*Cork manager, Pat Ryan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CORK MANAGER, PAT Ryan is expecting Clare to pose a more direct threat than Limerick as they go head to head in the All-Ireland SHC final.
In what will be the second championship meeting of the counties this season, Cork manager Pat Ryan is determined they can put lessons learned following their two point Munster SHC loss to Clare in April into practice this weekend.
Peter Duggan and Mark Rodgers were among the players to cause havoc on that occasion, their input is certainly not forgotten by the two-time Munster champion.
Giving his view on how Clare differ to their semi-final opponents, reigning All-Ireland champions Limerick, Pat outlined, “I suppose they probably play a bit more direct in Limerick. They’re probably they get the ball from back to front a bit quicker, whereas Limerick will create those triangles and those extra men and get scores from outside.
“They bring you huge physicality in the half-forward line as well, where there’s probably more movement in the Limerick forward line from puckouts. The Clare forward line, they’re doing an awful lot of that pod puckout down on top of Peter Duggan, and it is easy to say, you know it’s coming, but it’s another thing to defend it. That will be something that we’ll have to really work on. He’s a phenomenal player”.
Sean O’Donoghue’s dismissal in that round robin tie had a big bearing on the outcome so the matter of discipline has been stressed within the Cork camp. “Keep 15 players on the field is the first thing anyway. There’s loads of things you can talk about Clare, look, they’re fantastic players. They’re fantastic forwards. I think their movement inside is very, very good.
“The way that they can interchange between players and stuff like that is fantastic, and look, they’re really, really physical. I suppose they’re the one team that that are very, very athletic. They have a lot of pace around their team. Ryan Taylor is a huge player back to them. He had a very good game in Ennis against us last year. So from their point of view, great to see him back from a nasty injury he got last year. But maybe a bit of a pity (for us) he didn’t wait for another couple of weeks”.
Manager of the Cork SHC winning Sarsfields side of 2012, Pat was a spectator in Croke Park a year later for both All-Ireland final duels between his native county and Clare. “The first game was a great game, obviously. The second game, look, in fairness, great days, great spectacles, they were fantastic matches, you’d still see them back on YouTube. From our point of view it was disappointing the first day that we didn’t win. We should have probably closed that game out, but Clare were much the better team the second day. They have a couple of lads playing from that day, and we still have a couple of lads playing that day. That brings an extra-special edge to the game”.
An unused substitute in Cork’s 0-13 0-12 win over Kilkenny in the All-Ireland SHC final of 1999, Pat did play a part in the Munster final of that year when they overcame Ger Loughnane’s Clare on a score of 1-15 0-14. His and fellow selectors Wayne Sherlock and Brendan Coleman involvement on Sunday means they won’t be waving out to the crowd alongside their 1999 teammates. “That’s a fantastic day for a group of players that was there. And there’s still great friendships in that group, that’s an exciting day for them. I think Landers was delighted there’d be a crowd there for him anyway, so that was the main thing”.
Experiences of twenty five years ago may be used by Ryan and his management to aid Cork as they bid to win a first All-Ireland since 2005. “The one thing that I remember of that, and I’m not the best to remember those games because I try to move on from them, but I remember how calm that Jimmy (Barry Murphy) was around the group. How much confidence he gave to the lads. It was just another day so enjoy it because these are days to be savoured. He brought a real calmness to the group, I thought. And, look, obviously we had fantastic leaders and players in that group. You had fantastic leaders like Mark Landers who was captain and a fantastic leader. Obviously Donal Óg and Brian Corcoran. Brian was fantastic in the lead up to that. An absolute super player that gave everybody great confidence going into it. We’ve some of those players as well”.
An honest approach is best when it comes to communicating with players on why they are not getting game-time, he said. “What we would value here all the time is the panel. That would be my own experience of that. I always felt that sometimes I was playing and sometimes I wasn’t playing but I always felt that I was making a contribution and always felt part of the group. That was another thing that Jimmy was fantastic on, he always made people feel a part of it. And the other selectors as well that were involved. So that’s something we try to do. It’s hard. Everybody wants to be on the 26, everybody wants to be on the starting team, so it’s hard but as long as you’re honest and straight forward with fellas they’ll try to come with you.
Launching puckouts and long deliveries onto Brian Hayes in the full-forward line worked a treat for the Rebels in the semi-final win with the St Finbarr’s man hitting 1-4. “It’s something we’ve been trying to do, that we get the ball in direct more and it there’s probably a double edged sword in that, you’re also set up in the backs a bit more. Sometimes when you’re working it out, you’re actually expending a bit more energy, and we feel that’s made us a bit defensively securer, in that lads are already set up for that ball coming back in and we have a bank of players that are there. So look Brian has added a huge dimension to us and, but look, it’s obviously Brian is able to get into those situations, but we have other fellas that can get intothose situations, but you have to win the breaks. I thought we won the breaks a bit more, we hit the breaks a bit harder in the second half against Limerick than we did in the first half, and that was the difference. Brian was in the right area, was doing his job. Patrick (Collins) was doing his job. But look, we showed way more intent in getting on that ball in the second half”.
Having conceded nine goals in their four Munster round-robin ties, Cork have witnessed goalkeeper Patrick Collins keep a clean sheet in the last two outings. “You get fellas saying you’re conceding this amount of goals but that’s the way the game is gone. The scoring has gone through the roof. Look in fairness, I suppose we conceded probably the same amount of chances in all the games. Patrick made two great saves in the semi-final, whereas in other games, we didn’t get that opportunity here or maybe he wasn’t given the opportunity to make those sales. But look we’re creating plenty of opportunities ourselves, and we were delighted with how much opportunities we were creating. It’s good confidence for our goalkeepers and it’s probably less for ye to talk about that we’re conceding too much”.
Overcoming Limerick for a second time in the one season has heightened the expectation around the Rebels but that is to be embraced, the manager outlined. “I don’t think you do protect them; I think you just have to embrace it, to be honest with you. That’s the way I’m looking at it. As I said to the lads there a while ago, there’s no pressure here. This is where you want it to be. We’ve had lots of fellas who gone under the knife, gone to England for hamstring injuries and knee injuries and all that type of it. That’s where pressure is, that’s where you get down a bit. Our fellas… embrace. It’s a brilliant two weeks. We’ll be back in Mallow in November in the pissing rain again and that will be more hard than the next two weeks”.
