Ryan shock as Limerick appointment not ratified

Former Limerick senior hurling boss Tom Ryan says he is “shocked and disappointed” after GAA chiefs decided not to ratify him as the county’s intermediate manager.

Shannonside top brass decided at a meeting on Monday they would not rubber-stamp Ryan’s expected appointment. Ryan had lined up former players Jimmy Carroll, Don Flynn and Pat Howard to work alongside him. The Ballybrown man will, however, work as selector with new U21 manager Ciarán Carey, who has been handed a one-year term.

“They just didn’t give me the job — I got no reason,” Ryan revealed last night.

“I got a call from the secretary (Mike O’Riordan) and he told me that it wasn’t ratified. I got the call at 11pm. I didn’t get any explanation and I didn’t look for one. There wasn’t much point. The decision was made.

“I’ll let them come up with their own reasons for it. I had a lot of work put in, a lot of plans and a great team together.

“Ciarán Carey’s team was ratified. I’m on that as a selector but what the other thing was all about, I don’t know.

“I was hugely disappointed, shocked really.

“We had already stated that it was only a supplementary job, to upgrade players from the U21s and have them available for seniors. To fill the vital gap that has never been filled in Limerick was the only ambition that I had.

“It was about hurling and to see where we could improve our status in Limerick. No more, no less. It’s up to the county board to explain to people why.

“I was looking forward to the intermediate and had it in my head as a development squad. I had got an awful lot of support and people were delighted to see the ideas we were going to put across.”

Ryan added: “What the other selectors are doing, I don’t know. Maybe they (board) didn’t buy into the link between the two teams (intermediate and U21s). But my role in this at all times is about hurling. Intermediate wouldn’t be such a high profile job, more of a behind-the-scenes role. It wasn’t that I was going to step on anyone’s toes.”

Meanwhile Limerick’s 2011 Munster U21-winning boss, Leo O’Connor, has been appointed as Mayo senior hurling boss.