RENOWNED hurling coach Marty Fogarty has aimed a scathing broadside at the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee after resigning from the body, claiming that he was “going round in circles” and failed to see any tangible progress being made.
In a resignation letter that runs to over 1,600 words and seen by The Irish News, Fogarty also expressed his dismay with the appointment process for the new full-time Head of Hurling.
A highly respected figure in hurling circles and a key element in Brian Cody’s Kilkenny backroom team for nine years (2005 to 2013), Fogarty wrote to the Hurling Development Committee saying that complimenting his solutions to grow and improve the small-ball code “wouldn’t cut the mustard”.
“Verbal support or complimenting the process does not “cut the mustard” unfortunately and until there is written agreement to implement the actions or at least give an ‘intention to implement’ them, there is no progress,” wrote Fogarty.
“In the blink of an eye the committee’s term and the terms of the various management committees will end and without this written commitment all will be lost.
“The actions and commitment to implement them need to be put into the public domain also so that future managements can be called to task, in the event of not honouring commitments.”
He added: “There is no way you can embark on a “Roadshow” without firm commitments and delivery in some of these areas. The people you will meet have listened to promise after promise, year after year and you will be eaten alive if you don’t travel with positive and tangible actions.”
Fogarty’s resignation is untimely for the HDC and indeed the GAA’s top brass especially following Pat Gilroy quitting the GAA’s management committee over discussions over whether to pay managers.
Fogarty served the association in the capacity of National Hurling Co-Ordinator between 2016 and 2021 before the position was discontinued.
In the second part of his resignation letter, the Kilkenny native was furious at how candidates for the Head of Hurling role weren’t afforded face-to-face interviews and were instead conducted via zoom.
Fogarty’s letter concluded: “I am sorry to be ‘bailing out’; that is how I see it, but I just cannot bring myself (I tried at the last meeting) to sit around a table pretending that everything is ok.”
