Ryan looks to match Limerick’s rising expectations
The Garryspillane man had Gavin O’Mahony available to him for the Waterford Crystal Cup as he was suspended for Kilmallock’s All-Ireland club semi-final last Saturday.
But now that they have progressed to next month’s final, he too will be off limits to the county boss, along with Graeme Mulcahy, Paudie O’Brien and Philip O’Loughlin.
Throw in injured pair Seanie Tobin and Kevin Downes, who won’t be available for at least the opening two games, and Ryan’s options have been reduced.
There’s also the fact he has at least six players involved in Fitzgibbon Cup action, not to mention the commencement of Limerick’s U21 club league.
So, yes, scheduling the All-Ireland club championship at the end of the year would be one less headache for him.
“That’s the challenging question for everyone at the moment. Everyone has an opinion on it. February is difficult. Obviously, fair play to Kilmallock, they’ve got to the club final, the Fitzgibbon Cup is going on, the Allianz League is starting, there’s a lot of things thrown in. We’ve the possibility of three Limerick colleges qualifying for Fitzgibbon quarter-finals so there could be a good number of players out but, look, they’re the challenges.
“That’s the calendar. I can’t change it. But if you’re asking me for an opinion, with just two games (needed) for the All-Ireland semi-finals and final, it probably would be ideal if it could be finished off in one calendar year.”
Such factors don’t tally with the anticipation in Limerick and outside the county of them topping Division 1B by the end of next month and reaching Division 1A, starting with a home win over Waterford on Saturday.
“I’m sure the expectation would be like that,” says Ryan. “If you go back to last year, we were in a similar enough situation with injuries. We had the Na Piarsaigh guys (missing) and Seamus Hickey, Declan Hannon had injuries. This year’s not hugely different. It’s going to be difficult, we keep telling people that. If you look at the games that we have... starting at home to Waterford, it’s not going to be easy. We know that.”
Ryan and his men showed last year that league form can be misleading when they enjoyed a lengthy summer after a spring of upheaval, losing co-manager Donal O’Grady which was preceded by a disappointing loss to Galway in the quarter-finals. Possibly for that reason, Ryan doesn’t regard promotion as a necessity. “I certainly wouldn’t see it as imperative. It’s something that we would like, we want to do, we are certainly going to be trying to do. But I wouldn’t see it as the be-all and end-all. The last two Munster championships have been won from Division 1B so that tells its own story, I think.”
Whatever about the rights and wrongs of the league structure, Ryan says Limerick can’t say too much about it after losing out on promotion the last three seasons. “A lot of formats have been bandied about but it is what it is right now. Division 1A is very competitive and you have to have a full panel. We’ve struggled to get out of Division 1B over the last number of years so we can’t be complaining about it. It is competitive and I don’t see this year being any different. Those are the cards we’ve been dealt so we just have to get on with it.”
There’s also the fact Limerick’s promotional aspirations have been hit by misfortune on two occasions. They were the victims of a league rejig in 2011 and then in 2013 they lost a promotion final when it later turned out Dublin’s Paul Ryan shouldn’t have been permitted to play. Neither the Limerick manager nor his players will be mentioning hard luck stories. “Anything that’s gone on in the past, even last year’s championship, is history.
“2015 is a new year. We’ve started reasonably well; January has gone well. We will be taking Division 1B very seriously.”
