Ryan insists he’s not planning to be ‘another Cody’ at the helm of Tipp
TIPPERARY senior hurling manager Michael Ryan insists that he has no plans to stay as long in the role as Brian Cody in Kilkenny.
Ryan has signed up to a fresh three-year term in charge – an agreement that will take him up to the end of the 2020 championship if completed. But as the Upperchurch-Drombane clubman looks ahead to next season, he has stressed the importance of identifying and grooming his successor.
That man could be Liam Cahill, the 2016 All-Ireland minor-winning manager who has stepped up to the U-21 ranks for the next three years.
In the meantime, Ryan has been handed the task of regaining the All-Ireland senior crown won last year. Tipp lost out to eventual winners Galway by just a point in a gripping semi-final last August and Ryan admitted that he felt “terrible” after that defeat.
And he conceded that there were plenty of ‘what ifs’ after watching Galway go on to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
QUESTIONS
Ryan told Ti pp FM :“In the aftermath of an immediate loss, you do have to ask yourself those hard questions – what did you miss, what didn’t you get right?
“No more than the players, we all feel terrible when we don’t win, particularly when it was such a tight margin. To watch Galway go ahead and win their final as well, the what ifs go on and on.
“But it’s over, the All-Ireland’s been won, it’s sitting in the West and 2018 is a new beginning for every team. We’re just privileged to be working with such a good squad and, in fairness, Tipperary is exceptionally well-organised.
“We’ve a very active and supportive county board on every level, and behind them, we have a super Tipperary supporters club that can make an awful lot of things happen that need to happen in the background. We’re the lucky ones that get to work in that kind of set-up and look, our time is short.
“We’re not trying to emulate a Brian Cody or anything like it. We’re just trying to work with this bunch of players as best we can but the next management group need to be identified and brought through as well.”