Patrick Collins: 'The fact that it actually went to penalties is a bit surreal in itself'
Patrick Collins played a pivotal role for Cork in Saturday night's historic Munster final victory. The number one custodian was the centre of attention when it came to deciding the destination of the Mick Mackey Cup. With the Cork fans united in a sea of red behind him, it was his save from Tom Morrissey - Limerick's fourth penalty taker - that gave the new champions the edge.
Diarmaid Byrnes and Aaron Gillane had scored but with Barry Murphy and Declan Hannon sending their efforts wide, Cork won the shootout 3-2.
'No, I never thought it would go to penalties, not at all. Far from it,' said the Ballinhassig club man.
'After training, a few of us would do a few penalties. Just, yeah, after every few sessions, but it's not something we kind of focus on, thinking that it might happen down the line. It's not something you practice too much for, penalties.
'I suppose when we got to penalties, just kind of hoping for the best and getting a bit of luck, and thankfully we did at the end. The fact that it actually went to penalties is a bit surreal in itself. You just try your best and it came out right in the end.
'I think we won the toss, yeah. I suppose the fact you're going down to the Cork crowd and you heard the cheer going down, I suppose it gave you a bit of belief, a bit of hope as well. But no, it was unreal. I'm thankful to be able to do that in front of the fans, so it's class.
'I never thought the game was gone from us at any stage. If you're thinking that, you're gone out of the moment. The game doesn't be long going if you're thinking like that. But no, whatever happens, good or bad, you're in the next moment, and you move on.'
Puck-out strategy has been under so much scrutiny. So how did he think he fared?
'Yeah, look, I don't know the stats on the puck-outs, but just from thinking about what happened throughout the game, I think we got a bit of joy off of them. They won a few as well. But overall, if we work hard and get on the breaks, our puck outs did well, yeah.' The performance was a big improvement compared to the substantial 16-point defeat the previous day.
'When we came up three weeks ago, we learned a lesson that if you're a percent off at all against this Limerick team, they're going to punish you, and they did that night. We just wanted to put in a performance, that's what we wanted to do today, to put in a performance and try and do the right things, and thankfully it paid off.
'You've to try to get a good start, if you can at all, and try to go toe-to-toe with them, because if you give them a bit of a lead, it's kind of hard, especially in their home ground. But no, from the off, we wanted to get a good start, and I think we did that.' Taking the front door route to an All-Ireland semi-final is one of the rewards.
'Look, it's huge. I suppose a four-week break gives lads with a few injuries a few weeks to get them right, and get back in for competition and training. That's something we live off is the competition we have in training, and the competition that we have with the lads. We've 38 unbelievable solid lads, and each lad is pushing for their place, and it's going to be no different the next four weeks.'
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