Opportunity knocks on big stage for Ryan and Clare

Great expectations. All his hurling life Colin Ryan has been dealing with them.

A precocious talent, long spoken of as a potential future star, Colin was the free-taking mainstay of both the Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clare teams that won county and All-Ireland U21 titles for club and county respectively.

With the club success came county minor and U21 titles in the mid-2000s signalling the return to glory of a club that through the ’60s and ’70s had bestrode the Clare hurling team like a Colossus but had lain dormant since 1981. They had three-in-a-row U21 titles in 2006 and came close to capturing the senior title on a few occasions but last year they did it, all that promise finally fulfilled.