When Anthony Cunningham was growing up in the hurling stronghold of Peterswell, it was to the north of the county that he looked to for his sporting heroes.
Cunningham turns 54 on Sunday, so he was born right in the middle of Galway GAA’s greatest era, the three-in-row of All-Ireland football triumphs from 1964-66, something he almost emulated with the county hurlers 30 years ago.
But, when he was at an impressionable age, the Galway hurlers weren’t exactly catching his eye. London knocked them out of the Championship in 1973, for example. The following year, Cunningham made his first trip to Croke Park for the Dublin-Galway All-Ireland football final.
“I was very young but I was there in 1974 when Liam Sammon missed the penalty,” he recalls.
“Even though I am from a hurling background, I wasn’t around in the 60s, but the only thing talked in our house was the three-in-a-row.
“The picture of that three-in-a-row team was in every house, we knew all their names. That was in the early 70s and Galway hurling was not strong at that time, and it was the footballers who were in Croke Park in 1973 and ‘74.
“I was a minor in ‘83, so that year I got to get to know the Galway footballers because we shared the same medical crew.
“Then you had the John O’Mahony era, the Padraic Joyce years when they had tremendous players, the Meehans, Ja Fallon, Michael Donnellan and Kevin [Walsh] at midfield, we got to know those players and they were our idols really.”
His club, St Thomas’s, wasn’t completely alien to football, however.
“We had a junior team and we had a few fellows from outside the club come in, and there were a few football fanatics there so we did play a few games every year when the hurling championship was over. I better acknowledge that because they would go through me if I didn’t mention it!” he laughs
“There was huge interest though and the likes of my father and my uncles, they learned to drive by going to Croke Park to watch the Galway footballers play in the 50s and 60s. It was all football then.”
After settling in Kiltoom on the Roscommon side of Athlone many years ago, he became involved in St Brigid’s and eventually managed them to county and provincial football titles, something he later emulated with Garrycastle in Westmeath.
Victory on Sunday would see him become the first manager to win provincial titles at inter-county level in both codes in different provinces, having steered the Galway hurlers to their first Leinster Championship in 2012.
“It’s a bit funny really, when you are in the football game, you probably get a bit of feedback and inputs from other hurling teams and when you are in the hurling game, you get no feedback from any of the hurling set-ups.
“I remember a good few years ago going to the gym in Dublin and getting input from one of their [football] S&C coaches. That was in 2011 but we couldn’t talk to the Dublin hurling set-up at the time.”
Cunningham’s time as Galway hurling manager overlapped with that of Kevin Walsh’s current reign with the county footballers and he describes him as “a tremendous man, a gentleman” ahead of facing him on the sideline on Sunday as Roscommon manager.
“I didn’t think I would be back facing the might of Galway but, look, it’s sport and I’m delighted to do it. It’s an honour, really.”
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