Ex-Limerick player has hit the ground running as new Galway manager

VIRTUALLY every photographer covering county hurling final day at Pearse Stadium last Sunday had a second brief . . . to get a snap of the new Galway team manager Shane O’Neill.

Though some of the paparazzi even had file photos of O’Neill on their cameras, it proved an elusive challenge. The Limerick native was in Salthill, but had no desire to stand out from the crowd.

O’Neill’s low-key, studied personality was actually a big influence in winning the support of the four-man committee tasked with finding a successor to Micheál Donoghue.

The process came down to O’Neill and fellow Limerick man, Ciaran Carey, but it was the Na Piarsaigh native who ticked more of the boxes ahead of his free-spirited former inter-county playing colleague.

Ratified for a two-year term the previous Friday, O’Neill’s presence at the county final between St Thomas’ and Liam Mellows marked the start of a busy few days for the solicitor based in Limerick city.

He has already linked up with Galway’s conditioning coach Lukasz Kirszenstein and was due to meet the senior hurling panel later in the week. O’Neill is also on the look out for two local selectors.

The new Galway manager has enticed John Fitzgerald, a former Na Piarsaigh player, to come on board as team coach and the two have worked together in the past, notably with Eire Óg, Nenagh.

A half-forward with Limerick from 1994 to 2000, O’Neill won a Munster championship in 1996 and also collected a National League medal the following year.

At 37, he had the great joy of lining out for Na Piarsaigh when the club captured its first ever senior hurling title in 2011 and within a couple of seasons was assisting manager Sean Stack, the former Clare defender, with ‘observational analysis’.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.