Mr Versatility Shane Ryan’s whistle-stop Dublin days: The Hop Ball (Episode 5)

Shane Ryan had a reputation for 'covering every blade of grass' as a footballer and hurler .... he covered every blade of ground of his Dublin days with host Eamon Fennell in Wednesday night's episode (Episode 5) of 'The Hop Ball', the new Dubs TV series, sponsored by AIG.

'The Last Dance', the sports documentary series which revolves around the career of Michael Jordan is very much on trend at the moment. A docu-series which incorporates Jordan's move from basketball to baseball and back to basketball again .... well the Nh Mearnóg clubman performed his own dance between his twin sporting loves of Gaelic football and hurling.

In the 56-minute interview the former county team-mates, Ryan and Fennell, share a 'whistle-stop tour' of Shane's intercounty career during which he won six Leinster SFC titles an All Star as well as winning a NHL1 title in 2011, Dublin's first top-flight league honour in 72 years.

Shane was invited into the Dublin senior football panel at the end of the 1998 NFL campaign and begins the interview with one of his outstanding memories of his days in blue .. .the Trips to Tipp. Tipperary the home of his father Jack who won and NHL1 medal in 1968 and All-Ireland SHC in 1971.

"I would have a lot of fond memories. Coming so close to beathing them (Kerry, in the 2001 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final). I still have fond memories of it. I was named at corner-back but was playing at full-back. I know I was marking Dara O Cinnéide, a huge name, and obviously I had watched him playing over a number of years before that.

"But the whole thing was kinda new to me, I was only a few years on the panel.

"On of my main memories was getting on the bus (from Horse and Jockey, where team had overnighted prior to the drawn encounter) and driving into Thurles square and the sea of blue. It was unreal," reflected Shane.

"If you totted up all the All-Ireland medals on that team (Kerry) it would be an awful lot and I'd still count Séamus Moynihan as one of the best players I ever played against. He was pure class, just watching him, probably should've been watching my man a bit more," joked Shane.

Ryan played in various positions for Dublin - corner-back, full-back, across the half-back line, midfield and even had spells in the central postions of centre-forward and full-forward at times over the course of his inter-county footballing career.

"I was just put somewhere. 'You are playing there'. 'Oh, alright'. I'd never played corner-back in my life 'til Tommy Carr put me there but you're not going to say anything. 'Ye great, I'll play anywhere you want'," he recalls.

Looking back on the battle between the Kerry full-forward line and Dublin's full-back line Shane said: "When I played fulll-back during those Kerry matches (2001 SFC) that was probably more to do with you are not marking Johhny Crowley 'cos he was on fire, they (Dublin management) wanted Paddy Christie on him so who's left ... Shane will take him ... Oh who's left? Only Dara O Cinnéide!"

It was a year that ended with Coman Goggins being selected on the All Star team having done a great job throughout the season there including blunting the influence of Mike Frank Russell on two occasions in Semple Stadium.

Playing outside of the capital was something Shane really embraced. "I loved it. You go all over the country playing National League (games) anyway."

He recalls with great affection two days in particular the 2003 SFC game against Derry in Clones and the 2006 Leinster SFC clash against Longford in Pearse Park, Longford.

"There's a buzz among supporters and we could feel it .... gangs of Dubs everywhere so we could sense there was a good atmosphere doing to be there and tehy were lovely days particularly the Longford day was one of the hottest days I remember every playing a match."

In the wide-ranging interview the discussion moves to the modern day and the extra layers of attention and analysis/commentary of the social media age. Queried if this extra pressure was something that he would have had issue with Ryan quips: "I'd say the seven All-Ireland medals I might have in my pocket would make me feel a little bit better."

The former Dublin team-mates examine how preparation moved up a gear in 2005 onward and how players and management began to use sports science and technology as they searched for the key extra edges, fine margins, to deliver the ultimate prize.

Running through his days with Dublin in chronological order Shane says: "In 2001 we lost our third Leinster final in a row and I thought 'If I could win one Leinster I could retire happy, it would be great' and wer won in 2002 and suddenly that's not enough I want to win again. Then we had two bad years, well one okay year and one bad year. Then to win again (in 2005) it was fantastic .... the craic was phenomenal."

The conversation moves onto the internal battles for a midfield berth during his senior days with the likes of Ciarán Whelan, Darren Homan, Eamon Fennell, Darren Magee, John Coughlan and Denis Bastick all around the scence at the time as some stage.

Shane's style of midfield play was to some degree unorthodox and based around a stron-running game married to his defensive experience.

"I knew some of ye hated marking me so that was to my advantage," he said.

Ryan pays a rich tribute to Stephen Cluxton and how he started a revolution in goalkeeping duties.

"We all know Clucko is probably the best that ever played. I probably wouldn't have lasted at midfield if I didn't have Clucko there .... if it wasn't for him that midfield partnership (with Ciarán Whelan) wouldn't have existed."

Commenting on the defensive/attacking dynamic of his midfield partnership with Whelan he adds: "Whelo had been doing that for years. One of his trademarks is going on a 50-yard run and sticking it over the bar at full pace, when no one can catch him. He was doing that for eight or nine years before I even starting playing midfield so I'm not going to go in there and say 'Oh, howya Whelo me new midfield partner can you just hold back so I can do a few runs there!"

Reflecting on his All Star selection in 2008 he implies in a self-deprecating fashion that maybe he had played better two years earlier and his award had a degree of back-dating his displays but that nevertheless it was a nice award for his family .. a family that is steeped in GAA-lore.

Shane's family have an incredible Gaelic games pedigree - his father Jack won and NHL1 medal with Tipperary in 1968 and three years later was a member of their All-Ireland SHC winning panel (Tipp beat Kilkenny 5-17 to 5-14 in an 80-minute game). His mother, Orla, was three All-Irelands senior camogie medals with Dublin - 1964, 1965, 1966 and was on the team beaten by Antrim in the 1967 final replay.

Shane's maternal grandfather was Seán O Siochain who was the GAA's first Director General, holding the office for 15 years, beginning in 1964 while his grandfather on his father's side was Séamus O Riain who was GAA President from 1967 to 1970.

While 2008 finished on a personal high for Shane with his All Star selection it had ended badly for the county team with a heavy defeat to Tyrone (3-14 to 1-8), the following summer Kerry were to inflct another heavy hammer-blow.

"Confidence was high. I really remember enjoying training from the Leinster final to the Kerry match. I was confident, I didn't think i was over-confident. I didn't think I was cocky. I didn't think the was was (either). I was well preparted for it .... I was sure the team was going places until obviously 'Gooch' scored a goal after about two minutes or whatever it was."

That game, with Shane coming on a sub, replacing Diarmuid Connolly in the 63rd minute of Dublin's 'startled earwig' 1-24 to 1-7 loss to Kerry was his last game for the Dublin seniors.

The following season he was part of the Dublin senior hurling panel following a phonecall from manager Anthony Daly.

"It was what turned if for me I'd say but I don't know. He (Daly) rang me maybe in hope rather than anything else and hwas only ringing me on the basis of a reputation I had from ten years earlier probably! As the reality was a lot different, he he found out!"

"Dublin had a really positive year the year before with the hurlers and 'Dalo' was coming in, there was a buzz and an atmosphere. There was a lot of potential in the team and still when he rang me I agonised over it for a long time. I rang lots of people" .... "It eventually came down to 'if I don't try this I'm going to regret it forever'. I know I might be giving up the chance to win an All-Ireland (football) but look on the other side I'm getting a chance to do something. Hurling was my first love as a kid 'cos I was useless at football as a kid! And it worked out to medium success I suppose."

Shane won a NHL Division 1 title in 2011 - Dublin's first Division 1 title in 72 years. The senior footballers won the All-Ireland later that summer, the first time in 16 years.

Unfortunately, the following year he was forced to retire owing to an ongoing back problem.