GAA MANAGERS can never talk about a door without insisting it is never fully closed and that was the case with Michael Ryan when pressed about the likely return of Eoin Kelly to the Waterford panel.

The new Déise manager had hinted earlier this week he had had conciliatory talks with the Passage forward, who had been controversially dropped from his early-season panel ahead of what would have been his 10th championship season.

Ryan, speaking at the announcement of the ongoing sponsorship of the senior hurling team by mobile network 3 yesterday, was reluctant to elaborate on that reported meeting.

Nonetheless, his words were encouraging for Waterford fans who hope to see the rangy marksman back in the county colours this year.

“What I said was – and this is absolutely true – is that there was an opportunity for Eoin, as there was for every other hurler in Waterford, to get on the panel and that he was to go away and work on his fitness and that we would look at the situation again. Nothing has changed.”

Although the decision to exclude Kelly from the panel has cast an early spotlight on Waterford’s season, Ryan was unconcerned by the idea that the issue had been a distraction.

“As far as I’m concerned, there is no sideshow. We have 30 fellas working very hard and the training is going fine, the attitude has been good. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and we’re all moving forward and trying to build a team for the Munster championship,” said Ryan.

Ryan emphasised Kelly regaining his place on the panel depended on him meeting required fitness standards.

“That’s exactly the situation. As I said last week, I think Eoin Kelly’s career is far from over. It’s up to himself.”

The controversial omission of Kelly is the latest twist in Waterford’s ever-lurching fortunes. The team remains one of the great hard-luck stories in modern GAA. Few teams have won hearts and silverware as impressively as the Waterford team of the last 10 years. But despite their success, the All-Ireland title has eluded them.

Ryan watched the team push hard when he served as a selector under Justin McCarthy for the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Now the Fourmilebridge man’s task is to go one step further than Davy Fitzgerald, who guided Waterford to an All-Ireland final in 2008, only to meet a Kilkenny team in imperious form.

As he reviewed Waterford’s form, he identified consistency as the quality they have found most difficult to capture. “If you look at the last decade, it was probably the hardest decade of all to win an All-Ireland,” he pointed out.

“You had a Cork team going for three in a row. You had the best Kilkenny team of all time. Tipperary are always pretty handy, they won two All-Irelands as well in the last 10 years. So it was a very difficult era.

“Having said that, we’ve beaten probably all the top teams bar Kilkenny. Maybe not on a regular basis but we just haven’t done it in the same season. We haven’t put four or five consistent performances together.

“The Munster final of ’04 was one of the best games ever played. We beat Kilkenny in the League final. We showed flashes but if we’re to move to the next level we need to do that on a consistent basis.”

If anything, Eoin Kelly was emblematic of that mercurial element within Waterford, capable of delivering sensational performances but never the most even in terms of his form. His absence has been all the more glaring given the size of the initial squad drawn up by Ryan and his selectors, which was believed to include around 50 names.

“I wouldn’t say there’s 50 on the panel. There’s an extended panel. There’s people outside the group on weight programmes and stuff like that. But I’d like to think that even people who don’t make the cut, they’re still there. We’ll arrange a few games and we are going to work very closely with the U-21s as well,” said Ryan.

The changing of the guard that began under Fitzgerald will continue under Ryan and he emphasized the slate has been wiped clean in terms of selection.

Asked about the fullback position, Ryan praised the performances of Liam Lawlor but made it clear he would be auditioning alternatives in the coming games in all sectors of the field. “I’m not going to comment on how the team has been set up. I think Liam has been doing very well there over the last couple of years – I think he has only conceded one championship goal to a direct opponent.

“We have a couple of more options on the bench that we are going to try out in challenge games. Liam’s like everyone else. He is fighting for his place and competition is the name of the game as far as we are concerned in every position across the field.”

Ryan confirmed no decision will be made on the captaincy until just before the league begins in February. By then, there ought to be more clarity on whether Eoin Kelly will be playing championship hurling this summer.