Pat Ryan: "Are Some of Our Own People Writing Off Limerick? Have They Lost Their Minds?"

PAT RYAN RUNS HIS GAME focusing on getting things accomplished quietly without drawing much attention, instead of chasing after recognition.

During his time as the manager of Cork, Ryan has often highlighted the importance of "doing justice to the shirt," aware of the traditions he upholds and the expectations associated with it.

In last July's match, Ryan’s team faced off against Clare throughout the entire 90 minutes in their quest to break a then-19 year drought since their last All-Ireland SHC victory. Now this season, having secured the Allianz Hurling League (HL) championship, they aim to face Limerick in Saturday evening's Munster final.

Certainly, Cork hurling has seen positive developments under Ryan’s guidance, but as is typical with the passionate atmosphere in the region, enthusiasm can escalate rapidly.

It comes as little surprise that, when questioned regarding the frenzy following the league final – which saw a bookmaker pay out on Cork as All-Ireland champions – Ryan’s reaction was tinged with disbelief.

"To tell you the truth, we didn't discuss this topic among ourselves, but it's challenging since these guys are amateur athletes," he states.

They're heading off to work, you hear it from them. As for me, I'm not active on social media, but guys are spotting it online. Text messages are circulating as well; at some point, one of those messages even mentioned 'Saving Private Ryan'.

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A guy sent that to me on Sunday morning before the Limerick round-robin game, and I thought, 'What the...?!

You go ahead with that, please understand, I’m aware this is part of the current landscape we find ourselves in too—which is precisely why we organized a media evening today; we believe it’s essential to promote our matches.

Gentlemen enjoy hearing and reading about the games – I personally loved diving into those stories too when I wasn't part of them – which is precisely why we engage in this activity; however, from my perspective, certain parts seemed rather poor.

The truly frustrating part was that some of our own team were dismissing Limerick. Have they lost their minds?!

That’s just setting ourselves up for failure. These are the kinds of things lads put up in their dressing rooms, but they often aren't close to reality. Our aim is to stay as grounded as possible. That’s something we strive for here in Cork.

“Years back, something was penned regarding the football scene, and I reckon John Cleary over there despises it—the bit about 'Corkness.' The mere mention of it irks me tremendously. But what exactly is Corkness?”

It's more about doing our best with the jersey rather than focusing on that, and personally, I believe it's not correct. However, from where I stand, much of what was done seemed incorrect.

Even regarding Paddy Power making payments, it was merely a marketing ploy and a publicity stunt, which was inappropriate for a gambling firm to do with amateur athletes, subjecting them to such stress.

The excitement didn't diminish but was rather doused by the 16-point defeat at TUS Gaelic Grounds two weeks back, which means Cork will enter the game on Saturday as underdogs as Limerick pursue their seventh consecutive Munster championship.

For Ryan, the main aim is to significantly outperform what was achieved in the initial game.

"What I'd suggest is that when you lose by around five or six points, you could argue that we were fatigued, or perhaps the three-week gap was a factor, or maybe our extended campaign following the league final took its toll," he explains.

“But, when you get hammered like that, you just look at it systemically, where was that attitude from and we just left them hurl all over the field.

“It was a puzzling one and I probably look back on my own role, maybe I didn’t go after them enough. Maybe I wasn’t driving the standard over the last couple of weeks and maybe a small bit of complacency slipped in in that we were going well enough but look, obviously, Limerick were well prepared.

“They had a lot of stuff right on the day, as they always do. You can see that was a game they had really targeted since we beat them in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“Our job is to make sure we’re right the next day.”