It has been an interesting number of weeks in the form of managerial changes across a number of hurling counties. Limerick, Offaly, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Antrim, Galway and Clare have opted for change. Only those in charge of Tipperary, Kilkenny and Dublin of the major counties remain in situ. It’s a major changing of the guard, but may not achieve anything. All but Wexford have reappointed. Henry Martin assesses the chan ges...

After a long process Galway have opted for Anthony Cunningham, a former low key but effective team playing member of the 1987 and 1988 Galway teams. There were people in Galway who believed that Cunningham should not have been on those teams, so much so that by the mid 1990s, Cyril Farrell in his autobiography ‘The Right to Win’ almost had to justify his selection of Cunningham on the Galway teams of 1987 and 1988 all over again, despite winning All Irelands in both years. Cunningham hasn’t come the conventional route, dabbling successfully in Westmeath club football with Garrycastle, and probably has landed a job that a lot of people don’t deem worth the hassle. Maybe in better times he might not have got the nod but he could be the ideal low-key appointment for them.

How to get Galway to ‘click’ seems to be the thing that eludes them, having changed management, players and county board officials in recent years. When they click they can demolish Cork - as per this year - but then they go out and lose to a Waterford team that should have been demoralised after their heavy Munster final defeat. An ‘Irish Independent’ article with Conor Hayes, Brendan Lynskey and Noel Lane seemed harsh and untimely but as the summer drew on their words bore more relevance.

The thing about Galway hurling is that they have players in name that other counties can only dream of. Cunningham’s All Ireland Under-21 winning team contained a number of decent players, and in name at least, they would appear to have pedigree already on the senior panel. Fifteen years ago people felt that Galway had too many hurlers, and that the chopping and changing was crippling them. There’s a sense of deja vu in that regard. Noel Lane in 2001 and Conor Hayes in 2005 came closest to winning All Ireland titles, and Hayes had the luxury of managing them for four years. However, he found it difficult to establish the consistency of 2005 in the other three years. Lane with Mike Mac had Galway knocking on the door in 2002 as well as 2001, but couldn’t prevent them being mugged by a late Colin Lynch point at Croke Park. The natural assumption is that Galway will click into life and deliver a title one of these years. However, one suspects that those days departed once the qualifier system was introduced. Winning an All Ireland final through peaking in two games is in their psyche, and in the psyche of their mentors from the 1980s. Putting a run of four of five games together would appear to be beyond them. Perhaps establishing consistency of performance in 2012 rather than success would be the greatest evaluation of Anthony Cunningham in his first year.

Waterford, having broken the piggy bank over a number of seasons, have decided to go local. The Jason Ryan/James McGarry partnership mooted originally would have been interesting had it been successful in 2012, as it may well have rendered the position of selector all but redundant, as counties would inevitably follow their lead. Michael Ryan is believed to be an excellent man manager, and the presence of Brother Philip Ryan and Nicky Cashin in his management team will ensure that they are well prepared in advance of the big day.

However, where a team like Waterford are concerned, its getting the team over the line that is the priority. Can Michael Ryan or his management team see the need for a change before it arises and adapt accordingly? Interestingly, Brother Philip Ryan was a key player in the development of the Limerick three-in-a-row players of 2000-2002 when they were Under-16 and younger. He was a man ahead of his time in that he was in favour of a psychologist being used for an underage team. Nobody bats an eyelid at these things nowadays, even if some successful players believe that the involvement of a psychologist in some victories is sometime coincidental and overstated. However, in the mid 1990s Limerick wasn’t ready for a psychologist and we never got to see Brother Ryan at adult level. He was involved with the Laois team that should have beaten Limerick in 2009 and is expected to be more influential for Waterford in 2012 than he was in 2011.

Cork have turned back the years, appointing the legendary JBM to guide them out of their current rut. His first major decisions have been to recall Sean Óg Ó hAilpín and award the captaincy to Donal Óg Cusack. Some have questioned those decisions, but a number of players have been blooded in Cork under Denis Walsh and those coming through have not managed to prove their worth to the level at which one of them is more deserving of the captaincy than one of the ‘SIPTU’ boys. Sean Óg and Donal Óg are not long term solutions, but if your 35 year olds (even with their striking history) are better than your 25 year olds what can you do? JBM has a long road ahead, but if anyone can restore the glory days to Cork, he is the one. In 2012 Cork will have gone six years without success. It’s a long time, and perhaps as in 1999, it may take until JBM’s fourth year to deliver. Perhaps his greatest advantage is that nobody else will be granted such patience.

Clare opted for the arrangement that had been long expected since Davy began training teams many years ago. There was always a sense of anticipation that the moment would arrive and a sense that there might be awkwardness when the moment it did. However, the moment seems to have come and gone without any apparent backlash, something indicative of the fact that Clare didn’t have that many options available to them. They are one game away from a Munster final, and will feel that they have the same chance against Waterford that Waterford have against them. Davy may be a colourful, controversial character, but third level colleges players have huge regard for him, and it's players of that age group that you are essentially managing at intercounty level now. Given that Cork have turned to the old guard in Cork, it will be interesting to see if the likes of Niall Gilligan, Tony Griffin (the Clare version of Sean Óg where preparation is concerned) and Tony Carmody enter his plans.

Antrim have decided to give a man universally recognised as a trainer, Jerry Wallace, a chance to establish himself as a manager having released Dinny Cahill. Hurling has had a number of trainers in recent years, Mick Dempsey, Dave Mahedy, Teddy Owens, Cian O’Neill, Jim Kilty, Pat O’Callaghan, Dave Moriarty etc. all of whom trained teams to reach (and win in most cases) All Ireland Finals but none of them would be seen as Senior Intercounty hurling managers. It will be interesting to see how the Wallace experiment goes, and it must be noted that he is highly regarded by both the Limerick and Cork players.

Offaly have opted for an unusual choice in Ollie Baker. Baker epitomised the Loughnane era in Clare, a physically strong player of whom there were low expectations enabled to hurl faster and become a hurling great through sheer attrition and application. The old Offaly, on the other hand, thrived on free spiritedness, and while the instinctive players of the past are no longer around, their current playing panel would be considered to be of closer resemblance to the traditional Offaly rather than the brute force and attrition of Clare when Baker was in his prime.