Pat Ryan: Cork have been accused of not working hard enough but no one can say that this time
Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins celebrates with teammate Damien Cahalane after saving a goal chance against Waterford at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
CORK manager Pat Ryan was naturally delighted to have begun his Munster MHC managerial career with a victory.
While stressing the fact that the result yielded two points and nothing more, he was pleased that his expectation of a good Cork performance was backed up.
“Obviously, the Munster championship is dog eat dog and to get two points on the board early is just a great start into the rest of the championship,” he said.
“I’ve said all along, our aim is to gather five points and get out of Munster. I was very confident we’d go out and we’d put in a display and we’d leave everything out there.
“That’s what we’ve asked the lads to do every time they put on the Cork jersey, that they leave everything out there. Obviously, there was a bit of negativity after the Kilkenny game and obviously, we’d have liked to have played a bit better against Kilkenny in the league that time but I think it was a blessing in disguise in the end in that it gave us five weeks to prepare.
“We’d a lot of fellas coming back from injuries. We’ve a few soft-tissue injuries and a bit of cramp and stuff like that so just get those fellas rehabbed now and get them ready to go for next Saturday.”
Effort from all sectors was key and Ryan knew that that had to be a baseline requirement.
“That’s the way inter-county hurling is now,” he said.
“If you’re not going to work hard, you’re not going to get anything. We’ve been accused at times in Cork of not working hard enough. I don’t think we could be accused of that today.
“There was parts of our game that we’ll be disappointed with, some wides and not creating enough goal opportunities and taking shots we shouldn’t have taken but delighted with the attitude of the lads as well at the same time.”
With just six days until Tipperary come to the Páirc, the turnaround is a challenge but Ryan is looking forward to that.
“You’ll do recovery,” he said. “the bank holiday Monday makes it easier, fellas aren’t working tomorrow so we’ll get a good recovery into the lads and see where we go then.
"I assume there’ll be a huge crowd coming down from Tipperary, they’d a fantastic win against Clare so obviously, we’ll expecting the same crowd that was there today if not even more. That’s something to be looking forward to.
“That’s what we’ve said to the lads all the time – what else would you want to be doing? Where else would you want to be than outside in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 18 degrees Celsius playing a championship match? It’s fantastic.”
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