Pat Ryan: 'Some of our own people writing off Limerick. Are they off their game?'

PAT RYAN MANAGES as he played: the focus always on a job well done with minimal fuss, rather than actively seeking out the limelight.

Throughout his tenure as Cork boss, Ryan has referenced the need to “represent the jersey”, cognisant of the tradition he has inherited and the expectations that come with that.

Last July, Ryan’s side went toe-to-toe with Clare for 90 minutes as they sought to end what at the time was a 19-year wait for an All-Ireland SHC. This time around, they have the Allianz HL title already banked and will contest Saturday evening’s Munster final against Limerick.

Certainly, Cork hurling has been taken to a good place under Ryan’s stewardship but, such is the nature of the fervour on Leeside, the hype can quickly be ramped up.

Little wonder then, that, when asked about the hysteria in the wake of the league final – which included a bookmaker paying out on Cork as All-Ireland champions – Ryan’s response bordered on incredulity.

“To be honest, we weren’t talking about it inside here but it’s hard because fellas are amateur athletes,” he says.

“They’re going into work, you’re hearing it. I’m not on social media, [but] fellas are seeing it on social media. There’s text messages going around, there was even one came to my phone about Saving Private Ryan at one stage.

“A fella sent that to me on the Sunday morning before the [Limerick round-robin] match and I was thinking, ‘What the…?!’

“You get on with that, don’t get me wrong, I know that’s the game we’re in now as well – that’s why we had a media night tonight, we feel we need to promote the games.

“Fellas want to hear and read about the matches – I loved reading about the matches myself when I wasn’t involved – that’s why we do it but from my point of view, I thought some of it was rubbish.

“The really annoying thing was some of our own people writing off Limerick. Are they off their game?!

“That’s only setting us up for a fall. They’re things that fellas pin to dressing rooms and that couldn’t be further from the truth. We try to be as humble as we can. That’s what we try to do in Cork.

“There was a thing written ages ago around the football thing, which I’d say John Cleary here hates it, this thing about ‘Corkness.’ It drives me mad when I hear that thing. What’s Corkness?

“It’s about representing the jersey as best we can instead of that and I don’t think that’s right, but look it’s from my point of view, I just thought a lot of it was wrong.

“Even about Paddy Power paying, that was only a gimmick and a stunt and wrong for a betting company to be doing that for amateur athletes, putting them under that pressure.”

The hype wasn’t dampened so much as soaked by the 16-point loss at TUS Gaelic Grounds two weeks ago, meaning Cork go in as underdogs on Saturday as Limerick chase a seventh straight Munster title.

For Ryan, the key objective is to perform far better than in the first game.

“What I would say is if you lose by five or six points, you can say we were tired or the three-week break or we had a long campaign coming off the league final,” he says.

“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.”