House on fire for Kerry goalkeeper Shane Ryan as titanic battle with Donegal beckons

RTÉ News​

27-07-2025

The nation will be gripped by a "titanic battle" in Sunday's All-Ireland Football Championship final, but Shane Ryan is not about to complain about the problems coming his way.
In previous times a clash of the counties could be seen as a war of attrition with Kerry sacrificing some of their ideals to try to break down a defensive Donegal outfit.
The new rules in the sport makes any repeat scenario unlikely, which Ryan acknowledges is good for the viewing audience, even if it makes his own 70 minutes much more difficult.
Finals by their nature can be cagey, so there is something of unknown in Sunday's showpiece.
It may produce fireworks or take time to warm up.
All he can reference so far is how he has found championship matches so far this year?
"It's kind of like your house on fire," he told RTÉ GAA analyst Tomás Ó Sé in an interview as part of Sunday's live television coverage.
"[Your job is to] put out fires everywhere. Then it's 'right, we're attacking now'.
"It's hard to sometimes actually read the flow of the game.
"At times the game can just turn into madness, you have to toughen in those times.
"It's definitely made it tougher because you know there were times last year and the last couple of years where teams dropped off. So you might get 30% of your kickouts uncontested and you kick it to the corner-back and away we go.
"There's less controlled plays than there was in previous years, so therefore you actually don't have a chance to get your breath, even as a defensive unit."
With the Kingdom usually cruising their way through the Munster Championship, Ryan is rarely tested until the latter stages of the Championship.
That has not been the case this campaign with a tricky test in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh passed with the concession of 1-25.
The Rathmore man has yet to concede two goals in a match with his proficiencies when facing a forward in a duel a major asset to Jack O'Connor's side.
His impressive performances have been honed over the years in the knowledge he would be needed at times, likely in the latter stages of the season.
The goalkeeper admitted he is still more active over the course of the year now, thanks to the FRC implementations.
So has training moved to more attention on saving rather than kicking?
"[Shot stopping] is definitely something we're focusing on. But would I say it's something we're focusing more than other years? No.
"I suppose I'm probably getting more opportunities this year to kind of show off my shot-stopping.
"It's 11 v 11, there's more one-on-one battles. Teams are getting opened up and the nature of the game this year is that it's just absolutely chaotic at times. You know there will be a man bearing down on top of you.
"From a goalkeeper perspective it's a bit annoying that you're relinquishing control, but if I put my GAA hat on from a supporter's perspective, the entertainment value has gone through the roof because of it. As I said already the games are just, they're chaotic by nature now, but it's proven to give entertainment."
The round-robin defeat to Meath was an eye-opener for Kerry. Many had expected them to cruise through their group and the loss in Tullamore led to something of a reflection.
Ryan denies it led to totally changed their approach. "I thought we played a lot of good football leading up to Meath, even in the league as well, and we've played a lot of good football since.
"There was definitely areas in the Meath game we were very disappointed with. I think it was more a case of trying to get back to basics a small bit. We are a united group and there's a lot of us on the road now for seven or eight years.
"We've had a good few tests down through the years, plenty of success, plenty of disappointments, and all that stuff comes together, and it gels you together as a team. You don't want to let the man beside you down and that's something that we're going to try to harness again this weekend."
After progressing against Cavan and Tyrone, one more Ulster county stands in the way of a 39th All-Ireland.
The Tir Conaill men are looking to repeat Jim McGuinness's memorable success of 2012 and the Kerry goalkeeper feels it's going to be the hardest challenge of all.
"Certainly. I think Donegal have so many threats from all over the field, and they're obviously hugely usually athletic. They were probably one of the favourites from the outset of the league this year.
"We played them below in Killarney and they obviously beat us in our own backyard there in the first game.
"We are just trying to back ourselves while knowing that Donegal have a lot of threats and you were just trying to get the balance there between playing your game and stopping them playing their game.
"I think it's going to make for a titanic battle, and it's something that I'm looking forward to and the whole country is looking forward to as well."