Waterford Rising: Kevin Ryan to manage county's 10-year strategic plan 

Former Déise hurler has extensive experience in GAA inside and outside the county 

Kevin Ryan has also managed the hurlers of Carlow, Antrim, Tyrone, and Offaly, so he has plenty of experience of how other counties do their business. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Michael Moynihan 

Former Waterford hurler Kevin Ryan has been appointed to manage the implementation of Waterford GAA’s 10-year strategic plan, ‘Waterford Rising’.

“There are committees in place working on different aspects of the strategy, and my role is to support and drive them along,” said Ryan.

“It’s to support and help in delivering the strategy, to look at new ideas we might use and so on - and to be answerable to the strategic committee, which has two county board members on it anyway.

“I’m really looking forward to it.” 

 Ryan pointed to the importance of the strategy being seen in its entirety.

“It’s the whole strategy, it’s looking 10 years ahead to progress things further. One thing we certainly talked about in the strategy is about winning the All-Ireland, about that holy grail - but also, what happens after that?

“We don’t want a situation where we win an All-Ireland, then it’s ‘job done’ and things fall back the way they were.

“It all works together - getting Walsh Park renovated, sourcing funds to help the county teams to function at an elite level - the more of those things are done the easier it is to attract kids and parents.

“Winning an All-Ireland is Liam Cahill’s job now as manager, and we wouldn’t be interfering with him in any way, but we’ll be there to help in any way we can, such as financing.

“Good luck to Limerick GAA, it’s fabulous to have a benefactor like they have but we haven’t got that. I’m sure there are people out there who’d contribute and we’ll be looking to draw on people’s interests in the games, but participation is a big focus for us.” 

 The “huge numbers of kids being lost to sport in general, not to mind just the GAA” are a driving force in that focus on participation, he added: “Our own coaching lads are doing fantastic work in the county and the well-being of kids is one of the values of the GAA in general, and it’s something we in Waterford want to enhance.

“You could just have initiatives to pull in kids but you might lose them down the line, whereas putting structures in place in the juvenile sections of clubs around the county will help to keep them involved - and their parents.

“That’s the importance of having all the pieces working together - if people come to Walsh Park, for instance, parents and kids, you have to make that an experience for both adults and kids that will keep them interested in staying involved.” 

 Ryan had a long career as an inter-county hurler with Waterford and his club Mount Sion and has managed in Waterford and Wexford at club level, as well as acting as an intercounty selector with Waterford.

However he has also managed the hurlers of Carlow, Antrim, Tyrone, and Offaly, so he has plenty of experience of how other counties do their business.

“Absolutely, I’ve seen some counties which were in serious financial trouble some years ago manage to turn that around, and I’ve seen various other pitfalls involved in running county boards.

“In the case of Waterford, though, it’d be unfair on those who’ve been there for the last 10  to 12  years not to acknowledge the circumstances they were working in, and the problems they had to deal with to get us to where we are.

“Unbelievable work was done to get us where we are now, and Sean Michael (O’Regan, Waterford chairman) has brought in a vision of where he wants us to go, getting this strategic plan up and running.

“A lot of work has been done and now we need to take it to the next level.” 

 The Waterford strategic plan, which was launched last February, focuses on six key pillars: coaching and games development; facilities development; club development; competition structures; marketing and communications; and commercial income generation.