Pat Ryan says four-week gap can't be an excuse for Cork against Dublin

Cork manager Pat Ryan won’t allow the gap between the Munster SHC final and Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final to be used as an excuse for poor performance.

The Rebels take on Dublin at Croke Park on Saturday evening (5pm), exactly four weeks on from the penalty-shootout victory over Limerick at TUS Gaelic Grounds which gave the county a first provincial senior title since 2018.

While Cork are targeting an appearance in the All-Ireland final for the second year in a row – something the county hasn’t managed since 2006 – and a third in five seasons, they reached the 2021 and 2024 deciders after coming through All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Ryan is keen to ensure that the different lead-in is not an issue.

“There’s no excuses from our point of view about the four weeks, to be honest with you,” he said.

“We think that the period has gone great for us. The few seasons that we had after the Munster final were good, we got fellas back into it, they were buzzing, in great form, and we were able to get a good bit of work in.

“Then, in fairness, once you know your semi-final opponents, it makes a huge difference, because you have something go after then and something to talk about.

“You have a focus but, at the same time, our key thing is to focus on ourselves, that’s what we’ve been doing all year.

“Fellas are in a good place and there won’t be any excuses about the four-week gap, anyway.”

While Cork should have captain Robert Downey, Niall O’Leary and Declan Dalton back in contention to start after recent injuries – hamstrings for Downey and Dalton and groin in the case of O’Leary.

Downey and O’Leary were able to come on against Limerick though Dalton missed out entirely – Séamus Harnedy will unfortunately miss the Dublin clash and Ger Millerick (broken finger) is touch-and-go.

“Séamus has a hamstring issue, unfortunately,” Ryan says.

“He’s back running in training this week. You’d be hoping he’d be back if we made it to the final but it’ll need some work.

“The other lads are all perfect but there’s still a bit of a question over Ger Millerick, where he’s at.

“He’s back in training, so it’s about whether he has enough done. Ger and Sham are the only two, everyone else is fine, thankfully.”

Saturday’s clash features two teams whose last game saw them get past Limerick, with Dublin having impressively seen off John Kiely’s side despite a first-half red card.

It’s their first All-Ireland semi-final since 2013, when they won the Leinster title but then lost to Cork.

For Cork and Ryan, the fact that the Munster final went to extra time provides a positive in the fact that it allowed more players to be used, with a knock-on boost in confidence.

“At the end of the day, you go up into a final against Limerick, who have been impossible to beat in finals over the last few years,” he says.

“You’re bound to take a bit of confidence from that and, obviously, the manner in how we came back from the previous defeat to Limerick was huge.

“It was a game where lots of people got to contribute, which makes a huge difference. You got to bring on seven or eight players, which is brilliant as it gives confidence to those lads who came on.

“The likes of Conor [Lehane] and Shane [Kingston], maybe, who hadn’t been getting a lot of game-time, they’ve been buzzing since in training. It doesn’t make a difference how experienced you are – they have fierce experience – you confidence can go up and down and it was great for them as they’ve been flying in training.

“It was a huge positive from that point of view.”