Valerie Mulcahy: Life after Eamonn Ryan will require readjusting the family-group dynamic

Cork ladies footballer Valerie Mulcahy accepts it will be difficult to adjust to the “end of an era” departure of a man who made his players “better people”.

Eamonn Ryan, who recently joined Peadar Healy’s backroom team, won 10 All-Ireland titles as Cork ladies football manager.

“Definitely, it is the end of an era,” said Mulcahy.

“That family-group dynamic is going to change. When you are used to something for so long, it is going to be hard to readjust.

“He has facilitated our winning. He has brought us all together. He has made us all better people. He has a great way about him and I have learnt an awful lot from him as a person. He knows how to get the best out of players.

“I have the highest respect for him. I am just so grateful that he came on board, gave us so much time and he owes us nothing. It is sad to see him go.”

She added: “I think he would have preferred to tell us all long before everyone else knew, because there is huge loyalty there. Loyalty would have been his strong point, so he wasn’t too pleased… I wouldn’t have been too pleased with the way it happened. What can you do?”

The crowd of 31,083 that filed through the turnstiles for this year’s All-Ireland decider made the Cork-Dublin clash the largest attended female sports event in Europe in 2015. What annoys Mulcahy, though, are the meagre attendances at Munster finals, as well as All-Ireland quarters and semi-finals.

“The crowds at All-Ireland games, the final aside, are so disappointing. I guess we don’t play for that. We don’t let it disappoint us too much. It would be wonderful to see more people there. There is a huge interest in it, but I think we are drawing from the same pool [as the men] and people will go to the men’s game quicker than ours… for some reason.

“Okay, there was 32,000 at this year’s final, there was the RTÉ team of the year award last year, but look at what it has taken for that to come about; it has taken many, many All-Irelands.

“You mention household names like Briege [Corkery] and Rena [Buckley] but, again, it has taken several All-Ireland wins for that to unfold.

“You would hope that would be fast-tracked in the future, so players would become a household name after one All-Ireland, not 10.

“So much needs to be done at grassroots level. I would like if there were qualified coaches involved in the women’s game, so the young girls starting off at underage are picking up the basic skills early on.

“A lot of work needs to be done at club level, because it is imbalanced at the moment.

“Where there are a lot of clubs forming, there are a lot of clubs also struggling. That needs to be looked at in Cork.”

In a wide-ranging interview published in tomorrow’s Sport 2016 Magazine, Valerie Mulcahy reflects on a year when she won another All-Ireland, got married, and became an influential voice in the Marriage Referendum campaign.