Ryan: we always had talent

TRY telling Jason Ryan that managing a county team is the next best thing to playing and you’ll get the predictable response from someone still active at club level.

So, it’s easy to appreciate how he felt three weeks ago, when he walked out on to the field with the Wexford players before their GAA Leinster football championship semi-final against Laois in Croke Park

“Would I like to have been out there, I’d love to,’’ he answers enthusiastically. “It was incredible, my first time being involved with any team there. I’d really love to have been playing. It would be brilliant.’’

However, at the age of 31, he is living a different dream with his adopted county. “An opportunity to take over a team — this team — doesn’t come along too often,’’ he says.

Last weekend, he played with De La Salle in a relegation play-off against Portlaw. This weekend, he will be back in Croke Park — having never been to a Leinster final before — taking on favourites Dublin, who have been champions for the last three years.

To get this far, they had to break a losing sequence in four consecutive semi-finals, with Ryan agreeing that their victory over Laois was “a landmark” in the team’s development. “There was a barrier built up there and the longer you lose at the same stag, the more of a barrier it becomes mentally,’’ he commented. Predictably, he rejects the view that Wexford have exceeded expectations.

“No, the ability is there. It just takes a little bit of luck. And we have had that along the way — whether it was with injuries or the number of players available to you, that fellows have job problems and have to emigrate. We are lucky that certain circumstances have come together and we have been able to have a good group that is well prepared to get this far.’’

Emphasising the importance of having a full squad to choose from, he points out that through his experience of playing twice against Wexford last season and his involvement with the Clongeen club, he had a fair idea of the talent available. But, there were others that he hadn’t seen enough of until he watched DVDs of them in championship matches. That told him that there were certain guys they couldn’t afford to be without.

“Plain and simple — if they had gone, if you were without five or six of the squad of 30 guys, you were in serious bother. Getting them all was a massive boost and the rate at which they came back and were match fit was staggering. So, throughout the National League we had new players coming back all the time.’’

He takes justifiable pride in the fact that — like Tipperary hurlers — they are unbeaten this year. And, the victory over Fermanagh in the Division 3 League final was given an added dimension when the Northerners shocked favourites Derry in the Ulster semi-final. “After winning the league final and then to see Fermanagh progress was a boost for the players. I remember we had a team meeting the night they played Derry and afterwards a lot of the players sat down to watch the game. When they won it was a big boost, knowing Fermanagh had qualified for a provincial final and we had played them twice and hadn’t lost to them on either occasion!’’

While the whole experience is new to him, he acknowledges the build-up to a Leinster final creates its own pressure, without the added burden of taking on Dublin on what is virtually their home patch.

However, he appreciates that players have to cope with friends, family and workmates quizzing them about the game on a regular basis and that this can be quite stressful. It’s different for him, living in Waterford city and working in Dungarvan (where he is a PE teacher). “I avoid that, I’m not getting spoken to all the time. I get on with my own life. I might be thinking about it all the time, but at least I don’t have the pressure of other people putting it on me,’’ he explains.

“I think pressure will be a big factor on the day. If everybody can be nice and relaxed going into the game, it will be a big plus.’’

In terms of what it means to Dublin to be playing in Croke Park, he says he’s not in a position to evaluate it — not having sampled it as player manager, or spectator. “You’ll hear things about it on television or read it in the newspapers, but until I have experienced it I just don’t know.

“My football past was playing with London and playing with Waterford. And with Waterford it didn’t really matter where you played. You never really had a home fixture because you didn’t have anybody going to the game and with London you never had many people going. So, from that point of view I don’t have that mentality. Maybe with some of the players it might be a factor, but you want to play in Croke Park, you want to play in front of a full house. This is what it’s all about.’’

Essentially, what matters most is that the players are not inhibited by the challenge confronting them. And, he takes reassurance from the knowledge that they are buoyed up by the progress they have made and that they have learned from hard lessons along the way. And from his standpoint, it won’t merely be a case of “giving it a rattle and hoping for the best”.

The real hope is that their preparations are right on the day. And that this could be the key to success.