Ryan hails Tipp’s ‘quality men’

TIPPERARY manager Declan Ryan says his county is “lucky to have quality men” on its senior hurling team.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final with Kilkenny, Ryan paid tribute to his charges.

“There’s plenty of leaders in the group so we just have to guide them along and hopefully they can play as well as they can on the day. Win or lose, if you do your best, you take some satisfaction out of that anyway.

“We’re lucky in Tipp that we have quality men there available at the minute to play hurling and represent the county.”

Ryan says that while management isn’t easy, taking charge of Tipp “was an opportunity you mightn’t get again”.

“You never know if you’ll be asked to take on the job again,” he said.

“From the management point of view, we knew the quality of the young men that were coming through in Tipp, having been involved at minor level and having played with some of the senior guys as well.

“That made the decision a bit easier and now that we’re back in the final we hope everyone will play their best and that it will be good enough.”

“Managing a group of successful men like we have in Tipp, I wouldn’t say is easy, now, but we held on to a lot of the back-room team which made it that bit easier.”

Ryan was glad of the five-week break after the Munster final — and of Dublin’s stern challenge in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“I thought that the long break after the Munster final was going to be a positive, to be honest with you.

“We had a chance to enjoy the Munster final for a day or two and then we had two or three weeks to get the players mentally tuned in to the semi-final against Dublin.

“From that point of view we were lucky we had a five week break. Equally, the semi-final has dampened a lot of the hype that was going around about Tipp after the Munster final.

“You know when you go to Croke Park you’re not going to get anything easy.”

The manager was confident the supporters’ over-confidence wouldn’t seep through to his players.

“These guys are used to being successful. They’ve been successful at underage level and they’ve been successful at senior level now.

“When you’re playing you only have to get yourself ready but when you’re a manager you worry about everyone in the squad, everyone in the back-room.

“There is no comparison really (between his playing days and now). You couldn’t compare the levels from ten years or back.

“The level these guys are at now is incredible, it’s phenomenal really. The fitness levels and the skills levels are so far ahead of where the game was even ten years ago that it’s frightening.

“The basic skills are far superior. Even the guys’ touch is so good now, the ball handling skills and the pace they’re travelling at and the speed of the game, I think all those things are far superior to where they were even ten years ago.”

Why is that?

“Teams are looking for an edge all the time. These guys doing a phenomenal amount in pre-season and physically they’re in super condition.

Ryan says he and his colleagues expected a huge battle against Dublin in the semi-final — and this Sunday as well.

“We went to (play) Dublin and were expecting a tough game. We knew if we got in level at half-time or near enough we’d be going fairly well.

“We knew our guys would tough it out. The positives were that our lads would stick at it and we had a good bench to call on when the time was right.

“(Sunday) . . . well, All-Ireland finals are for winning.

“There’s no doubt that these two teams have had a couple of great battles but this is a new game now.

“This game will be played on its own merits. Anything that has gone on in the past is irrelevant when the ball is thrown in on the first Sunday in September.

“It’s a new game and a game that is there to be won by KK or Tipp.”

Expecting a classic?

“I’d say we don’t mind in Tipp,” said Ryan.

“Certainly the semi-final was a battle and the final itself is going to be a huge battle altogether.

“It’ll be down to a bit of luck on the day and whoever gets the bounce of the ball.

Tipp are expected to name an unchanged team for the final, meaning there will be no place in the starting line-up for 2010 ‘Young Hurler of the Year’ Brendan Maher.