
Cork chairman on Pat Ryan's future after All-Ireland final humbling
Ryan's three-year term as senior hurling manager ended with last Sunday's heavy All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary and it remains to be seen what his intentions are for 2026.
It is not believed that there will be any push against him from the county board, while he remains popular among the playing group, but whether the Sarsfields man will have the appetite for a fourth year at the helm is questionable, particularly given the circumstances of last Sunday's loss.
He had said at the outset of his reign that if he didn't deliver an All-Ireland within the allotted three years that his term would be deemed 'a failure'. He doubled down on that at Cork's media event ahead of the final, saying: 'Failure, is it the right word? It's probably a harsh word at times. But it's true, to be honest with you.'
He added: 'If you're not moving the needle along closer to where we want to get to, which is the ultimate - winning the All-Ireland - you just can't hog the job, for want of a better word."
However, chairman Horgan insisted that this is no time for snap decisions.
'We are all tremendously disappointed after the weekend, but now is a time for reflection and we'll leave time for reflection,' he told echolive.ie.
'The executive will sit down and talk to all the people directly involved over the next couple of weeks.
'The senior hurling is very simple; it is a time for reflection for a couple of weeks and then we'll sit down and talk to everybody concerned.'
Horgan also pointed out that the team had performed well for the most part this year as they won League and Munster titles, backed by a huge following.
'In my few words at the banquet, what I said is 35 minutes should not define a team, or a group,' he said.
'The one point I made at the banquet very forcibly was that Sunday was our seventh championship game and every single one of them were sold out. That is something the GAA and business community have benefited from considerably.
'And we are very grateful to our fans for getting behind the team. We are also very grateful to the people who put their hands into their pockets to support the whole thing.'
He also backed the decision of the players and management not to have a homecoming for the team in Cork on Monday evening.
Horgan added: 'We respected it and we said fine. The thing about the homecoming is that we had never actually put it in place until we saw what the result was. We respected their wishes that they just didn't want to go through with it, and we said that is fine.
'I think that is fair and reasonable. We had it last year, and I think they deserved a bit of space to themselves. I just think it was going to be so, so difficult for everybody involved. We understood.'

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