Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
PAT’LL DO NICELY
IT’S very early days, but Pat ryan continues to tick the boxes.
An inevitable blip will come for the new Cork boss.
The key will be how the Rebels overcome it and ultimately what happens in the Munster round robin this summer.
Boxes ticked to date include a trophy bagged — the Munster Hurling League final. Always good for morale and feeding positivity into training.
Another box ticked was the manner of that final win over Tipperary, by a single point, having trailed by six on 66 minutes.
Edging out Limerick in the first round of the League last Saturday night was Ryan’s biggest win yet, and better still that it came by a single point and from eight points back at halftime.
Winning tight games shows character, which breeds belief and confidence, but the manager may be more exercised by an old failing, the 13 missed chances in the first half.
There is plenty to do.
But Ryan also has the ground work done. It’s there in his back story.
Back to back All-Ireland Under-20 titles means he knows the emerging talent in Cork inside out.
Not only that, but he bridged an astonishingly lengthy gap going back to 2005 — and Cork’s last All-Ireland at minor, Under-21 or senior — a senior title.
Defeats
Ryan and his management team also erased the memory of back to back defeats by Tipperary in the final Under-21 AllIreland decider and the inaugural Under-20 tournament.
Amazingly, Cork hadn’t won an All-Ireland an Under-21 level since 1998 until that 2020 triumph under Ryan.
The other obvious factor is that Cork were in four Under-20/21 All-Ireland finals on the bounce (2018-21).
They are clearly the county with the players.
Ryan’s job is to feed as many of them as possible into the senior ranks and get them up to the highest standard possible.
Ryan is Patrick Horgan’s sixth different Cork manager and there is a natural bedding in period.
“Any manager could be requiring different things from fellas and that all needs to be bought into,” says Horgan.
“He’s looking for a lot of honesty and a lot of effort. Once he sees that, he’s quite happy and it’s all positive from there.
“That’s the key thing. Fellas are coming training and giving their effort. They’re giving everything they can — on and off the field.
“When it comes to games, we’re just putting our heads down really and doing the best we can all the time.
“That’s a good standard to get yourself to. That’s everything really when it comes to hurling.
“There’s nobody on the panel who doesn’t think they have a chance of making the training panel of however many it is — something in the 30s, I’d imagine.
Fight
“The next fight we’ll all have is to make the 26. And then after that, 15 very lucky fellas will get a jersey and they’ll have to hold on to it.”
Ryan has already stated that if Cork don’t win an All-Ireland in his three-year term it will be a failure.
But what else would he say? No doubt, plenty in the Cork panel will feel that if they don’t win the Liam MacCarthy Cup this year it will be a failure. It would be in Kilkenny.
It would certainly be in Limerick.
“I know where Pat is coming from,” continues Horgan. “Pat has a goal.
“We all have a goal but I suppose when you break that down, when you come down to a play
‘He’s looking for a lot of honesty and a lot of effort. once he sees that, he’s quite happy’