Ryan departure swayed Horgan's retirement decision

Patrick Horgan says he could have been persuaded to give it another year with Cork if Pat Ryan was still in charge.

The All-Ireland SHC’s all-time leading scorer brought the curtain down on his 18-year senior inter-county career last week, a month after Ryan opted against seeking another term as manager in the wake of the Rebels’ All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary.

“Pat leaving and all that, it was, really hard, like,” the veteran Glen Rovers sharpshooter told The Smaller Fish GAA podcast.

“Pat was well got. I loved him, like, loved playing for him and, yeah, just that was disappointing. I probably would have done anything in the world that Pat Ryan told me to do.

“So, if he had wanted me to do anything, I probably would have done it for him. You hear all the other players, everybody talks about him the same. He’s the best man ever and the players all loved him. There’s nothing more I can say about him that people don’t already know, he was great.

“I was thinking about it (retirement) for a while and I just didn’t want to say anything because we were playing with the Glen and I wanted to put all my effort into that, and as soon as we went out of the championship, it kind of became a thing. Had a think about it for a few days and that was it.”