*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
FAILURE to convert goal chances created and the concession of too many short puckouts to Clare proved costly for Cork on Sunday at Croke Park.
Such was the view of Cork manager, Pat Ryan who was wholehearted in his congratulations and praise for Clare following Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final.
Ryan stated, “Look we are very disappointed. We came up here to win, to get over the line and we didn’t get it done, all credit to Clare. They performed fantastically and just about deserved their victory in the end”.
Some of the big talking points on decisions made by referee Johnny Murphy didn’t affect the outcome of the final, the Cork boss felt. These calls included shouts for a Cork 65m free in the second half plus two Robbie O’Flynn incidents, one involving David McInerney and the other with Conor Leen at the death. “To be honest I don’t think that affected it. Look, there are things that go your way and don’t go your way, at the end of the day Clare are champions and we won’t be giving our about any of that stuff. We can’t do anything about it now, we just have to move on”.
Partaking in a final for the ages but coming out on the wrong side won’t accelerate the healing of their wounds, he said. “Our job is to represent our county, represent the jersey, represent the people who come here paying hard earned money and the lads did that and can be very proud. At the same time we came here to win and we didn’t, we will lick out wounds, we will celebrate Clare, they will have a great couple of days, we will have a sad few days”. He added, “fellas will go back to their clubs, we will try and re-group and see where that takes us”.
Allowing Clare to build up the play with short puckouts was cited by the 1999 All-Ireland winner when explaining how Cork let a seven point lead in the opening quarter slip. “We gave them too many short puckouts and they worked the ball out, and we lost our shape in the full forward line, we were trying to tackle from behind. They worked the short puckouts very well, the stats were very good on that, the stats on the long puckouts not as good in the first half . They did a lot of good things that struggled us while we did some things that struggled them”.
Ryan stressed, “It didn’t come down to Robbie’s (Robbie O’Flynn) miss at the end The short puckouts conceded and goal opportunities missed was key to the game.”
Shot selection for Cork was “okay”, he believed but pointed out they were guilty of “bad execution. We had a couple of opportunities to take scores but just didn’t take them, every score was vital, it gives you that bit of momentum, Over the 100 odd minutes, we just missed too many goal opportunities”.
“We came in and our job was to win an All-Ireland and we came up here to win one. And in two years we haven’t won, that’s a disappointment for us. From my point of view I am very proud of the way the lads have represented the jersey and the way they are playing at the moment. We are a very proud county with a proud tradition and a lot of proud players have gone before us and it is key that the lads would represent the jersey in that manner and I think they did today. We could have played better, we could have done different things, we might have made a few better decisions on the line but the lads can hold their heads up high and be proud of their performance but we go home without a trophy and that’s disappointing,” Ryan said.
He went on to say “there is a lot of work gone into what we did, there is a lot to work on. In fairness, the Cork public that we ultimately answer to will be proud of what they saw today but disappointed that we are going back home without the trophy. It will take a while to get this out of the way, it’s heart wrenching for out group”.
Asked about Patrick Horgan’s achievement of topping the championship scoring charts he said “Pat Horgan doesn’t read into topping the scoring charts, he chases the fact of being playing for Cork and he will be back again next year ready to go.
