CORK ALL-STAR winning goalkeeper Anthony Nash believed Pat Ryan was the front-runner to become the county’s next senior hurling manager once the vacancy arose.
Ryan was confirmed this evening as the manager the Cork county board will propose to succeed Kieran Kingston, with his departure from the position was announced yesterday evening.
Nash worked with Ryan when he previously coached the Cork hurlers and has been impressed with the Sarsfields clubman’s work in guiding Cork U20 teams to All-Ireland titles.
Nash was speaking on The42 GAA Weekly podcast earlier today and didn’t believe an outside candidate was likely to take charge for the 2023 season.
“I think it is going be a very short or a very long process and it all depends on one thing,” said Nash.
“If Pat Ryan says yeah, it’s Pat Ryan’s job and correctly so in my eyes at the moment. I think he’s the front-runner for the job. It’s what I think and I honest to God haven’t done any ground work. I don’t know what the Executive are planning.
“The likes of Ben O’Connor are excellent as well. I’ve worked with Ronan Curran, you’ve Fraggy Murphy coming through as well. That’s if you’re talking internals. But I think if Pat Ryan says yeah, it’s going to be a very short process. I would trust Pat as working with him in the senior team and what he’s done with the ’20s. If Pat Ryan says no, then it could throw a lot of names. I know people talk about Liam Sheedy and Davy Fitz and stuff like that, I can’t see the Cork county board going outside.”
Nash praised outgoing boss Kingston for his commitment to Cork hurling in a variety of roles with the senior hurlers over the last decade.
“Kieran didn’t leave a stone unturned. The one thing you can never fault Kieran Kingston is the time he put into Cork and it was for free. That’s huge. He put his own family life at strain, his own son is involved so that must have been a strain at home at times.
“I think Cork people should thank Kieran for what he’s done. I hope that he doesn’t get too many negatives, he’s given up fierce time for Cork. I said on this show, I felt change was needed. That wasn’t out of anything only that Kieran has been involved with those players for so long. I think a different voice going in there might do something.
“Fair play to him, fair play to his family. He deserves to be complimented. In fairness to Kieran, Diarmuid, Pat, Noel Furlong, all those lads, they’ve given up time in their lives, Ger Cunningham was involved as well, so fair play to them.”
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