Ladies football legend Eamon Ryan in the frame for new Cork role

Speculation mounted last night that Eamon Ryan is poised to end his glorious 12-year reign as Cork ladies football manager in order to join Peadar Healy’s Cork football backroom team.

The veteran coach would be the key final piece of Healy’s management team and is hoping to woo the Watergrasshill man as a selector and coach for 2016. It is understood that discussions have already taken place between the parties but no final agreement has yet been reached. However there’s no doubt that Ryan’s vast coaching experience would be a valuable resource for Healy and other members of the inexperienced backroom team.

Healy already has 2010 All-Ireland winner Paudie Kissane on board as a strength and conditioning coach, Skibbereen’s Conor McCarthy as a performance coach, and Morgan O’Sullivan (Castletownbere) and Eoin O’Neill (Aghada) as selectors.

Former Laois and Kerry player, Billy Sheehan, will be retained in an advisory capacity and for opposition analysis, but will not be a selector.

News of Eamon Ryan’s likely departure has been relayed to members of the Cork ladies football backroom team. It is also understood he has met with some of the Cork squad this week and informed them of his thinking.

Ryan is understood to be keen on the project, once it’s agreeable to the rest of Healy’s management team. If he joins up with the Cork footballers, it will bring to an end the most successful period in the history of ladies football.

Since Eamon Ryan took over as Cork ladies football manager in early 2004, he has overseen 10 All-Ireland victories for Cork in 11 seasons.

The move would complete an interesting Healy management team for Cork. The Ballyvourney man has put together his aides on a player-needs basis, a direction he indicated when he told the Irish Examiner recently: “We’ve a bunch of very talented players, and my overriding ambition would be to create a high-performance environment for them, that we get the skillset and the mindset right, and put in place the type of structures to facilitate development of Cork players. As the manager, I owe them that. I want what’s best for Cork football and any player that wears the Cork jersey.”

Members of the Cork football squad have already undergone a series of testing measures above and beyond normal pre-season fitness programmes. These include body composition monitoring, skills testing, and mobility — the aim being to create a greater degree of accountability for each squad member.

Healy (52), is determined to up-skill the players in many of the fundamentals of the game, particularly kicking and movement.

The Glengarriff-based Garda, who spent last season working with Dr Crokes in Kerry, added recently: “The emphasis is on the skillset in Kerry, and I would hope to be bringing that to Cork. You’d notice the differences being involved with teams in Cork and Kerry. Crokes play a kicking game. It’s something I would very conscious of and hope to bring some of that with me.”