Pat Ryan not concerned about Alan Connolly's form

Cork hurling manager Pat Ryan has backed Alan Connolly to rediscover his scoring touch when the team get to Croke Park.

The Blackrock attacker was held scoreless for the second successive championship match in Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final win over Dublin at FBD Semple Stadium. Prior to that, he had notched 4-9 in Cork’s four Munster championship games, including a hat-trick of goals against Tipperary. Connolly, who missed all of 2023 through injury, also raised three green flags in consecutive league games against Offaly and Wexford.

Ryan revealed that Connolly, who turns 23 two days before this year’s All-Ireland final, had been suffering from a bug and the manager is not massively concerned by the dip in scoring output.

“Not really,” he said, “Alan's been one of those lads that's been under a bit of a cloud sickness-wise and stuff like that.

“We probably shouldn't have played him against Offaly last week, just wanted to get him over that, he probably hadn't trained for the two weeks prior to the Offaly game.

“Look, he was still dangerous against Dublin but [full-back] Eoghan O'Donnell's a very good player. He took minding and that makes space for other fellas.”

Connolly’s colleague in the full-forward line, Patrick Horgan, scored ten points in the game, seven from free, a tally that brought him level with Kilkenny’s TJ Reid as the championship’s all-time top scorer.

Horgan’s 29-612 in 81 championship games is matched by Reid’s 34-597 in 88 appearances, leaving both on 699. It’s a near-certainty that the pair will break the 700 barrier in the All-Ireland semi-finals – Kilkenny face Clare on Saturday, July 6 with Cork up against Limerick on July 7.

Ryan acknowledged Horgan drawing level but cautioned on room for improvement, too.

“To be honest, he left a couple more behind him as well,” he said.

“Patrick is a perfectionist, he'll go after that, he'll look after that areas that he could have done better on but at the same time we probably wouldn't have won the match without him.”

Certainly, the record is not a topic of conversation in the camp.

“Not a bit,” Ryan said.

“I think it's just whoever lasts longest between himself and TJ, two fantastic players.

“Look, there was fantastic players before them, there's a lot more games now so it's hard to compare, but we're very proud that he's from Cork.”

Among the forwards introduced during the game was Robbie O’Flynn. The Erin’s Own man has been dogged by injuries for much of the last year but he got a goal off the bench against Offaly last Saturday week and followed that with a pair of quick-fire points against Dublin, much to Ryan’s delight.

“Yeah, it's great to have Robbie back,” he said, “it gives us more options.

“We know the type of player Robbie is, he's been crucified with injuries. Robbie's been very sharp, we left him play with his club last week, he got 1-2, 1-3 with his club in 35 minutes, so that was great for him as well.”