PAT RYAN ALWAYS had the 2024 All-Ireland hurling final date marked in his diary.
Irrespective of how his Cork team fared this season, it was a day where there was a role earmarked for him.
A quarter of a century since Ryan and his Cork colleagues lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup, they are set to be presented to the Croke Park crowd before next Sunday’s showdown.
But Cork’s thrilling win over Limerick rules their manager and a couple of his selectors out of joining the Class of 1999 in waving to fans.
It’s a nice complaint to have a bigger assignment to focus on.
“Thank God I got out of that, that’s one saving grace,” laughs Ryan.
“Look (it’s) so fantastic for the lads that we were involved with. There’s three of us, Brendan Coleman and Wayne Sherlock was involved as well on the 1999 team. That’s a fantastic day for a group of players that was there.
“There’s still great friendships in that group, that’s an exciting day for them. I think (Mark) Landers was delighted there’d be a crowd there for him anyway, so that was the main thing.”
And who will deputise for Ryan in that pre-match ceremony?
“The wife won’t do it anyway! My son will probably do it I’d say. We’ll see. Look, that’s only a small thing on the day.”
Ryan casts his mind back to that 1999 win and is intent on utilising his playing experiences in his current position as Cork manager.
“The one thing that I remember, and I’m not the best to remember those games because I try to move on from them, but I remember how calm that Jimmy was around the group.
“How much confidence he gave to the lads. It was just another day, enjoy it because these are days to be savoured.
“We had fantastic leaders and players in that group. Mark Landers was captain and a fantastic leader. Obviously Donal Óg (Cusack) and Brian Corcoran.
“Brian was fantastic in the lead up to that. An absolute super player that gave everybody great confidence going into it. Jimmy came in in ’96 and it probably wasn’t a good year, I remember him saying that.
“But I didn’t feel any stress or pressure from Jimmy. He just took the pressure off everybody.”
Can Ryan copy tricks learned from a managerial icon like JBM?
“He was a brilliant man-manager. My God, I wouldn’t put myself for a second in the same breath as Jimmy Barry-Murphy. Jimmy was fantastic, he always made people feel a part of it. And the other selectors as well that were involved.
“What we would value here all the time is the panel. That would be my own experience of that. I always felt that sometimes I was playing and sometimes I wasn’t playing but I always felt that I was making a contribution and always felt part of the group.
“So that’s something we try to do. It’s hard. Everybody wants to be on the 26, everybody wants to be on the starting team, so it’s hard but as long as you’re honest and straight forward with fellas they’ll try to come with you.
“You try to take things from everybody that you’ve been involved with. I was lucky to be involved with Kieran Kingston for a couple of years and the way he dealt with people and the way he was straight-forward with people was fantastic.
“I’ve been very lucky with the managers that I’ve had myself as a player. We try to take all of that on.”
After defeating Limerick for the second time this season and ending their five-in-a-row title bid, the emotion and expectation surrounding Cork’s hopes has soared.
Ryan views it as a positive rather than something that will weigh his players down, referencing the injury hardship players like Mark Coleman, Tim O’Mahony, Alan Connolly and Robbie O’Flynn have endured. This is a build-up to savour.
“I think momentum is great. We were back in (the Monday after Limerick game), so that kind of gets fellas refocused straight away and fellas are kind of moved on. Look, I wouldn’t dampen the enjoyment that goes into an All-Ireland semi-final, there’s a lot of work goes into this.
“When you manage to (win), whatever team it is (against), they’re really, really competitive. So any time you win a championship match at this level is a huge thing. After the Clare game, we had a lot of championship matches lost at that stage. So we’ve been delighted with the last five games really.
“I don’t think you do protect them; I think you just have to embrace it, to be honest with you. That’s the way I’m looking at it. As I said to the lads there a while ago, there’s no pressure here. This is where you want it to be.
“We’ve had lots of fellas who gone under the knife, gone to England for hamstring injuries and knee injuries and all that type of it. That’s where pressure is, that’s where you get down a bit.
“It’s a brilliant two weeks. We’ll be back in Mallow in November in the pissing rain again and that will be more hard than the next two weeks.”
Clare present Cork with a different type of challenge, and have a strong track record of defeating Ryan’s team.
“They probably play a bit more direct in Limerick. They’re probably they get the ball from back to front a bit quicker, whereas Limerick will create those triangles and those extra men and get scores from outside.
“But look they bring huge physicality in the half-forward line as well, where there’s probably more movement in the Limerick forward line from puckouts. The Clare forward line, they’re doing an awful lot of that pod puckout down on top of of Peter Duggan, and it is easy to say, you know it’s coming, but it’s another thing to defend it. That will be something that we’ll have to really work on. He’s a phenomenal player.”
Cork’s attempts to end the county’s 19-year wait for Liam MacCarthy Cup glory will consume much of the pre-match attention.
Ryan is conscious of the status hurling enjoys in the lives of his players and the dedicaton they show in trying to meet the expectations of supporters.
“I read an article or listened to a comment that John Kiely said about how the players really dedicate themselves to the game, how their whole life revolves around it, where they live, where they go to school, where they work.
“That’s the same with our fellas, it’s just so important to them. We try to express to our lads all the time since we came in that it’s about representing that jersey. If you represent that jerey properly and fellas see real effort and real fight, then there will be none of that social media stuff or negativity that comes with it.
I think our fellas are giving that and I would expect the exact same in the All-Ireland Final. We’re confident we can go out and put in a performance and it will take a huge performance to beat Clare.
“But we know that the lads will perform and if the lads perform and really give that effort, we’ll be very, very close and I think the Cork public will be happy with that.”
