HE DIDN’T GO AS far as saying that thoughts of Limerick shaped every waking minute, but Cork manager Pat Ryan had them eyed up since before he even got the gig.
Doing it on their way to a historic five in a row made no odds. They just had to be beat.
Sitting in the media centre after the game, Ryan had just about collected himself when he said, “We just made a conscious effort since we came in 18 months ago that if we were playing Limerick, that we just wouldn’t give them that easy opportunities.”
By that, he meant squeezing all the areas he and they could. And that took them right into the period of added on time. Ahead, yes, but in the grip of a Limerick crocodile roll. You’re not in control of anything at that stage.
“It’s tough going. You’re watching the match and you’re seeing where it’s going. You’re trying not to get too involved in it,” he said.
“Obviously I’ll probably argue with the referee and the sideline trying to get a few decisions.
“But from my point of view, once the team is prepared, once we’ve trained as well as we can, once everybody is doing their job in our group, between the S&Cs, the fitness guys, the hurling guys, my own selectors and management team, we have a fantastic mental coach as well, Gary Keegan.
“So we’re ticking a lot of those boxes that need to be ticked. I knew our lads were going to perform today, but saying that you were going to beat Limerick was another thing. So it was a fantastic achievement to me.”
The gameplan was to engage them as high up the pitch as possible. That made for one of the classic games of hurling, but it was a mere by-product of the thought that went into this
“I suppose the one thing that I would always talk about Limerick, that if you leave them pass the ball, they’re going to beat you, and that was our one thing, our one mantra all the time, was that we’d push up on puck outs and we’d take a chance,” he said.
The 1-28 to 0-29 win means they have beaten them twice in one season. Nobody can say that Cork do not deserve their place in the All Ireland final. But they still have Clare waiting on them in a fortnight’s time.
“I think Clare are probably delighted as well to be there. Do you know what I mean? I think that’s the joys of it,” he said.
“Look, we’ve two new groups going into playing the final. Look, it’ll be a special occasion.
“I didn’t have any doubt that we weren’t going to perform today. to be honest with you.
“You could see it in training, obviously it was a lot made of maybe lacklustre performances against Offaly and Dublin but look, from where we came from after losing the first two games in the championship, that took an awful lot of energy, emotional and physical energy to get over Limerick and Tipperary in those games, there was a lot of preparation needed to get us back into the championship and look, we’ve driven on from there.”
There is a lot of waffle talked sometimes about the connection between team, management and fans. Some of it is charlatan talk. With this Cork team though, it doesn’t feel like it.
It’s only been three years since they have been in a final, but this one feels like they are in line for their first Liam MacCarthy since 2005, the longest drought in their history.
The inevitable by-product of hype is something Ryan believes they will surf from now until then.
“The crowd that was up here, there’s going to be fantastic excitement in Cork over the next two weeks and there’s going to be fantastic excitement in Clare. It’s going to be hard to keep the hype down in both counties. There hasn’t been a different Ireland champion since 2019.
“So look, there’s going to be fierce excitement. From our point of view, we’ll just have to do our best to keep it down. But look, I said this when I got into the job, fellas asked me what would be the success of this job. If you’re a Cork man, you have to win an All Ireland. Simple as that.
“If you don’t do it, it’s not successful. And look, there’s been fellas before me that have done fantastic things and got to all-Ireland finals and have been very unlucky in those days. But look, we judge ourselves in Cork on winning all-Ireland so we need to get back to that.”
The feeling and emotion has been rolling down the stands onto the pitch from that first win over Limerick in Pairc Uí Chaoimh. It reached new heights at the final whistle here with The Franks ‘After All’ getting the communal singalong.
“It would be impossible to quell it down in Cork, to be honest with you,” said Ryan.
“We get confident after winning a Tiddlywink match. So look, from our point of view, it’ll be just minding it from ourselves. And look, it’s hard.
“Look, fellas are amateur men. They’re going into schools, they’re going into work, they’re going into their families. But from our point of view, look, we know the job’s not finished and that’ll be our attitude.”
Along the way, he acknowledged the glitches in the system over the last few weeks. The bug that ran through the camp, the just-do-enough win over Dublin that led him to praise the Dubs full-back line as comparable to anything in the country.
Alan Connolly? Had to play him against Offaly, despite his sickness. Brian Hayes and his sensational 1-4 today? No regrets about poaching him from the county footballers, watching him blossom with the county U20 team.
Above all, who wouldn’t want a 6’4” man in the full forward with that touch and feel for the ball?
“And he’s a bit different,” said Ryan. “He’s got the old ‘Barrs mentality as well, which is great.”
On Saturday night, they travelled up on the bus. If Clare and Kilkenny was watched, it was on player’s phones.
A couple of hours after the game, the Cork press night was announced. Monday night, just over 24 hours after this win.
No time to lose. Not a second.
