Cork boss Pat Ryan declares ‘Munster championship wide open' after weekend's action

Irish Independent

01-05-2025

After failing to put away the All-Ireland champions the previous week Cork came into the home tie under pressure to perform and when the side had built up a sizable lead for the second week in-a-row it was important that they got the job done in style – as ended up the case thanks to a late Declan Dalton goal and a push from those called off the bench late on.
Cork manager Pat Ryan was obviously delighted with the win but bit back at some in the media room about whet he felt was unwarranted criticism between the Clare and Tipperary ties.
'I couldn't get over the analysis around why a draw above in Clare against the All-Ireland champions was a bad result,' said Ryan as he fielded questions in the media room of Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday afternoon.
Ryan went on. 'I just couldn't get over it. We couldn't fathom it as a group.
'That Clare team is an absolutely fantastic team. Obviously, there were areas we were really unhappy with but as I said above there, and maybe fellas thought I wasn't being serious, a point away to Clare was a fantastic result.
'I'd have taken it, especially with the way things were being written about us after the league final, which were off-the-wall really. That fed in and you're talking about going up to Clare, who are a team that's built on energy, their manager is built on energy, and they were always going to bring a huge game to us up there.
'No, we didn't get any shock, we knew what it was going to be like.'
Back to the game in Cork and Ryan started by saying he didn't see the incident that resulted in Darragh McCarthy being sent to the line but highlighted one key takeaway from the incident.
'As I've said all along, you can't win games in Munster with only 14 fellas on the field. It's just impossible, teams are too good,' he said.
'Look, there were a lot of things sparked all over the field, really, in that instance. I don't think we initiated any of it, to be honest with you, but these things happen at the start of games.
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'I didn't see it [the McCarthy incident]. Obviously, there's probably a marker trying to be put on some of our players. I'm disappointed for Darragh, he's only a young man, I wouldn't have seen him ever being involved in anything kind of dirty before.'
After the sending off Cork hit the ground running and were comfortable by half time however while the manager was pleased, he did see plenty room for improvement.
'So, look, we should have been winning that game. We were disappointed with a couple of fallow periods in the second half again. That's something we look at with our analysis team, why did that happen."
On the personnel front, there were a couple of players that caught the eye of the manager and beyond with Declan Dalton front and centre when it comes to players taking their chance.
Declan Dalton came in for the suspended Shane Barrett and bagged 1-6 on the day.
'From our point of view, Declan played really well when he went inside as well, I thought he gave us a nice bounce,' he continued.
'In fairness to Alan [Connolly], he was probably carrying a small bit of a niggle at that stage and the opportunity to put Declan inside worked out well for us. I thought Brian Roche and Luke Meade and Robbie O'Flynn, especially, played well when they came on.
"Robbie was out injured for a while. He's been back for two weeks; he's been absolutely flying. We maybe should have brought him on in Ennis but he was just back.'
There was major concern in the stands when Robert Downey had to be helped from the field for the second week in-a-row, but Ryan was happy to point out that things were not as bad as they may have appeared at this time.
'Rob Downey has a dead leg. Obviously, we'll get good treatment on that. I think they kind of hogtie it or something up around the back and get plenty of ice on it. He has plenty of time to get right.
"Those things are very sore initially especially, but I couldn't see it being a long-term injury or anything like that."
Cork have completed Phase 1 of their provincial challenge with three points from a possible four and with plenty time now before the next game serious training is back on the cards.
'Look, we have three weeks now so we'll have plenty of training and plenty of opportunities. When you're going from the league final to Ennis and then from Ennis to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it's very hard to do any proper training and give any fella an opportunity to get onto the 26 or get onto the team.
'It [the break] gives us three weeks to recover and get a bit of energy back into our bodies. The Munster championship is wide open. Clare going down to a very, very good Waterford team and Peter Queally's an excellent manager… so he got a right bounce off them."