Wexford keen to keep Ryan at helm

WEXFORD chairman Ger Doyle says they are keeping their fingers crossed Jason Ryan will stay on as senior football manager for a fifth season.

The Waterford native has been touted as one of the contenders for the hurling hot seat in his own county, vacated by Davy Fitzgerald earlier this week. However, Doyle makes no secret of the fact they want 35-year-old Ryan to remain at the helm of the Leinster runners-up.

“We had an end-of-year review recently as we usually do and everything went according to plan,” explained Doyle.

“We’re meeting Jason in the next two to three weeks where we hope he will be staying on with us. We’re not being presumptuous, the whole county hopes Jason will remain on. He has done tremendous work with Wexford football. He’s a fantastic performer and gets totally involved.

“We’ll be meeting with him soon to finalise things.”

Doyle says Wexford football is in a great position at the moment and were unlucky not to claim a provincial crown.

“We were a bounce of a ball away from beating Dublin to win a Leinster senior title and our U21s won the province and could have reached an All-Ireland final but things didn’t go right for us in the semi-final in Parnell Park. There is a lot of talent coming up through the ranks. Things are looking good for Wexford football at the moment.”

GAA president Christy Cooney will this afternoon (3pm) turn the first sod at Wexford’s planned training centre of excellence in Ferns.