Ryan ‘absolutely thrilled’ with fitness guru Flanagan

NEW Waterford senior hurling manager Michael Ryan says he is “absolutely thrilled” to have former Kerry physical trainer Pat Flanagan on his backroom team.

Flanagan was the highly-regarded trainer of several Kerry All-Ireland winning football teams, but he has now thrown in his lot with his native county.

“I’m more than happy to have Pat on board, I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Ryan yesterday.

“Someone got his number for me and I rang him when I was putting a management package together, and we spoke for half an hour. I went to Tralee, where he lives, to talk to him and we spoke for three hours. He asked about my plans for the team and we both spoke about the long hike from Tralee to Waterford, and when he said he’d come on board I was thrilled.

“He played underage with Mount Sion in Waterford city and his wife Anne-Marie, is a niece of John Barron, who was on the Waterford team that won the All-Ireland in 1959. I had a short journey home from Tralee that night.”

Ryan sees strength and conditioning as a vital part of modern hurling and Flanagan’s enthusiasm for the job as crucial to Waterford.

“He’s buzzing about this, which is great. In 2002 he was telling me he and the family watched the Munster hurling final on the TV at home in Tralee, but he and the family drove up to Dungarvan afterwards for the homecoming. His kids were small when he left Waterford but the whole family are Waterford supporters.

“He came up last weekend and we sat down as a management team and had a good meeting. While he was up we went around and had a look at some gyms, and I was hugely impressed with the questions he was asking of the people in the gyms.”

Ryan also spoke highly of his selectors, Nicky Cashin and Br Phillip Ryan.

“I was a Waterford selector with Nicky in 2007 so I know how much he has to offer. Nicky has a very good record in his own right with St Kieran’s College, several clubs and, of course, with the Kilkenny minors. He’s the only outside manager to be given a role with a Kilkenny hurling team.

“We always kept in touch and he was the first man I rang when I decided to go for the job, and I was chuffed when he said he’d come in with me.

“In 2009 I was training Mullinahone and Eoin Kelly [Tipperary] told me about Br Philip, who was involved in Laois, then.

“He was the first outsider to manage Glen Rovers in Cork, he’s worked with Mullinahone, with Clonoulty Rossmore, and he was involved with Waterford last year, so he’s very familiar with the players.”