"My intention when taking on this job was to try make Kildare football better" - Glenn Ryan speaks after stepping down
The Round Towers man departed his post after Kildare's shock exit to Laois in their first Tailteann Cup knockout game
As the press awaited for Kildare manager, Glenn Ryan for an after match assessment, first to emerge from the dressing room were Co Chairman Mick Gorman; Co Secretary Christine Murray and County PRO Lorraine Wolfe who had been summoned in as the manager thanked his players and board officials and all involved.
The manager's three year tern was always due to end when the Tailteann Cup action finished and he duly confirmed that.
“Very disappointing, very disappointing end to the year; we thought we were in a better place coming into it today and a great opportunity to move forward and get ourselves further in this competition, but we didn't play well enough.”
Asked why he thought that was the manager said “we have talked about our shooting efficiency and scorers, today we were around 40 per cent efficiency, particularly early on when we wanted to get up a bit of momentum; get a bit of confidence but it didn't work out ... we were hoping to get a better platform in the first few minutes of the game; we got just one score from the first shots and that put us on the back foot on any confidence we had built up over the past while.”
The manager said he felt “we coped well after the black card, showed we needed to have patience on the ball which is something we should be able to do with 15 minutes and not just with 14” adding there was a significant breeze there so going in level at half-time was not a position that we would have been in.”
Asked about the season as a whole Ryan admitted that “the season has been very disappointing, it is not what we would have envisaged.”
Asked about what now after a three year term the manager said that “my intention when taking on this job was to try make Kildare football better, I really thought we would be in a position to move it forward but we haven't; no point in swimming against the tide, I have given this, along with the management team the best shot that I could and it's time now to try something else.”
Glenn added that “while he will go with regrets I will certainly go after falling out with people particularly after times when they were particularly difficulty; the county board, Christine (Murray), Alan (Dunney) they have been hugely supportive in what has been a tough time but they were all very respectful to me and the management team.”
The manager added “we started the year five players that played championship last year; we lost Ben McCormack and Jimmy Hyland (injured) along the way and ultimately we were short a huge amount of quality that we have had for the last couple of years, ultimately it is the quality that is the difference, up to this year we had the services of everybody but we haven't have the quality that is in Kildare but that is an issue with most counties; you need all your players; all your strongest players but Kildare have a strong base and despite that we should have been able to perform better than we did this year.”