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The 42
04-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
'It's great because you can get caught up in hurling and nearly drive yourself demented'
LEINSTER HURLING SHOWDOWNS on the pitch dominated Billy Ryan's weekends from April to June, before he had to steel himself for the Monday morning interrogations. In St Patrick's De La Salle in Kilkenny where Ryan teaches second class, the pundits are straight talkers. In a school where Brian Cody is a former principal, hurling dominates the agenda. 'It's actually fantastic. If you play well on the Sunday, they'll bring you right back down. They'll humble you straight away. I love it. I genuinely love it. In fairness, the class I have as well, there's a lot of lads that love the hurling. 'We were playing Antrim up in Belfast this year and a few of them went up to it. The support has been absolutely immense for me and I'm truly grateful for it. I have great people around me and the community as well where I'm from in Ballycallan, it's so supportive. It's a great school, in fairness. I love going in every morning. It's definitely something I enjoy.' Amidst the demands of trying to win Leinster and getting himself set for big days like Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final with Tipperary, Ryan finds the day job a grounding experience. Advertisement 'It's great because you can get caught up in the hurling thing and you can nearly drive yourself demented with hurling and what not. I just find teaching is great in the way it resets you and you can divide the man from the player in a way when you're going back into the working environment. You're trying to be a role model for these children and show them the way of how to go about their day-to-day stuff.' Billy Ryan in action for Kilkenny. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO If there's a been a below-par display in Kilkenny colours, Ryan will be informed soon by his students. 'It's great. It brings you back down to earth. Look, children are children. They're so curious and fantastic in the way that they'll say it bluntly. They don't mean any harm in it. They just haven't learned the social skills yet. They're just speaking how it is. Sometimes it's actually a good thing.' Ryan trains the school hurling team and is dealing mostly with youngsters from city clubs James Stephens and O'Loughlin Gaels. His home club Graigue-Ballycallan is nearby on the western side of Kilkenny, hard up against the Tipperay border. The pulsating rivalry between the counties that spanned the 2009-19 period gripped his imagination. 'You had documentaries even being made about it, Sheedy versus Cody, they were incredible times. I was a young lad and you're immersed in that. It probably just drives a little bit of a hunger inside you when you're watching all of those.' He didn't have to look far for local heroes. 'I've been very, very lucky that I was immersed into a club in Graigue-Ballycallan that's steeped in history. So many really talented hurlers have gone through the club in years gone by. You look at John Hoyne, Eddie Brennan, James Ryall, we've been really, really lucky to have those lads. 'Being a forward, I suppose Eddie was the one I looked at and how I could model myself off his game. He was incredible. His hunger for goals and the way he was so fast, I tried to model myself off that. You had James Ryall there as well, I played with him for years with the club. He was absolutely immense for us as a club.' Ryan's personal form has spiked this year as he has tapped into a higher level of consistency – scoring 0-2 v Galway, 0-4 v Offaly, 2-3 v Dublin, and 0-3 v Galway in the Leinster final. Kilkenny's Billy Ryan celebrates after the Leinster hurling final. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO 'At the start of the year, you're looking at what you want to achieve when you're setting out your goals. Definitely one of them for me was trying to get after consistency. You're just trying to build consistency in little habits daily and trying to be consistent in training. It's definitely a thing as an athlete and a sportsperson that it's no secret you have to win the days and all that kind of stuff in order to become a better player. 'I'd be a big sports fan anyway. I'd have interest in the NFL, soccer and you're looking at those players and you're looking at what are they doing that's making them better and can I model myself off things they're doing.' His calm and composed nature has helped the 28-year-old approach these marquee championship days. Related Reads 'You can't let your own individual feelings manifest itself in being grumpy, being bitchy' I hurl, therefore I am: Dublin's quiet hurling manager tearing up the script 'We keep everything in the circle... everything outside it is just irrelevant to us' 'I'd be a calm person anyway. I've a very kind of relaxed, easy-going nature. It could be your downfall too. It depends who you ask. I would be very laid-back, yeah. My dad is very laid-back too. I didn't pick it off the floor, I obviously got it from him. 'But didn't Kobe Bryant have his alter ego as well? For me personally, it's nearly a thing where you have to flick a switch. And you can't be laid-back on a hurling pitch. You're going to get eaten up and you have to be ready for the challenge head on. I can guarantee you if you're marking a Niall O'Leary, just because he's here behind me, he's going to take you to the cleaners if you're going to be laid-back. You have to be fully focused.' 'I've a very kind of relaxed, easy-going nature anyway. *****
Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
‘They'll humble you straight away' – Billy Ryan on teaching, hurling and ambition
The ambition of Kilkenny hurling means provincial silverware is little more than a stepping stone. For Billy Ryan, the ultimate ambition stays the same. Six Leinsters in a row won't satisfy their hunger. "Look, every year when you set out your stall with Kilkenny and you're training, the ultimate goal is to win an All-Ireland,' he said. 'I know every other team are going after that as well. If you pick up a Leinster title along the way on that journey, happy days. We are happy with how the Leinster final went and we've got another one under our belt. But you nearly feel straight away afterwards that the momentum shifts to an All-Ireland semi-final and trying to get back to a final and hopefully winning that." Ryan knows the history and the legend. He is a teacher in St Patrick's De La Salle, where Brian Cody was once a principal. Eight-time All-Star Eddie Brennan is a club-mate and the player he studied growing up, trying to model himself on his explosive speed and insatiable appetite for goals. The classroom operates as a perfect counterbalance to hurling. It is another reflection of the love for the game within the county. "Yeah, it is actually fantastic. If you play well on the Sunday, they'll bring you right back down. They'll humble you straight away. I love it. I genuinely love it. 'In fairness, the class I have as well, there's a lot of lads that love the hurling. We were playing Antrim up in Belfast this year and a few of them went up to it. The support has been absolutely immense for me and I'm truly grateful for it. I have great people around me and the community as well where I'm from in Ballycallan, it's so supportive and it genuinely is fantastic to have." The 28-year-old finds respite in his work. 'It's great because you can get caught up in the hurling thing and you can nearly drive yourself demented with hurling and whatnot. I just find teaching is great in the way it resets you and you can divide the man from the player in a way when you're going back into the working environment. 'You are trying to be a role model for these children and show them the way of how to go about their day-to-day stuff. I genuinely love it. It's something that when I'm walking to work in the morning, I'm genuinely looking forward to each day." Ryan has already played in two All-Ireland finals, nabbing a goal in the 2022 decider. He scored another last season in the semi-final as Kilkenny pushed six clear of eventual champions Clare. That comeback knocked them out and is a lesson they have not forgotten with Tipperary coming down the tracks. In the Leinster final, Kilkenny were cruising before a late Galway burst. They can't afford to allow the same opportunity on Sunday. "I suppose with any semi-final, whoever you're facing, you can bet that they're going to be a top-quality team. The way we see it is that no matter what team you're playing, they're always going to have a purple patch. The challenge for us is to try and limit it. 'I think last year we didn't. Clare got a run on us and their purple patch went on for far too long. That was probably what cost us. We just couldn't get our hands on the ball or we couldn't reset. It cost us and that is something we are going to have to look at. There have been glimpses probably in the last few games as well that teams are getting purple patches on us and we're dropping the intensity. Tweaking it is probably the challenge that has been set for us."
Irish Times
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Kilkenny's Billy Ryan is tired of going close and wants to finally get his hands on Liam MacCarthy
Billy Ryan is doing all he can to make this Kilkenny's year. One of the follow-up generation that arrived too late for the county's most recent All-Ireland 10 years ago, he has been a regular feature for the team, playing in the forwards but without attracting too much individual attention. True, he scored an All-Ireland final goal in the 2022 decider when Kilkenny ran the all-powerful Limerick to two points. Last year, in a match that probably still haunts the Cats, he again struck for goal. On that occasion, this weekend 12 months ago, it was a sharp piece of opportunism to put his side six up against Clare and apparently on course for a third successive All-Ireland final. That's not how it turned out, of course, and Kilkenny's conquerors went on to claim Liam MacCarthy. This season, Kilkenny have landed a sixth successive Leinster crown. They get another crack at returning to the big day when they face Tipperary in Sunday's semi-final. READ MORE Ryan has been in fine form. He was rested for the dead rubber against Wexford but has featured in all of the other games on the march to this point. 'It's probably just basics really,' he told a promotional media event. 'At the start of the year, you're looking at what you want to achieve when you're setting out your goals. 'Definitely, one of them for me was trying to get after consistency. You're just trying to build consistency in little habits daily and trying to be consistent in training.' This year, his championship average is 3.6 points, a significant increase on a career figure of 1.46. The best day was the Leinster round-robin against Dublin in May when he helped the team hold off a determined comeback and finished with 2-3 and the man-of-the-match award. It is thought locally that Ryan, who has played in the last six All-Ireland semi-finals, is benefiting from greater self-belief. 'He certainly found great confidence this year,' is one view. 'And he has a keen eye for goal. When he gets the ball, he's a kind of a 'head down and go for it' type of forward. He has pace and the bravery to take on opponents. That has gone very well this year for Kilkenny. He's certainly in All Stars conversations, for a nomination anyway, and maybe more with potentially two matches left.' Billy Ryan scored a goal for Kilkenny in the 2022 All-Ireland final as his team just came up short against Limerick. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho If there is a downside to a provincial six-in-a-row, it is that none of those titles were followed up with the biggest of them all. 'We're happy with how the Leinster final went and we've got another one under our belt,' said Ryan. 'But you nearly feel straight away afterwards that the momentum shifts to an All-Ireland semi-final and trying to get back to a final and hopefully winning that. 'Losing those finals to Limerick in the two years (2022 and 2023), I feel like a lot of us have learned from it and came on as people and as hurlers because of it.' [ Old foes reunited: Kilkenny's Huw Lawlor aiming to take giant leap towards Liam in clash of titans Opens in new window ] He says that his call-up to the seniors was unusual in that it came midsummer after a good under-21 campaign in 2017. Another aspect of his call-up that he still remembers is Michael Fennelly, who was retiring and leaving the group chat. Fennelly told them all: 'Don't wait – take your chance when it's there." Ryan may have been a little slow in doing that as someone whose championship debut came in 2018, but he has never lost sight of taking that chance and trying to improve every year. 'We're trying to build all these tiny little habits that will ultimately end up stacking and try to get us over the line for this year's championship.' He is a teacher in St Patrick's De La Salle in Kilkenny, the same school where his first county manager, Brian Cody, was principal, although their careers didn't overlap. Ryan, who also trains teams in St Patrick's, says interactions with pupils help ease out the stress of intercounty hurling. 'It's great because you can get caught up in the whole thing and nearly drive yourself demented with hurling and what not. I just find teaching is great in the way it resets you and you can divide the man from the player in a way when you're going back into the working environment.' He turns 29 after the All-Ireland final and appears aware that it's high time Fennelly's 'chances' were taken. 'I am one of the older members of the squad now . . . You're trying to show lads the way and you're trying to lead with actions on the pitch more so than your motivational speeches. I'd probably try to home in on showing it through actions. It's important.'
Dublin Live
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Dublin Live
Kilkenny v Dublin recap of cracking Leinster Hurling Championship clash
Kilkenny have all but booked their place in the Leinster Hurling final having edged past Dublin in a game that was the epitome of the old cliché 'a game of two halves.' The Cats bossed proceedings in the first-half and dominated at Nowlan Park as they looked to keep their longstanding unbeaten Championship record alive. They looked well on their way to doing so when they raced into a 14-point lead by the end of the half. Goals from Adrien Mullen. Billy Ryan, Martin Keoghan and TJ Reid - as well as some frees from Reid - seemingly had the game wrapped up by the break. Dublin had other ideas and after a wretched first-half, they showed their true quality in the second. They slowly but surely fought their way back into the game, having fallen 16 points behind at one stage, before Sean Currie started the comeback with a fine goal. A string of points had the deficit cut to 11, but a quickfire double from Currie and then the excellent Cian O'Sullivan reduced the gap to just five points. With the game well and truly in the melting pot, points from Chris Crummey and Conor Donohoe made it a one-score game. The sides traded points in the final 10 minutes, but the comeback looked to be almost completed when AJ Murphy fired over two points in the space of a minute having been introduced as a substitute. But just when it looked like it was on the cards, Billy Ryan fired home to stretch the lead to five and secure what turned out to be an unbelievably hard-fought win for Kilkenny.
RTÉ News
18-05-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Ryan strike halts Dublin comeback as Kilkenny prevail
In an absolute roller coaster of a game that produced a stunning 48 scores, it all came down to one stunning strike from star man Billy Ryan to secure victory and passage through to the Leinster senior hurling final for defending champions, Kilkenny at UPMC Nowlan Park. On a day when the temperatures soared to the mid-twenties, the hurling absolutely sizzled as fortunes swayed one way and then the other, on several occasions actually. Then with 69 minutes showing on the clock, weary midfielder Jordan Molloy waltzed through the losers defence and off-loaded the sliotar to Ryan. The Graigue-Ballycallan man lashed the ball into the net from a tight angle and 12 metres on the right to more or less give Kilkenny the victory that shot them through to the final and rendered next weekend's outing away to Wexford a meaningless affair. On the other hand, Dublin entertain Galway in their last game, and it is all to play for with the winners going through to the final. The first half was a contrasting affair. Playing against the fresh breeze and all, the strong running Dubs dominated early on. However, once Kilkenny scored their opening goal in the 15th minute they bossed affairs. The star man early on was Dublin's Cian O'Sullivan, who flashed over three points during the opening five minutes. He wore the No. 11 jersey, but where exactly he played no one really knew. He was effective, very effective with his frightening pace and deadly accuracy hurting the Cats as he helped himself to five scores from play in this half. The scores were level four times during the opening 15 minutes, with Dublin making all the running. Then suddenly they were stopped in their tracks. A huge Kilkenny free from their own 40 by Cian Kenny rained down on the edge of the losers square, and when the defence failed to deal with it, Adrian Mullen flicked the breaking ball home from close range. A second goal, Kilkenny's fourth, also came from a high delivery that the visitors defence failed to deal with. Martin Keoghan put his name on this one following a clearance from full-back, Huw Lawlor. In between the Cats had goals from Billy Ryan after a quickly taken lineball and 1-2 involving Cian Kenny (18th minute) and T.J. Ryan (28th minute) after a defence splitting run by Ryan. This scoring rush carried the winners into a strong interval lead of 4-12 to 0-10, which was something after their early uncertainty. When the Cats opened the second half with back-to-back points from Jordan Molloy and T.J. Reid, the script appeared to be set. The Dubs didn't think so. A lovely goal from Sean Currie threw the Dubs a lifeline, although they were slow to grasp it. Passing the 45 minute mark they still trailed by 1-12 to 4-16 and things weren't looking too bright. During a crazy 10 minutes scoring spree Dublin nabbed 2-4, the big scores falling to the hugely effective Sean Currie (free) and the wonderful Cian O'Sullivan as they clawed the divide back to a single score, 4-16 to 3-16. The Cats were made sweat all the way home after that, until Ryan's golden late strike. They had a narrow escape in the 63rd minute when Dublin sub Ronan Hayes had a bullet-like drive turned out for a 65, which Currie turned into a point to cut the gap to 4-18 to 3-18. Later back-to-back points from Dublin sub Andrew Jamieson Murphy left a mere two points between the sides. Then up popped Billy Ryan to deliver the decisive score. Kilkenny: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, P Deegan; D Blanchfield, R Reid, M Carey; C Kenny, J Molloy (0-01); J Donnelly, B Ryan (2-03), S Donnelly (0-01); A Mullen (1-01), TJ Reid (1-09, 0-09f), M Keoghan (1-02). Subs: L Hogan (0-01) for Mullen (44); K Doyle (0-01) for C Kenny (inj, 47); F Mackessy for L Hogan (inj, 59); L Connellan for S Donnelly (70); T Walsh for Blanchfield (71). Dublin: E Gibbons; J Bellew, P Smyth, C McHugh; P Doyle, C Crummey (0-01), P Dunleavy; C Burke, C Donohoe (0-04); B Hayes, C O'Sullivan (1-05), D Power (0-01); S Currie (2-6, 1-04f), J Hetherton, C Currie. Subs: F Whitely (0-01) for P Dunleavy ht; R Hayes for C Currie ht; R McBride (0-01) for C Burke (48); A Jamieson Murphy (0-02) for D Power (64).
