Matthew Whelan is the longest-serving Laois hurler still involved and is right up there on the list of players who have made the most appearances for the county.
Over a long career with school, college, club and county he has played under an amount of different managers and coaches and it was interesting to hear his thoughts during a recent LaoisToday Talking Sport Podcast.
When asked by presenter Alan Hartnett about the best person he trained under, he had huge praise for former Laois hurling coach Brother Philip Ryan.
Ryan was based as a Christian Brother in Portlaoise for a while and after getting involved with Portlaoise initially he was then coach with Laois under Niall Rigney.
“The best that comes to mind is Brother Phil Ryan. He was involved when Niall Rigney was manager. He’s originally from Limerick (and) he was involved with Limerick when they won three All Irelands in a row and he came up to us for two or three years.
“He did all the hurling coaching and the way this man trained, the intensity he trained at. He may be a man of the faith but there was a cut and thrust in training and there was an intensity.
“You literally wouldn’t get a bottle of water to your mouth, there was such quick movement between drills.
“Everything was done at speed and I don’t think there was one training session that a player came out of and didn’t say they enjoyed it. He was top quality.
“I think he was with Waterford for a while. If you asked any player who played under him, they’d all have glowing reports of him.
“We were struggling one or two years and we got him up as a guest coach just to boost morale.
“He was one of those contagious characters. He was always very positive. He had this saying – ‘you play the right tapes in your head’. It was a good one.
“We’re always worried about who we were playing but he was “you play the positives, you think the positives the whole time”. I just thought he was an outstanding trainer.”
Whelan, who played underage football with Laois and won a Leinster minor medal in 2005, also spoke highly of Sean Dempsey, whom he trained under at underage level.
And he also spoke about the current situation and how Laois were looking forward to four huge games in the Leinster championship.
“We were brimming with confidence. With Laois this year we were always aiming for championship. We didn’t do well in the league but it was all geared towards championship.
“When the rug was pulled out from under you you were disgusted but that’s the lie of the land at the moment.”
In a wide-ranging discussion, where he was joined by team-mate Eric Killeen, he discussed the many players he played with over the years, looked back on the success of 2019 and how the Coronavirus is impacting on his daily life at the moment.
You can listen to the episode in full here and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as listen on Soundcloud and Podbean.
The post Matthew Whelan with high praise for ‘outstanding trainer’ Brother Philip Ryan appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/05/15/matthew-whelan-with-high-praise-for-outstanding-trainer-brother-philip-ryan/
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