Town planner
Athlone captain Laurie Ryan has an incredibly busy schedule to negotiate
THERE are many different elements to Laurie Ryan’s life. Athlone Town captain. Gaelic footballer with club and county back home in Clare. Coach of the Athlone TUS women’s football team. A Gaelic4Girls ambassador, an initiative to get more young women playing. On top of all that, she is a full-time science lecturer at the TUS, where she has teammates such as Roisin Molloy in the classroom. It’s a hectic life.
‘I love being busy, I wouldn’t have it any other way,’ the Clare woman smiled at the FAI Cup final media day earlier this week. A snapshot of her schedule could be gleaned last weekend. On the Saturday, she was anchoring Athlone’s midfield in Tallaght Stadium as they battled back from 4-1 down to draw 4-4 with Shamrock Rovers on the final day of the season. The following afternoon, she was in Cusack Park, Ennis, as the Banner Ladies contested a Munster club final against Waterford’s Ballymacarbry.
‘Unfortunately, we lost,’ the Athlone skipper says. ‘But it was great to play in it. I couldn’t play last year, because it clashed with the FAI Cup final. Ballymacarbry are back-to-back champions and we had lost a few players, so it was always a big ask. But it was still a great experience.’
It was the second big final that Ryan has lost this year. During the summer, she was part of the Clare team beaten by a point by Kildare in the All-Ireland intermediate final. So, perhaps today will be third time lucky?
‘Hopefully, yeah!’
The death of the dual player has been a theme in the GAA for years, but Ryan is managing to cross codes seamlessly – although she did have to miss the county final this year because it clashed with the Cup semi-final against Sligo Rovers.
‘It’s really busy, but I enjoy both games equally. Athlone is my new home, but you always want to stay close to your roots, getting home to
We lost our back three and goalkeeper before the start of the season
play football. It is a bit of a trek going back for club and county, but you get used to it.
‘It can be hard to juggle with work. I didn’t play the league this year with Clare because it was too much. Summer is a bit easier because I don’t have work. I spent my day travelling in the morning, resting in the afternoon before training and travelling home. My life nearly revolves around the two sports, but it is not a chore, I love both teams, love the girls on both teams,’ she said. And both teams have been supportive of Ryan’s dual mandate, with some of her Athlone teammates going to Croke Park for the first time to support their skipper during the summer.
‘I have been really lucky. The club and county and Athlone have always been really supportive of me. A lot of the Athlone girls came to Croke Park when we got there with Clare. Many of them had never been there, so that was a big day out with them. I had only one clash this year, missed the county final because it clashed with the Cup semi-final.’
Ryan’s GAA background means that she is still a little befuddled by the way soccer teams can break up at the end of every season. Following their successful campaign last year, Athlone had to rebuild again, as they lost three defenders.
‘Personally, with my background, it took me a while to get my head around so many players leaving, because it is something that doesn’t happen in GAA. It is not something that I am used to, even the turnover in management with Tommy [Hewitt] leaving and Ciarán [Kilduff] coming in during the season, that doesn’t happen in GAA either. I felt that if all the players stayed, we might have made a real go at winning the title this season,’ Ryan suggests candidly.
‘We lost our back three and our goalie before the start of the season and we probably under-estimated how hard it will be to rebuild that relationship between them, even the relationship between midfield and defence. It took longer than we anticipated. Only three girls who played the final last year started the semi-final. Some of them, like Dana (Scheriff) and Kayleigh (Shine) who didn’t get the opportunity last year for different reasons, they are hungry and chomping at the bit.’
Having grown up in a GAA household, Ryan didn’t even know much about Kilduff and the famous European goals he scored for Dundalk when he came in as manager. ‘I had to google him. I wouldn’t have been the biggest League of Ireland fan before I started playing. Now that you are in it, you are kind of immersed in it. But when you are outside and you don’t follow soccer, you wouldn’t have a clue. I did know about the goal he scored, but I didn’t know it was him that scored it! But Ciarán has been a breath of fresh air since he came in.’ Kilduff’s big-game experience might stand to Athlone this afternoon as they look to make amends for last season’s nervous performance in the final.
‘We got a bit overawed last year by the occasion. For a lot of the younger girls, it was the first time they would have played in a stadium like this. It was on RTÉ, big crowd, and that all adds to the nerves. You are afraid of making a mistake and we played within ourselves for the first 25 minutes. We definitely want to hit the ground running this year.’
Laurie Ryan knows no other way.