Ryan hails Ballygunner hunger after second All-Ireland win
January 19, 2026
Ballygunner's Patrick Fitzgerald scores a point despite Kieran Hanrahan of Loughrea ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy
Jason Ryan attributed Ballygunner’s second All-Ireland club SHC triumph in three years to the hunger of the players.
The Gunners ran out 1-20 to 1-14 winners over Loughrea at Croke Park to regain the Tommy Moore Cup under the guidance of the former Wexford and Kildare football manager, who succeeded Darragh O’Sullivan in the hotseat just 11 months ago.
“You often hear about managers coming in, but in Ballygunner, the senior players create the environment and set the standards. It’s an ideal situation,” he enthused.
“When you hear about the high-performance teams, be it the All-Blacks in their pomp, it’s the players that create the environment and the Ballygunner players deserve the credit for doing that.
“They’re an incredibly driven, hungry group of players and they take an awful lot of decisions upon themselves. And we would encourage them to be making decisions on the field to deal with different things that are thrown at them.
“The further you go on in competitions, like the bigger the crowd there today, I don’t know if they heard any instructions from the sideline, so having players with the ability to make those decisions is invaluable.”
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