Galway's senior hurlers have released a letter explaining their unhappiness with former manager Anthony Cunningham. 

A story in today's Irish Independent confirms that the county board received a letter from the players last night which revealed that they had refused to comment on the fall out up until now as to avoid "washing dirty laundry in public because we do not want to embarrass anybody or to make the process of moving on from this impasse any more difficult than it needs to be".

The squad insisted that "dissatisfaction" with Cunningham's rule over the team arose before last September's All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny, stating that "most issues have been on going and growing over the course of the last two seasons".

"The players accept that some County Board delegates are worried that what they see as a function of the County Board - namely the power to appoint a manager - is being usurped by the players.

"The players are also not blind to the worries that County Board delegates have about player power. However, this is not intended as an exercise of player power," they said in their letter.

"The player ask the delegates to consider the issue in this light. We know the delegates want Galway to win the Liam McCarthy Cup in 2016. The players want Galway to win the Liam McCarthy in 2016 and are prepared to put much of their lives on hold to achieve this goal. The players' view is that the county is not best placed to win the All-Ireland next year if Anthony Cunningham continues to be team manger. We know other people may not agree with this opinion but with respect to anyone else's views the players are probably best placed to assess Anthony's performance as manager."

The letter points to one specific incident where the players felt Cunningham displayed poor management skills in a one-on-one with a squad member.

"There is the story of one committed member of the panel who approached Anthony to ask what he could do to improve to give him a chance of making the 26 match-day squad.

"Anthony gave the player no clear coaching tips to improve but accused him of dragging down player morale within the squad.

"The player subsequently left the panel demoralised and shattered despite pleas from new playing colleagues to stick with it.

"This is just one example of what the players believe are very poor one on one interactions Anthony has with his players."

Cunningham resigned from his post on Monday after four seasons in charge with the Tribesmen.

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