*Ryan Taylor and his family in Croke Park. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
RYAN TAYLOR had the longest journey of the Clare panel to Croke Park, overcoming a year-long ACL injury to play his part in the county’s All-Ireland success.
Taylor was first sprung from the bench with forty nine minutes played in the semi-final win over Kilkenny and had a game-changing impact. For the final, there was fifty four minutes gone when Ryan replaced Aidan McCarthy, once again offering pace, energy and smart decision making on the ball when introduced.
Suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final loss to Kilkenny kept him sidelined for all but two of Clare’s games this year. Regarded as one of the mentally toughest injuries to recover from in sport, Ryan said the road back was worth it to claim the greatest prize of all in inter-county hurling. “It was a long twelve months but tonight makes every bit of it worth it, you have doubts on whether you will ever get back to where you are it but this still hasn’t sunk in, it is indescribable but it is worth every second, I’m delighted to be here”.
He said, “This is what we dream of, we got over the line and I suppose for me personally to get back and play some part in it is unbelievable, absolutely unreal”.
Having spent so much time with the Clare medical team, the Clooney/Quin man referenced the importance of building a high level of trust with their physios. “You’re with the physio in the corner training for many, many months, looking on at the boys in training and playing games. It’s a long road, there’s no doubt about it. But in fairness we have some backroom team, the physios are top class. Shane Malone, our physio, I genuinely don’t think I would have got back. I think Tony referenced it last night as well, I don’t think he would have gotten back either without their work; Kathryn Fahy and Shane Malone.
“I’m probably not the most patient but I really do trust (the physios). They’ve been there with me since the very start of it and he has my best interests at heart. There’s no point coming back early for a few minutes and doing more damage. So I put my full faith (in them),” Taylor added.
One of the big talking points in advance of the final was whether he would get a starting spot, such was the impression he made in the semi-final. “I felt like I had a decent impact against Kilkenny and then it comes into your mind about maybe getting a starting position. But I suppose it’s still only a two-week turnaround and maybe the boys were thinking, ‘Listen, we need some fresh legs off the bench’. I was genuinely happy to do any role I could, as long as we got the business done.
“Brian would often say it to us, it’s a 20-man game. And it really is. The bench had a real impact against Kilkenny and that was a big focus again (on Sunday), especially with extra-time. You saw lads going down and Cork were the same. But I think the impact of our bench has really stood to us as the season has gone on,” he said.
Belief that Clare could claim the top prize always remained with Ryan. “I believed we had the potential, that we could always do this. I wouldn’t say it was an unbelievable thing but until you get there, you just never know. There’s no guarantees you’ll ever get there but I believed we had the stuff to do it. Just to get over the line, it’s a little bit surreal. It hasn’t really sank in. Hopefully that will happen in the next few days but yeah, it’s special”.
This level of belief was also evident within the Taylor family with his parents Susan and Pat appearing on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne in the last week where they expressed their confidence of a Clare win and their pride at Ryan’s discipline in bouncing back from injury.
