CORK HURLING BOSS Pat Ryan heaped praise on his charges after their recovery win over Limerick which keeps them alive in the Munster hurling championship.
Nothing less than a win this evening would prolong their stay in the competition, and a late flurry of scores snatched the victory from the defending Munster and All-Ireland champions. After fumbling an eight-point lead, Cork clawed out the win with a late Pat Horgan penalty and a Brian Hayes point before the final whistle.
“I am sick of coming in here and talking about hollow victories,” Ryan said after his side’s breathless win in Páirc Uí Chaoimh ahead of their final round against Tipperary on 19 May.
“We have had a lot of those games over the last two years – tonight we showed great heart to get over the line against a savage team that never say die, even though we were seven or eight points up we knew that they would come back at us. We answered a lot of their scores when they got the them.”
Cork looked to be in danger of another second-half collapse when Limerick completed a 10-point turnaround thanks in part to a Séamus Flanagan hat-trick. When asked if his side expected a response, Ryan replied:
“Yes, we spoke about that all week, we knew it was going to come. They have five All Ireland’s in six years, how many times they have been beaten in the last few years – they are a fantastic team and they showed that out there again today and it took a herculean effort from our lads but that will give us great confidence going forward.
“We have Tipperary now in eight days and it will have been a waste of time beating Limerick here tonight if we can’t beat Tipperary – that might not even be enough to get us through then but we need victories and that was a vital victory for us.”
Elaborating on the early passages of the second half when Limerick began their fightback, Ryan added.
“You’re not going to dominate for 70 minutes.”
“Our problem has been going out of games too much. Limerick went up by four points and then we got the scores back and missed a few opportunities but our subs gave us great legs when they came on. They kept driving on, kept driving on, kept driving on and created the scores. In fairness, we got a bit of luck but we were probably due that.”
Cork profited hugely from winning their own puckouts. Séamus Harnedy proved to an effective target, setting up Shane Barret for his first-half goal after plucking the ball from a Patrick Collins delivery.
“That was something we did last year a small bit and we went back to it this year,” Ryan said when asked about their puckout tactics.
“Obviously, we’ve a couple of movement puckouts that we try to put into it. Against Clare, they went very well in the first half but, by the time we went down to 14 men, the legs were gone in fellas, trying to cover that amount of ground.
“We decided that we’d send more long puckouts down on top of them. We have big men – people will say that we don’t have these fellas but, if you stand next to Séamus Harnedy and Deccie Dalton and Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes, it’s just belief that they can do it.”
There were joyous scenes at full-time as Cork supporters poured onto the field to celebrate a win that has revived their season.
“We know the kind of fans we have,” said Ryan.
“Some of them can be harsh at times, when you’re not getting victories, but that’s the joys of it. You know when you take this job or you put on the Cork jersey that there’s a lot of history goes with it, there’s a lot of prestige in wearing it.
“The one thing I say, in any interview I do, is that the players represent it unbelievably, every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday when they come down to us. I can’t ask for any more than what they’re giving to us.”
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