*Stephen Ryan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
STEPHEN Ryan has returned to Clare’s senior football panel ahead of Sunday’s crunch All-Ireland SFC tie with Louth.
A win is required for Clare to keep their season alive while Leinster champions Louth can settle for a draw if they’re to snatch the last qualification spot from Group 3 of the All-Ireland SFC. It will be the first championship meeting between Clare and Louth.
Peter Keane’s Clare are returning to full strength for what is a defining game of their season. Brothers Cillian and Brendy Rouine are available for selection having missed the Monaghan game due to a family bereavement, Emmet McMahon and Cillian Brennan are also in the mix with injuries ruling them out of the nine point loss in the second round.
Kilrush’s Stephen Ryan has answered repeated calls from management to join the squad. Last year’s vice captain had not been part of the panel at all for Keane’s first season in charge. He made his senior championship debut for Clare in 2019.
The Clare Echo understands that management had been persistent in their efforts to get Stephen on board and this intensified following the Munster final loss to Kerry. Work commitments are believed to be a reason which influenced his decision to have exited the panel last year. He was an interested spectator in Clones two weeks ago and is now pushing for game-time in O’Moore Park.
Last June he picked up a serious knee injury at Clare training which brought an end to his season and saw him miss Clare’s final-round All-Ireland SFC defeat to Donegal and the entirety of the Clare IFC.
Eamon Tubridy has been Clare’s first-choice goalkeeper during league and championship but the move of management to bring in Stephen strongly suggests they will change the man between the posts this weekend. His return was confirmed on The Intensive Clare podcast.
During the Garry Cup, Stephen had been in exceptional form for his club with Dermot Coughlan’s side unbeaten in their run to the Division 2 final while also securing promotion to the Cusack Cup. His performances here also included racking up a fine tally of two pointers from placed balls.
Showings from Connor Meaney and Shane Griffin last time out have kept them in contention to retain starting jerseys for Clare but the trio of Brennan, McMahon and Cillian Rouine are all on course to return to the first fifteen. Keelan Sexton was an unused substitute two weeks ago and remains available for selection.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s game which has a 2pm start, Louth manager Ger Brennan noted the ability within the Clare squad. “They’re a talented group and they are unlucky to miss out on promotion. Three seasons ago, they beat a Louth team in the early rounds of Division 3 although Louth mobilised quite well and finished on eight points and won promotion themselves. So they’re an excellent team, yes they’ve lost a couple of bodies but if you’re looking at them, they have guys like Mark McInerney, Emmett McMahon, Connor Meaney, Brian McNamara and then Keelan Sexton too, Eoin Cleary and one or two boys due to come back from injury that we haven’t seen just yet.
“Looking at their performance against Down, they would have been disappointed with how they started. Particularly in their own patch, they seemed to perform a lot better the last day against Monaghan, albeit Monaghan pulled away in the second half. And they will certainly fancy themselves against Louth this weekend. But I suppose we’re trying to think of our own group and trying to look at a bigger picture”.
