Ryan aims to build on successful spring

Brian Cody has always railed against the notion that there are hurlers growing on trees in Kilkenny and yet every year another handful of unfamiliar faces blossom as spring cedes to summer.

None more so this year than Lester Ryan.

Ryan was a virtual unknown when the league started earlier this year. Right half-back on the last Kilkenny U21 side to win an All-Ireland, in 2008, he had spent the last two years flitting about the fringes of the senior panel.