saying: "the rot started at that stage (when Fr McNamara had left the post of chairman) using that money to but Tulla, without having any vision of what Tulla was about."

[AZOffaly]

In fairness to him, he's as mad as a bag of ferrets in a chicken coop. Always entertaining but, as he alludes to himself, his hunger and drive back in the 90s with Clare probably damaged him as a man.

[GalwayBayBoy]

I don't think the stand and terraces have any bearing on hurling training. The pitch and its surface is surely what he was on about.

Who knows what he's on about? There is so much complete bullshit amongst all the relevant points he brings up that it's hard to take him seriously. There's never been a problem with the surface at Pearse either and last time I checked it wasn't about to fall down anytime soon. Plus I would say the surface in Pearse is better than the surface at the Gaelic grounds which is quite soft underfoot. I'm not sure what he wants.

He's good entertainment alright but he's man capable of contradicting himself in the same sentence.

[orangeman]

In fairness to him, he's as mad as a bag of ferrets in a chicken coop. Always entertaining but, as he alludes to himself, his hunger and drive back in the 90s with Clare probably damaged him as a man.

I think he likes to portray this image but overall I think he's much cuter than this and lets fly just to detract from something else.


I enjoy him.


Can we see him return to the Sunday game ?

[AZOffaly]

He's cunning, more than cute I'd say. But I know what you mean. However, certainly some of it is just him being completely out of synch with the world. Some of the stories during his sting in Clare would make you wonder about him.

[GalwayBayBoy]

A hard man to figure out. He seems to fall out with people wherever he goes. He's even fallen out with most of his old Clare players from the 90's.

[Zulu]

The man is full of shit, now I'm no fan of CB's but Ger has had 2 IC jobs and it seems he has fallen out with all and sundry in both of them. Both Ollie Canning and Fr. McNamara have refuted Loughnane's accusations which is another common thread when dealing with Ger. He may be good for the journo's and he gives us something to post about around here but he blames everyone bar himself for his failures and he cares little for other people, he has basically questioned the integrity of a number of people in front of the whole country and worse again there is every chance it's all in his own warped mind.