CORK BOSS PAT RYAN: 'I’D BITE YOUR HAND OFF FOR THIRD. I THINK EVERYONE WOULD'

PAT RYAN IS asked to cast his mind back to the night of 28 May last year.

Cork were key contributors to an epic encounter that afternoon, coming desperately close to knocking Limerick out of the championship.

Such plaudits served as no consolation in their camp, as they fell the wrong side of a one-point game. Cork’s hurling year was over.

“My daughter was playing the primary game so she was delighted, that was the highlight of her and her mother’s day. If you’ve ever been involved in inter-county management in a game in front of 45,000, you’re fairly shattered afterwards. Bed was the first thing I was thinking of and when you wake up, the next couple of days are tough going.”

The rest of summer unfolded with Cork relegated to the role of bystanders. Ryan didn’t block the championship out of his life.

“I watched it. Sure we’re all fans of it anyway. If you’re not watching the championship, you’ve no business being in the job. Look, it was very disappointing. We probably got hollow victories out of it, fellas saying you did well and you did this against Limerick, but that was no good to us and no good to the players. It was a tough two or three months. We didn’t make progress, we didn’t get out.”

Life moved on. A bunch of the Cork players went to the United States for a few weeks, more went on holidays, and in time they all drifted back to their clubs for local hurling action. Ryan and his Cork management assembled the squad again a week after the Limerick game to put the players through rigorous physical testing.

Those figures were referenced when they started making their plans for 2024. League duties dispensed with, the serious Munster stuff starts next Sunday in Walsh Park against Waterford. 

The ultimate prize is the goal, but the means to achieving that start with a primary target for Ryan.

Get out of the Munster bearpit.

“I think we’re in a better place but at the same time, I assume every team is in a better place than they were last year. Our job is to try and win an All-Ireland. That’s why we took the job on. Getting out of Munster is the first step in that. 

“I’d bite your hand off for third. I think everyone would. With the exception of Limerick maybe, everybody is looking for that, to get out of Munster. We didn’t get out of Munster last year and that’s key to our year.”

How do they achieve that? A year older and a year wiser, Ryan has been able to get to grips with the demands as Cork manager.

Time to put lessons learned to good use.

“It’s just being better organised in how we reassess the games and how we manage players. We definitely got it wrong between the Waterford and the Tipperary game. It was six days. We have an extra day this time between the Waterford and Clare games.

“We got lads back in straighta way the next day for a bit of recovery and analysis work. We’ll probably give them a bit more of a break this time.”

Other areas that require improvement jump out following their 2023 review.

“If you want to be doing anything really in championship, I think you need to be scoring three or four goals to be winning your games.

“We probably didn’t get enough scores last year. We got three points from our half-back line last year in the championship whereas we probably conceded 15 or 16. Both of those aspects are areas that we really tried to get after, that we shut down the opposition half-backs a bit more and create a bit more scoring opportunities for ourselves.

“In fairness, Mark (Coleman) is back with us this year, he’ll give us that component. Rob (Downey) got the three points we had last year, he’s going well. It’s just encouraging lads to go forward a bit more. Ciarán (Joyce) has gone forward a good bit more for us this year as regards breaking through the lines. That’s something you have to be doing now in this modern game because you’re going to have to get 30 points to win matches.

“Your home games are key. That’s what kept us out of qualifying last year. We beat Waterford and we didn’t play as well as we wanted against Tipperary. We probably should’ve won the game coming down the stretch. You have to win your home games.”

He’s conscious that Sunday’s opponents Waterford, for all their stuttering early season form, are primed for a championship assault.

“I think they’ve been at pains to say that it’s all about championship for them. They’ve had a lot of fellas missing. We’ve analysed their game a good bit, just like they probably have with us. They’ve played really good passages of play. Against Wexford, they had 16 points scored at half-time, they played well the last day against Kilkenny and just petered out.

“Walsh Park being open, we expect a huge challenge going down there. Davy and his management team have been fairly obvious that they’re targeting our game.”

Getting his own team to hit full speed straight away is the aim for Ryan. He knows the huge demands the Munster system imposes and the yearning within Cork for their hurling side to deliver.

“That Munster Championship is so cutthroat that you have to be ready. Before you were getting a backdoor afterwards, you were going into a preliminary quarter-final and you had something. You knew that your year wasn’t over. This next eight, nine weeks is going to decide what we’re working at for the last 25. That is cutthroat.

“It is a long time (since Cork have been successful) and it’s something we have to try and solve. We can’t hide from it. 

“What I’ve found since I’ve been back in there is how much inter-county hurling means to Cork people. It’s front and centre and anyone who’s involved in our group is dealing with it every day.

“The Cork GAA public are only looking for some team to follow. Our job is to get them behind us because we all know if we get the Cork public behind us, we’ll be bringing 55,00 people to Corke Park. That’s what we need to get to.”

2024-04-17T05:37:21Z dg43tfdfdgfd