*Jack Ryan. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
WOLFE TONES vice captain Jack Ryan is hopeful by the end of the weekend the Shannon club will have dual senior status.
On Saturday last, the hurlers managed by Barry Keane secured promotion to the senior ranks following their relegation last year while this Saturday it’s the turn of Johnny Bridges side to try complete the double.
Jack Ryan is in his third season with the Wolfe Tones intermediate footballers. “This year we’ve had the most committed group since I started playing, everyone is training every night. Last year our percentage for attendance was in the seventy marks whereas this year everyone is up in the nineties, showing up to training every week,” he outlined.
This drive was triggered by the upset from their five point semi final loss to Kilrush Shamrocks last year. “The disappointment of last year and knowing how close we got, everyone wanted to rectify that this year and put the head down from the start of the year, we had a good league campaign and the momentum kept going. We let the game go away from us last year against Kilrush, like that they only lost by a point, a kick of a ball and knew we were able to do it, that gave us the confidence for us to know we were good enough”.
Beating Naomh Eoin in the league final this year strengthened their belief, the third year business and sports management student at TUS outlined. “Winning the league final, it was a tough day out against a good Naomh Eoin side and we got over the line by a point which showed we had been building character, that was the day everyone said yeah we can do this”.
He remarked of Saturday’s opponents, “They continue to impress every year, they got to the semi-final last year and the final this year, credit to them they are flying it, I’d have been expecting them to make a semi-final at least myself but the two of us will give it a good rattle”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, he explained that their results have fed into the buy-in from the panel, “Everything is more enjoyable when you’re winning, the commitment from everyone has made it more enjoyable, we’re going down to training and not wondering where lads are, there’s a strong group with the young lads mixed with the experience, there’s a great bond there at the moment”.
Shannon needs to be a dual senior club, the twenty one year old maintained. “It’s brilliant,” he said of the buzz in the town for both finals, “the academy have been out in green jerseys supporting us for our trainings, it is brilliant to have two teams in the final. For the size of Shannon we need to be senior in both and we have the quality to be a senior team in both, hopefully we can push on”. Relegated from the Clare SFC in 2018, Jack admitted he has no recollection of seeing the Tones compete in the top tier.
A noted goalscorer in the Premier Division of the Clare District Soccer League, Jack made a big transfer from Shannon Town Utd to Avenue Utd during the summer while a move to Newmarket Celtic was on the cards. “David Russell and Adrian Walsh have been very nice to me trying to mix the two, whenever I can I’ve been trying to tip away with Avenue as well, it’s been nicely done so far”.
On what made him opt for the Roslevan based club, he said, “I went out and did a few sessions with Avenue and I knew straight away really, the quality there is outstanding, we want to push on in big tournaments, they are the games you want to be playing in, going further in competitions, it was an awful decision to leave home but I think I made the right decision”. He continued, “I had a bit of slagging at the start because my uncle took over the Shannon Town team, he wished me the best and I wished them the best”.
There are similarities between his two managers in either code, Bridges and Russell, “They are two good loudmouths anyways, they are both very good in their own respect”.
Dean Devanney and Colin Riordan are the two dual starters for Wolfe Tones but Jack is also a dual player but just with another sport, “you just have to know your body and get the recovery done when you can, after a match get to Shannon Leisure Centre, get a swim and sauna done, look after yourself with protein after training”.
They atoned for last year’s defeat to Kilrush by overcoming them in the semi-finals a fortnight ago. “The main thing was to keep going at it, don’t let the head drop, next ball, it is always next ball, what has happened has happened, your chance will come, we should have scored a few more goals but we were lucky that a few more went in”.
“We know these games don’t come around often, we want to take in the experience of the whole county final, it is great to talk to Chris Dunning and Gary Leahy who have been there and done it all, us young lads the majority of us haven’t played in an adult final so getting advice off them is great for us,” he concluded.
