Michael Ryan (born 9 August 1955) is a retired Irish hurler and Gaelic footballer who played in various positions for The Nire–Fourmilewater club teams.
He began coaching/training Fourmilewater hurling Team in 1979 and won an intermediate county medal playing at full forward that year.
As a result of his success at club level, Ryan took charge of the Waterford senior ladies' football team in the early nineties.
[4] In 2001 Ryan coached the Laois ladies football team that won the All-Ireland Senior title, defeating Mayo by 2–14 to 1–16.
After serving as a selector with the Waterford under-21 football team that defeated Kerry in the Munster Championship replay in 2000, Ryan became a much sought-after hurling coach by the latter half of the decade.
[10] The Waterford champions later added the Munster title to their collection following a one-point win over Thurles Sarsfields, De La Salle then played Clarinbridge in the semi-final in Semple Stadium Thurles and the game ended in a draw, extra time was played and De La Salle held a two point lead with time almost up before Clarinbridge scored a late goal to edge one of the best games of hurling ever seen in the club championship.
From the start Ryan was under severe pressure as Waterford failed to pick up any points from their opening three games of the National League.
Waterford enjoyed a very good league campaign in 2013 beating Clare in Ennis in round one and then drawing with Cork in Dungarvan, they were then narrowly beaten by Kilkenny in Nolan Park.
In the qualifiers Waterford defeated Offaly in Tullamore and Westmeath in Mullingar before facing Kilkenny in round three in Semple Stadium.
On 12 August 2013, Ryan, unhappy with some events that happened behind the scenes stepped down as manager, making it known to the county board that he would not be looking to extend his tenure for the 2014 season.