‘RYAN’S SILENCE WILL FUEL FIRE’

FORMER All-Ireland winner Eoin Kelly yesterday accused Michael Ryan of adding ‘fuel to the fire’ by imposing an apparent media ban in the aftermath of Tipperary’s defeat to Limerick on Sunday.

With the Premier County reeling from a shock first round defeat, Ryan is caught in the eye of a storm after Tipperary chairman John Devane intimated that there would be no engagement with the media until the team complete all four games in the round robin section of the Munster Championship.

But Kelly, an All-Ireland winner in 2010 when Ryan was part of the Tipperary management team, pleaded with his former coach to have a rethink

‘Michael Ryan should have spoken to the media after yesterday’s game and not doing so added fuel to the fire of the defeat,’ said Kelly, an ambassador for Paddy Power.

‘I’d love to know when he made the decision not to talk to the media until after the first four rounds of Championship finishes. I’d say he was probably fuming after yesterday’s game.

‘It’s very easy to talk to the media when you’ve won, but he might change his mind with interviews. I’d be hoping that he will say something next weekend, win, lose or draw. Speaking to the media is one of your duties as a manager. I think he’ll regret not talking to them,’ warned Kelly (below).

While Croke Park was adamant yesterday that they would not put Ryan under any pressure to speak to the media, GAA communications manager Alan Milton said they would seek to find out if a blanket ban had been put in place in the Premier County set-up.

‘People compare us to a professional sport because that is the norm in those sports. These guys don’t have any small print obligations because they don’t have a contract,’ said Milton. ‘We have to be careful here that there is not a knee-jerk reaction but we won’t be hounding Michael Ryan to do media interviews he does not want to do. ‘If Michael does not speak of course we would like to see one from the group speak. There is a lot of interest in what they do and a lot of media are depending on their co-operation. ‘We need to establish if this was a one-off from Tipperary first and if not it will prompt a different kind of conversation,’ added Milton.