Former Galway dual star Alan Kerins says whoever replaces Micheal Donoghue as Galway senior hurling manager has “a huge act to follow”.

He also believes that the new football manager has good raw material to work with thanks to the efforts of Kevin Walsh and his backroom team.

Speaking at the 2019 Electric Ireland Minor Star Awards in Croke Park on Saturday night, Kerins gave this thoughts on a range of topics…

On the choices and opportunities that Minor Footballers and Hurlers have:

“My advice to these young fellas would be, they’re blessed with talent, they’re blessed with this opportunity, not to waste that opportunity and talent. I worked with kids in Africa and by pure fluke of where you’re born, these kids have no opportunities to be sports star, doctors, nurses. Their main aim is to get a meal every day. These kids are blessed to be born in this country and to have wonderful parents, wonderful schools, wonderful coaches who brought them this day and they’re blessed with natural talent. If they want to they can go on and be what they want to be if they work hard enough. So I would encourage them if it’s their choice, they have to make the choice as well that this is the path they want to  go and if it’s the path they want to go, fully commit to it because there is no better reward than to fulfil your ability, fulfil your potential and represent your county at senior level at Croke park is the ultimate goal for any player that has that ambition. So, I would really encourage them to appreciate the award they’ve got and appreciate the opportunity and talent they have and not to waste it.”

On the loss of Micheál Donoghue to Galway Hurling:

“Micheál’s a fantastic manager, he put unbelievable professional structures in place that weren’t there before. He was attempting to put structures in place for the future. Micheál doesn’t accept mediocrity, he lives by his standards and he sets unbelievably high standards which you need to do in this elite game for the betterment of Galway hurling and the betterment of Galway sport. So, it’s very unfortunate that it has come to this, so let’s see what happens going forward but it’s a huge act to follow.”

On Galway Footballers’ 2019 season and their future prospects:

“They were ravaged by injuries this year, an unprecedented injury crisis which meant their season was very stuttered. Kevin (Walsh) did a great job to get them from where they were when he took them over to All Ireland semi-finalists and league finalists. He brought them a huge distance. There is a great foundation and he brought on talent from all over the county that may never have got a chance to play with Galway. Declan Coin, Peter Cook Johnny Heeney, they’ve come on tremendously under Kevin and they have marquee forwards Shane (Walsh), Ian (Burke) and Damien (Comer). Damien was injured all this year. Huge loss, he’s the central point of the attack, explosive player, captain. They have a good defensive structure to build on and whoever comes in has a great opportunity.”

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