Ryan and reason

FOR any individual, at the very least, it should have made for pleasurable reading. ‘Darragh Ryan, half the Wexford team on his own’.

Due to injury, Darragh was to miss the All-Ireland quarter-final against Antrim, and that was the compliment paid in passing by Babs Keating beforehand, when the former Tipperary dual-star-turned-pundit was factoring into his preview the potential loss to Wexford of their injured full-back.

"Jesus that's the greatest load of caic of all time!", the straight-talking civil engineer snorts. "I'd say there are probably 10 guys on this Wexford team playing better than me, but I'm just better suited to full-back. I wouldn't last five minutes at midfield, so you can't make a statement like that. Some players are more suited to certain positions."

And yet, when the game was over, there were many who could relate to Babs' view. It was never meant to be taken literally of course, but anyone who had any doubt about the importance of Darragh Ryan to the Wexford cause surely had their answer in that nail-biting come-from-behind win, a victory that tees them up for Sunday's Guinness semi-final with Cork. In a first-half Antrim dominated, the Wexford full-back line were at sixes and sevens with itself, leaking two goals, and a legitimate third disallowed. That's not all. Antrim hit a post with a fourth goal-bound effort, created at least one more clear chance. Was Ryan missed? You could say that.

Wexford manager John Conran isn't a man given to hyperbole. His assessment of his full-back is interesting. "Darragh Ryan? You don't realise how important he is 'til you're without him, and we had to do without him for most of the year. We had him for the game against Waterford, and I thought he was huge. He's a big man, hurls with great authority, comes out with the ball and lifts the whole team. In fact, his style of hurling rises the whole crowd."

Coming from Conran, that's rave review. In fact, the manager's confidence in his player goes further. Cautious about over-exposure but pressed for someone to interview, he paused, pondered, then called one number. "Ah sure, this is all I'm good for these days, doing interviews," Darragh grins, when contact is finally made in the car-park at the back of Wexford Park.

The reason Ryan missed the game against Antrim is immediately obvious. Strong grip right hand, no grip left, hand in cast.

"I'm not sure what happened," he explains. "I got a belt in the back of the hand in the Waterford match, that bone there (indicates index-finger area, back of hand). I must have been trying to catch the ball or something, but it's cracked the whole way up. I didn't even think about it, because it didn't get sore 'til after the game."

"He's not back yet for certain, but he'll be a big bonus if he makes it," admitted Conran. "You can't rush a bone. If it was a hamstring or something, there are things you can do, but you can't rush a bone."

Due respect to his manager, and it's very obviously mutual, Darragh begs to differ. "They say four to five weeks from the time of the injury, but that's from the doctors. You'd be hoping to halve that, that's the way it normally works anyway, isn't it?" and he laughs. "When you ask them, can I play next weekend, they have a long face on them, the doctors! But it doesn't seem to be too bad now anyway."

He'll play alright. "If it's not right, he can't hurl," Conran insists, but you know, the world knows, that's blowing smoke. Nothing will stop Darragh Ryan from lining out in this year's All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final against Cork. Nothing.

"Nothing bar a broken hand," he laughs again, but with a giveaway look. "Ah no, you don't like to make any predictions, but if you're training all year round, you're going to do your best to play, even if the final decision isn't your own. Management will decide whether they prefer a fully-fit player or a guy coming back from a broken hand."

No-brainer, given how he performed against Waterford, given then what happened against Antrim, given also that the guy coming back from the broken hand will certainly be fully fit. Finally.

He's not had an easy ride, this guy, not this year, not ever in his adult career. 28 now, not old by any means but still an age at which most inter-county players would expect to have had a good number of years behind them. Yet Ryan is still a relative newcomer to the big stage. He should have been around the team when Wexford won its last All-Ireland senior title, 1996, but wasn't. Injured after he had finally made the breakthrough.

"I missed out nearly four years did both cruciates, from football. The first when I was 19, the other at 21; I've done all the cartilage as well, the whole works. Six operations, to try and get it all right. I haven't had a problem since the last operation, when I was 22, but eventually, I was advised to concentrate on hurling, at inter-county level; I did, though I still play both with the club."

Well, as luck would have it, bad luck, he did have another problem, cruciate again, operation again, last September. Left more than a physical scar this time. "It was fierce frustrating, the biggest f***ing disaster ever, I'd nearly cut it off now rather than getting it done again. That was the second time on that knee. It was like watching a kettle boil, except for over six months. You can't wait to get back, but it's very frustrating. You have to be patient, and I suppose the only advantage I had was that since I'd had it done before I knew exactly what was involved so I wasn't going to rush it."

He didn't, but that was the cruciate. This is just a lousy bone in the back of his hand, and that he will rush. Which brings us to Cork, and Darragh's impressions of their next opponents.

"We played them in the league, they beat us by seven points. Got a run on us in the latter stages of that game, which they seem to do a lot of times we play, but it was level with 20 minutes to go. There was a lot said about Cork with all the troubles they had last year, so I suppose they have a point to prove, but when you get to the All-Ireland semi-finals, it's all on the day."

And then he brings up an interesting point; trivia, but not trivial. "Our match against Antrim was the first back-to-back win run we've had in the championship since 1997. That was a worry for us. We always seem to need a good old-fashioned beating, a good kick in the arse, before we go out and win a match. That's fine when you have the Leinster final and you get the back-door, but when you get to the All-Ireland championship, the quarter-final, semi-final, you have to be consistent, or you're gone. Even in the league (he missed the whole thing), we were inconsistent, and that's our biggest problem. Up and down from game-to-game. I can't pin-point what it is, but it is the major worry, finding consistency. And you know, that's the major difference between Wexford and the likes of Kilkenny, Tipperary.

"We can do it on any given day, but we find it hard to do it every day."

He found it especially hard in the Leinster final, 2-23 to 2-12 loss to Kilkenny, a loss that was even harder on the injured full-back, forced to sit and bear witness. "That was hugely disappointing, but that's our inconsistency. Maybe we were false-hoping again when we were level at half-time, maybe they should have had a couple of extra goals by then, but they were playing below par, it was set up for us to beat them. But they always seem to get a spell when they play well and if you can't contain them for that spell, they put you away. That's what happened towards the end of the second-half, they got that goal and that was it. Overall, we played poorly in that game, no spirit, no fight, and that's what most disappointed us. We were hurt, played well the next day against Waterford, then went out and nearly lost to Antrim. But sure that's our problem, up and down."

THE thing about Wexford is this they have real and proven talent. Look through that side, starting with the spine. Damien Fitzhenry, a top-class keeper, Darragh Ryan at full-back, Declan Ruth excelling at No 6, then Paul Codd and Larry Murphy inter-changing to lethal effect at 11 and 14. Fill it out along the flanks, Doc O'Connor and the sticky Dave Guiney at the back, Darren Stamp and Liam Dunne, two wristy and extremely talented hurlers flanking Ruth, the experienced and effervescent Rory McCarthy with the even more experienced even more effervescent Larry O'Gorman in midfield, the flying Mitch Jordan, deadly-finishing Jacob brothers Rory and Michael with young Chris McGrath inside, with extra options on the panel. If they strike form as a unit, watch out.

"Yeah, that's what happened in the second-half against Waterford. Nearly every player had a good game during that period, and that's why we were able to turn it around, get the win. But that's the thing, how do you get every player to play to his potential in every game? That's why it's so important to have a good panel nowadays, that's why it's become a 20-man game."

The question is this, can they do it against Cork? Can they produce three big games on the trot? Their own recent history says no, doubtful, but their longer-term history against Cork especially is even less encouraging.

"History doesn't bother me anyway. When was the last time we played them, 1977? I don't know, I'm useless at that kind of thing. Cork have a great team, played some great stuff against Clare, and Waterford. We've played them a lot in the league in the last few years, they're probably a bit up on us overall, but two years ago when they were going very well, we beat them in Enniscorthy. That just shows, if we can click, have a good day, we can beat anyone.

"We find it hard to find those days on a consistent basis, but we'll just have to hope that this will be one." Darragh Ryan at No 3 won't be a matter of hope however.

Just a badly-needed matter of fact.