Gaelic Games news:Outgoing Galway secretary Bernie O'Connor has denied recent critical comments amount to a vote of no confidence in county hurling manager Ger Loughnane.

In his final report to county convention before taking over as treasurer O'Connor, who is also the Central Council delegate, had questioned whether the team had made any progress under the former All-Ireland winning Clare manager. Then in his annual report on Tuesday night hurling board chair Miko Ryan deemed the hurling season as "disastrous".

"No, no, it's not a vote of no confidence. We didn't see each other's speeches in advance," said O'Connor. "I was only expressing my own opinion, stating the facts."

He went on to explain that expectations had been raised by Loughnane's appointment last year. "Sometimes people from the outside felt the problem was with the successful under-age players who never moved on and that the people we had over the teams had no ability.

"In other words the players weren't the problem. When he (Loughnane) came in he was being painted as the Messiah. He said it himself: 'If I'm not successful in the second year I would deem myself a failure'. I'm not stirring up trouble for him and will give him all the support he needs. You could see it as a little wake-up call."

O'Connor pointed out Loughnane had been ratified last September as manager for next year and that the Clare man had faced criticism from delegates on that night. "They put hard questions and asked for a big improvement. They asked was he satisfied with his management's performance on the line during matches and said that they didn't like his style at times. He was very welcoming of those questions and the criticism."

The unhappiness at Loughnane's style was also expressed by Ryan in his annual report and specifically in relation to the naming of a team for the qualifier against Clare in Ennis.

"It has always been our practice and, indeed, the one adhered to in most counties," said Ryan, "to communicate the proper team once selected for the match programme. Instead, to my horror we ended up with four separate Galway teams being communicated before the game commenced, a programme team, an announced team, a parade team and a starting team. I wish to state in the strongest terms this was no way to treat our highly valued supporters. It should not happen like this and I wish to apologise to those who attended," said Ryan.

The statements of O'Connor, who is a non-voting ex officio member of the hurling board, and Ryan come at the end of a hugely disappointing year for Galway. Morale is low after the lack of impact in league and championship at the end of which two selectors, Brendan Lynskey and Michael Murray, elected not to continue as part of Loughnane's management team.

O'Connor had mentioned this, referring to intense speculation in the autumn that outgoing Clare manager Tony Considine, a former selector with Loughnane in the 1990s, would come on board in Galway. "I earnestly hope there are no underlying reasons for their early departure," said O'Connor. "The ratification of the current management team brought an unreasonable amount of rumour and innuendo which we could have done without."

Loughnane was unavailable for comment yesterday but the view within the county was he would persevere for at least another year.

Meanwhile, GAA President Nickey Brennan yesterday said the Government handling of the player grants issue had placed the association in an awkward position. "Remember, at the end of the day this was a political matter, something the Government landed on us. It was badly thought out and they left us with an almighty mess to sort out . . ."

Also yesterday the GPA released a statement announcing their threat to withdraw players from intercounty activity had been officially withdrawn. "On behalf of all intercounty players we would like to thank all parties who assisted in securing this agreement. We would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the significant improvements made in player welfare at central level and by the majority of county boards in recent times.

"The GPA now look forward to progressing negotiations on official recognition."