Ryan confirmed as new Carlow hurling boss
Kevin Ryan was ratified as the new Carlow senior hurling manager at a meeting of the Carlow County Board last night.
The Waterford man, who succeeds Jim Greene in the role, will have his first game in charge when Carlow meet either Longford or Roscommon in the Kehoe Cup in January.
Ryan, a Mount Sion clubman, managed Oulart-the-Ballagh to this year's Wexford SHC final where they were beaten by 1-13 to 1-08 by St. Martin's.
Indeed, he had been linked with the Wexford senior hurling job before Colm Bonnar was appointed earlier this month.
Greene resigned as Carlow boss recently, just months after guiding the county to their first Christy Ring Cup triumph.
He cited a number of reasons for his decision, which included inadequate preparation time for the 2009 season and the fact that he had not be consulted over the team holiday.
The Carlow players are due to fly out to New York on January 5 and return home on January 11, so with the timing of the holiday and under the new GAA guidelines, they will only have three weeks to prepare for their opening National League game against Offaly on February 8.
The Carlow players were disappointed to see Greene go and said in a recent statement: "We feel, as a panel, that enough was not done within the county to keep Jim on board and we felt throughout the year that he had to put up with certain undeserved reservations.
"We hope that the County Board will appoint a new manager with a proven track record to take Carlow to the next level."
