Board put no pressure on Ryan

Jason Ryan admits he had toyed with the idea of leaving Wexford over recent seasons.

The 36-year-old, who led the county to two Leinster finals and an All-Ireland semi-final in his five seasons in charge, parted ways with the county on Tuesday after realising he had brought the team as far as he could.

“It was the culmination of three years’ thought. The last few years, we discussed it as a management group and we always said ‘one more year, one more year, we’re nearly there’. It got to the stage when I was asking how many more years are left.

“I’ve been in Wexford with Clongeen since the day I arrived back from my honeymoon and then going with the Wexford footballers.

“It’s been an amazing experience. Going there, I thought I knew this was that and the other but I knew nothing. It was a fantastic experience and opportunity.”

Ryan said he left of his own volition despite rumours board officials had asked him to shake up his management team.

“Up to the time I announced I wasn’t going to be running in 2012, I received no job offers and I had been informed by the county board that the same budget was there as the previous season.

“The football committee had met and they said they’d like me to stay on. I had plenty of time to mull over it and I knew where I was standing.”

After rupturing his cruciate recently training with his club, Ryan will undergo surgery on October 2.

His name has already been linked with the vacant Waterford job while he could come into the reckoning for the as yet unfilled position in Carlow.

“I can’t say I need a rest or a break but the time was right to stop with Wexford. I don’t know if it’s right to do something now. I don’t know what’s ahead.

“One door closes, another door opens and I may do more study, go back to college and take more courses.

“I need to go and learn a bit more about coaching.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to do courses and I only did one with Setanta College.”

On Twitter, Wexford players such as Anthony Masterson and Adrian Flynn were effusive in their praise of the De La Salle clubman.

However Ryan admitted: “I didn’t have much consultation with the players. It would be very hard ringing a player up and asking ‘do you want me to stay’.

He says, ‘I think you should go’, and where does that leave you with him the following season if you stay on?”

Meanwhile one of the leading contenders for the position of Meath senior football team manager, Sean Kelly, has opted out of the race to replace Seamus McEnaney.

The Dunderry clubman, who was on the Royals panel in the early ‘90s and figured in the famous four-match saga against Dublin in 1991, guided Navan O’Mahonys to Meath SFC honours in 2008.

Kelly has been involved with a number of club teams and is currently in charge of Donaghmore/Ashbourne who are through to the last eight of the Meath SFC. He feels unable to contest the county vacancy because of work commitments.