Clare hero Conor Ryan happy despite career cut short: 'I got more from the GAA than I deserved to'

Conor Ryan of Clare in action during a 2015 National League game against Cork. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Adjusting to post-inter-county life can be a challenge for many long-serving hurlers and footballers, so it can be even more difficult when a player’s career is cut short in its prime.

Conor Ryan is a good example of how to turn an ending into a new beginning.

When he and his Clare teammates carried Liam MacCarthy out of Croke Park back in 2013 they had a lot to think about. Celebration topped the agenda but as a young side they were probably thinking of more days out in Dublin 3. More All-Irelands.

“That’s a fair comment,” says Ryan now.

“If you’d spoken to me that night I’d have been talking about numerous All-Irelands, not just the one. I wanted to go on and win more.

“You can’t replace that feeling of winning. I’ve come a long way and maybe I’m still looking, but that night I’d have been thinking ‘how many of these can I win before I retire’.

“I might have enjoyed it a little more if I’d known it was going to be my only one.” 

A pituitary gland issue meant Ryan had to retire just four years later. At 26 his hurling days were over, but the Cratloe man saw opportunity in the crisis: “It was disappointing at the time, but the way I looked at it, you could be pitiful or you could be powerful. The latter option was definitely the more intriguing one for me and I decided straight away to turn the thing on its head.

“People were coming to me as if the world had ended, and it hadn’t.

Completely new horizons opened up for me and I wouldn’t be in Boston now if it wasn’t for that, I’d still be playing — you have to look at it that way.

“You play the cards you’re dealt. I’m not going to lie and say I was stoic at the time and it was ‘this is great’ — it was very disappointing.” 

Was that disappointment offset at all by having an All-Ireland medal won already?

“In hindsight it’s nice to have won one, but I had to finish for circumstances outside my control, so whatever I had at this stage I was going to have to be satisfied with.

“But I was very fortunate in GAA terms — I got more from the GAA in my short career than I deserved to get.

“You see guys with careers of 20 years — guys I grew up idolising like Tony Browne and Ken McGrath, and they'd give their left arm for what I got in a couple of years.

“So I never look back on it with any sense of disappointment or regret.

I was just very lucky to have the success I had in the short career I had because I know fellas who’d kill for that level of success.

“The only disappointment really with my career was not being able to line out with Diarmuid but I look on what happened to me with a sense of it is what it is.” 

Diarmuid is the younger Ryan, who’s already doing well with Clare.

“He’s forged his own path, I can’t take any credit for the man he’s become now.

“He’s a different player to me but he has more ability in his little finger than I ever had. He wasn’t as fortunate as I was with Cratloe, with the group of seven or eight lads who knew each other since we were in nappies, growing up and playing together and accomplishing great things together.

“But watching on from the sideline, I stick my head in when I’m asked — I wouldn't be saying to Diarmuid ‘this is what I did’ because he’s a different character and a different player.

“My parents probably thought as we were progressing that we’d end up playing together, so it’s a disappointment for them. I don’t have any regrets, but not lining out with him is a disappointment.” 

Ryan himself got to Boston “through a combination of things,” as he puts it.

“I felt the game had been good enough to me so when I finished I rang Alan Kerins and asked if I could do something — I ended up going to Africa with him, and it opened me up to new perspectives.

“My old employers, Davy, were incredible to me when I was trying to get back playing, but I knew that working in wealth management wasn’t something I’d be doing long-term.

“I wanted to explore new opportunities and I needed knowledge and experience. I got an interim role with the GPA helping with Fenway Classic and that opened my eyes to the idea of an MBA in Boston College. I felt it would help me bridge the gap from my old career to a new career.”

It’s worked so far — he’s moving to New York shortly to begin work in corporate development with IBM.

It’s another step in the road. I’m not nearly where I want to be yet but I can’t wait to get started there. I probably haven’t been as excited about a new role since I was on the field of play.