'We'd get confident after winning tiddlywinks' - Ryan admits job on to ...
Nothing won yet - that was the point Pat Ryan was at pains to make in the auditorium underneath the Hogan Stand.
His media audience were all ears. But as for a Cork public drunk on delirium, and far more importantly his Cork players, it’s a message that might need to be played on a loop for the next couple of days.
Maybe hook it up to the sound system at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh and blare it at full volume during training this week.
Cork are the first team to down Limerick in a knockout fixture since Kilkenny in the 2019 semi-final.
Not alone that but they’ve downed them twice in the space of eight weeks. And yet there isn’t a scintilla of silverware to show for their giant-killing efforts.
Failure to lower the Banner in a fortnight will reduce their ending of Limerick’s five-in-a-row charge to a mere footnote in Clare’s first crowning since 2013.
And, as Ryan correctly noted afterward, Clare are “only delighted” that they don’t have to face Limerick in trying to bridge that 11-year gap.
“When I got into the job, fellas asked me what is success in this job? If you are the Cork manager, you have to win an All-Ireland. If you don't, it is not successful,” said Ryan.
SPECIAL DAY: Cork manager Pat Ryan with his wife, Trish, and children, Aisling, aged 14, Cian, aged 10 and Daniel, aged 17, after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Limerick and Cork at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile“We judge ourselves in Cork on winning All-Irelands and we need to get back to that.”
It’s a cold analysis Cork will need to be wedded to as they try and wade through a fortnight of hype and final-mania.
“It will be impossible to quell it down in Cork. Sure, we'd get confident after winning a tiddlywink match,” he continued.
“You saw the crowd that was up here, there is going to be fantastic excitement down in Cork over the next two weeks, as there will be fantastic excitement in Clare. It is going to be hard to keep the hype down in both counties.
“From our fellas, it'll be just minding it from ourselves. It is hard, fellas are amateur men. They are going into schools, they are going into work, they are going into their families. But from our point of view, we know the job is not finished. That will be our attitude.”
Ryan “didn’t have any doubt” about Cork showing up and performing. A 1-8 to 0-6 lead after 20 minutes reflected that. But by half-time they were two in arrears.
Their puck-outs weren’t sticking. They’d won 11 and lost 11. Limerick had mined 0-5 of those won, Cork had mined only 1-0. All five restarts landed down on Diarmaid Byrnes’ patch had been lost.
“We knew at half-time we hadn’t got our puckouts going. We knew we weren’t hitting the breaks hard enough. We knew we didn’t push up on the man enough and if you give Limerick space and let them have easy possessions, they’re just going to kill you and they did that at times.
“They got some brilliant scores, they’re a brilliant team, but from our point of view, we just needed to be more in their faces and go man-on-man on them. We did that for most of the second half.”
And yet when Limerick fired over four-in-a-row to reduce the margin to two entering injury-time and Nickie Quaid denied Patrick Horgan a goal, Ryan feared the green wave would wash over his players and wash away their final involvement.
“When you get into that stage – after watching Limerick and admiring them so much – they nearly always win from that level.
“We won a couple of great balls – Mark Coleman won a great one down along the sideline, Darragh [Fitzgibbon] won a great one inside in the square and they were all vital moments. The scores are all great but I thought our work rate in the second half was phenomenal.
“Limerick brought the game to a new level, testing all of us to get better and get to a new level, both on and off the line. We were lucky to get over the line today.”
In his Irish Examiner column last Tuesday, Seánie McGrath said at least one Cork forward would need to go way beyond their average contribution to take Cork beyond the champions.
Brian Hayes came into this semi-final averaging just over 1.5 points a game. Here, he finished with 1-4. Awesome.
“A fella that was on the Cork football panel, but we knew he was a brilliant hurler. We brought him in with the 20s and he's really blossomed inside there. He's got more confidence within the group and he's a huge player for us.
"And he's a bit different. He's 6'4". He's got the old Barrs mentality as well, which is great.”
