Pat Ryan: 'We got blown away, our momentum and energy was terrible in the second half'

The 42

20-07-2025

PAT RYAN IS asked to make sense of it all.
The Cork manager retreated at half-time with his team in possession of a valuable six-point advantage.
They emerged in the second half and were blown away, crushed by a Tipperary team that ran out 15-point winners.
'We just got out-worked really. They got great momentum behind themselves, got a few scores and got the crowd behind them, and then obviously the sending-off. Look, credit to Tipperary. They came out and worked really, really hard. We got blown away in the second half. Like really, really good teams do, they put us to the sword.
'It was a lot of good play by Tipperary that won that game. Luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. Look, the harder you work, the more breaks that come for you and the more balls that fall into your hands. Credit to Tipperary. It's disappointing for our fellas.
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'They got momentum behind them and we just couldn't wrestle it away. Then there was the John McGrath break off Patrick and obviously the penalty. We had an opportunity to go seven points up with Patrick's free just after half-time and all of a sudden then you were chasing the game and you were seven or eight points down in the blink of an eye.'
Tipperary's Eoghan Connolly celebrates after the game with Oisin O'Donohue. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
Tipperary's defensive setup, often keeping Bryan O'Mara as an extra defender, restricted Cork's ability to get going in attack, contributing to their second-half collapse.
'I think they were kind of set up that way as well in the second half, to be honest with you,' said Ryan.
'In fairness, obviously with the longer puckouts with the wind, they were able to kind of target that side of it. But our momentum and our energy was terrible in the second half. They were the crowd that were working the hardest. That's the disappointing thing from our point of view.
'Obviously it's the second All-Ireland in a row that we've lost. Just really, really disappointed with that second half. We didn't represent ourselves the way we should have represented ourselves. Credit to Tipperary. They had a lot of good players all over the place.
'We're just disappointed, I suppose, with our reaction as well. To only score two points in the second half isn't good enough for us We didn't use the ball well enough. I think we probably played a bit more as individuals. That's something we spoke about, trying to make sure that when things go against you, that you keep playing as a team, keep sticking to the process and keep sticking to what we want to do. Those half balls inside and taking that extra pass, we didn't do it.
'As someone said there, I think we had three balls off the post where we could have carried those balls in and made those scores. Look, at the end of the day, it's hard to find bits and pieces when Tipperary just blew us away in the second half.'
A season which saw Cork claim league and Munster glory ends with a crushing defeat. It is the close of Ryan's third season in charge.
'It's too early now to think about what the year was like. Obviously when we came here last year we had no trophy, whereas I suppose we have two trophies now. But you kind of put them into the back of the cupboard and concentrate on what we were doing.
'Look, we were chasing Cork trying to win an All-Ireland that we haven't won in 20 years. We came up short again today like we did in 2024, so it's very disappointing for our players. They put an awful lot into the year. It took an awful lot of character for our guys to get back after last year and to really knuckle down.
'You want to perform. Last year, we came away with a good bit of pride in the way we performed and the epic game it was. In fairness, that second half petered out and that was disappointing from our point of view.'
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