Dual poser for Offaly and Ryan

Paul O'Kelly's thoughts in the winning semi-final dressing-room touched on his younger days. Between 1972 and '76, while studying in Limerick at Thomond College, he shared a house with three fellow students.

Brian Mullins, manager of tomorrow's National Football League final opponents Derry, was one. Ted Owens, trainer of next week's Hurling League semi-finalists Cork, was another. The fourth, Arthur Twomey, had no direct involvement in the league semi-finals but even he - as a Waterford man - will have someone to cheer for next week.

The reminiscence was a brief interlude in O'Kelly's rigorous analysis of how Offaly had performed against Donegal. One of team manager Tommy Lyons's two selectors, along with Eddie Fleming, O'Kelly elaborates on the management view of this league final as an interesting diversion from their main business, preparing for next month's championship date with Meath, whose All-Ireland status Offaly rudely and exhilaratingly stripped away in last year's Leinster final.

"The view we've taken through the penultimate stages of the league," says O'Kelly, "is that it shouldn't interfere with the programme of training for Meath. Leading up to the match with Galway (league quarter-final), we had a full week of heavy training and before Donegal (semi-final), we did nothing - as planned in our schedule at the start of the year.

"In the couple of days before these matches we do concentrate on the coming match and it's a very intense focus but at the same time, if we lose after giving it our best shot on Sunday, we won't be going home broken up over it."

Disavowal of ambition is a common phenomenon in the latter stages of the league but Offaly's measured approach offers no plausible rebuttal of what O'Kelly says, even allowing for the fact that the county hasn't reached this stage in 25 years and has never won a league title.

And in the selection of John Ryan at full back can be seen further evidence of how even the final of the National League is part of the build-up. "If," says Paul O'Kelly, "this were not the final of the league but, say, a challenge against Mayo or Galway, there's every chance that he'd be playing full back. Part of our plan at the start of the year was to consider John Ryan for full back. Even if he does well - and I'm sure he will - it's not definite that he'll play against Meath."

This tells us two things: that the full back position has been exercising the minds of Lyons, O'Kelly and Fleming (which we all knew) and that John Ryan was in their thoughts (which we didn't).

Last year during the meteoric rise from Division Four to an All-Ireland semi-final, the full back position was a problem. Larry Carroll suffered a couple of difficult afternoons last summer before picking up a long-term injury. The current league has been used to identify a successor for Carroll.

In recent times Barry Malone, younger brother of flamboyant full forward Roy, held the brief. An accomplished footballer, he played in the corner for Offaly last year and in the view of many is likely to make his career somewhere other than at full back. Two hard afternoons in the company (albeit briefly in the case of Tony Boyle) of quality full forwards and the view crystallised.

The selectors may represent this as simply another exercise in refining options but were a readymade full back to plummet to earth in Tullamore, he wouldn't be let home in a hurry.

Shannonbridge is where John Ryan plummets to earth, generally around midfield but not always because he is a versatile player. Anyone with an opinion on him relies heavily on the adjectives "big" and "strong" (not surprisingly - he is 6ft 2in and weighs 14 stone). There is more to him as a player - technically and otherwise.

If he were just a hefty Offaly footballer being tried in a problem position, there wouldn't be that much interest in his selection. Ryan, however, is getting a run in a problem position in a national final, at the very time that he's beginning to look like the solution to another problem position, full forward for the hurlers.

From these crucial times for both codes Ryan has emerged. A dual performer from minor on, he embodies a thin tradition in the county. Only Liam Currams has All-Ireland medals in football and hurling, 1981 and '82, and for the most part players make a choice before going senior.

The trouble now for Ryan's career as it advances on two fronts is that both codes are in championship action on the same day - the hurlers as part of a double bill with the footballers on May 24th.

"We've an excellent relationship with the management of the hurling team," says O'Kelly. "If we need him, we're confident he'll be available."

Sorry? Available to take the pitch with 70 minutes' hurling under his belt and mark Brendan Reilly?

"No. When we get closer, we'll know to what extent we require John, and Babs (Keating, Offaly's hurling manager) will know the same from his point of view. We don't rely on any one player but I believe that John is one of the very few players who could give that commitment to both games."

Ryan lined out at midfield for the footballers in a senior championship match three years ago and was peripherally involved with the senior hurlers during Eamonn Cregan's tenure as manager. Last year was frustrating. A participant in the infamous events that broke out during the Leinster under-21 semi-final against Dublin at Parnell Park, he then opted to concentrate on one sport for the summer.

Choosing unwisely, his season culminated in not getting onto the Offaly hurling side which lost to Wexford rather than securing a place on the county's football team which won its first Leinster title in 15 years. His approach has been more expansive this season.

With the hurlers under new management, a chance arose to stake a first-team place and Ryan has exploited it. Playing at full forward in the league in Ennis against the country's top full back, Brian Lohan, he scored a goal and acquitted himself well.

"He's very strong under high ball and quick if not super-quick," says Lohan of his experience marking Ryan. "He wouldn't have as much hurling as some of the other Offaly forwards but he's stronger. It's not just physical either. Mentally he was tuned in and was easily their most dangerous forward. If a score was going to come, it was going to be from him.

"It's unusual to switch between the forwards and backs when playing football and hurling. Either you have one mentality or the other. I wish him well. Playing full back in football, you can be crucified if things are going badly around you."

Oddly for a dual player, Ryan excites no definitive judgment on which is his superior code, although it's considered an accident of birth that he plays football. "If he was born in Birr," according to one Offalyman, "there's no question that he'd be a hurler first and foremost" - although in the eyes of another Offaly hurling source, "he's a bit slow and mixing football and hurling makes it difficult for him".

There is no shortage of tributes to his footballing ability. Matt Connor has had a long involvement with coaching minor teams in the county and remembers Ryan as an underage player.

"He wasn't on one of my teams but he was a very good minor. He always played full back or centre back. Full back is a difficult position and most of the very good ones moved there when older but you can also be a natural in the position. I think he is, even though - in fairness to Barry Malone - he might have been in trouble against Donegal. He's a good footballer."

Paul O'Kelly narrows it down. "I would say his one strength is anticipation and understanding how to intercept. His shadowing is excellent, as is his ability to put a player under pressure and force him out. He's very strong under a high ball but his number one strength is that he has very good positional sense.

"The full back line and whole defence is a unit. We believe that John Ryan is a mobile player. He's not in because he's a big, traditional full back. Remember he's been training for months on Roy Malone and Vinny Claffey."

Will Offaly seriously leave the "position vacant" sign up if Ryan plays a stormer tomorrow?

"So much happens in four weeks," says O'Kelly. "The championship team will be picked the Tuesday before the Meath match."