We present optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy of SN 2009ib, a Type II-P supernova in NGC 1559. This object has moderate brightness, similar to those of the intermediate-luminosity SNe 2008in and 2009N. Its plateau phase is unusuall
y long, lasting for about 130 days after explosion. The spectra are similar to those of the subluminous SN 2002gd, with moderate expansion velocities. We estimate the $^{56}$Ni mass produced as $0.046 pm 0.015,{rm M}_{sun}$. We determine the distance to SN 2009ib using both the expanding photosphere method (EPM) and the standard candle method. We also apply EPM to SN 1986L, a type II-P SN that exploded in the same galaxy. Combining the results of different methods, we conclude the distance to NGC 1559 as $D=19.8 pm 3.0$ Mpc. We examine archival, pre-explosion images of the field taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, and find a faint source at the position of the SN, which has a yellow colour ($(V-I)_0 = 0.85$ mag). Assuming it is a single star, we estimate its initial mass as $M_{rm ZAMS}=20,{rm M}_{sun}$. We also examine the possibility, that instead of the yellow source the progenitor of SN 2009ib is a red supergiant star too faint to be detected. In this case we estimate the upper limit for the initial zero-age main sequence mass of the progenitor to be $sim 14-17,{rm M}_{sun}$. In addition, we infer the physical properties of the progenitor at the explosion via hydrodynamical modelling of the observables, and estimate the total energy as $sim 0.55 times 10^{51}$~erg, the pre-explosion radius as $sim 400,{rm R}_{sun}$, and the ejected envelope mass as $sim 15,{rm M}_{sun}$, which implies that the mass of the progenitor before explosion was $sim 16.5-17,{rm M}_{sun}$.
