Ryan hits out at 'twisted' narrative on Cork, Queally calls for format change
Pat Ryan has hit out at 'twisted' commentary surrounding Cork as they booked a Munster final spot.
Needing a result to stay in the Championship after suffering a 16-point beating from Limerick seven days earlier, Cork eked out a six-point win over Waterford to keep their season on track as they return to Shannonside to face the holders in the provincial final on June 7.
They went there as All-Ireland favourites last time around but Limerick now hold that status and Rebels boss Ryan suggested that the hype surrounding Cork going into that game may have got to his players.
'I don't know,' he said, 'but it's hard not to get drawn into the hype and some of it was stupid stuff altogether and a lot of it was coming from outside the county.
'You heard people writing off Limerick, some of our own people, are they off their game or what?!
'From my point of view, look, that was very annoying – I think, sometimes, fellas would be building you up, hoping that you'd get a kick in the ass.
'I thought there was a lot of twisted stuff around it, to be honest with you. If I could find a better word I'd find it, but I thought there was a lot of twisted stuff around it.
'From our point of view, we just knuckle down, try to be the best team we can and try to represent the jersey and the Cork people as best we can.'
Meanwhile, Waterford manager Peter Queally called for a change to the Championship structure after another premature end to their summer as they failed to emerge from the Munster group yet again, pointing out that 'every football team in Ireland is still in the Championship'.
He said: 'I've had conversations with fellas who have decided to opt out because of, 'Well, I can give all this and I might not be able to hurl in the summer'.
'People are deciding not to play because of the amount of effort and training that's asked of them all through the winter months. Then you come up against three awesome hurling teams and you're putting away your hurley in the summer evenings when all you want to do is hurl."
He added: "We all want the cut-and-thrust of Munster Championship. We don't want to take from that. Maybe it's following suit with our football counterparts, where you have your provincial Championship and then you have your All-Ireland series.
'I'm sure if you had a Championship, two groups of whatever and you were across provinces and stuff, you can imagine the crowds that would go to a Wexford-Waterford game or a Kilkenny-Waterford game or whatever it is. Maybe there's something there in that.'
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