Cork v Tipperary: Aim remains the same for Pat Ryan... make things better
Cork hurling manager Pat Ryan at the All-Ireland SHC final press evening. Picture: Inpho/James Crombie
Before Pat Ryan was a Cork hurler and manager, he was a Cork fan.
His first experience of All-Ireland final day was 1986, one made special by Teddy McCarthy winning a first Celtic Cross, in typically unique fashion as he made his championship debut.
“I was 10 years of age,” he says, “I went up to it with Tadhgie Murphy and my father – Tadhgie Murphy, the golden boot who got the goal in 1983 [against Kerry].
“We travelled up and stayed in Jury's Inn, I'd say. Teddy, Lord rest him, came back from the Canaries after the semi-final to play in the final.
“Obviously, Teddy was a huge figure around our club at the time and very friendly with my dad, so that was a huge thing.”
As someone who has hurling coursing through him, Ryan will be a Cork fan again – when that is is something that is yet to be decided.
His initial three-year term expires with tomorrow’s match – barring a draw – but he doesn’t think in such terms.
“The outcome might reflect what the county board feel, do you know what I mean?” he says.
“From my point of view, I hate terms, to be honest with you. I think it should be a one-year term and you do your best. If you want to stay on, you do your best again. At the end of the day, I'm an amateur person doing an amateur job.
"Look, from my point of view, it's what my family want to do, my energy, whether the lads want to stay on.
"From my point of view all the time, it's about the group. I've been very consistent and I've said to the lads before, 'If you're not making things better, get out of the way,' because there are loads of brilliant people in Cork who want to be where I am in my position and deal with the brilliant players that I have.
“If you're not making it better, if you're not improving it, if you're not making the standards right, if you're not moving the needle along closer to where we want to get to, which is the ultimate – winning the All-Ireland – you just can't hog the job, for want of a better word.”
When he was appointed as Cork hurling manager in the late summer of 2022, more than once he was asked if not winning the All-Ireland would be a failure.
When speaking to The Echo on August 3 of that year, he gave a typically nuanced and considered response, but the bottom line was that he knew the terms of engagement.
“First of all, from a player point of view, if you’re going to measure your career in winning All-Irelands it can be a very disappointing career,” he said at the time.
“We’ve lads on the panel now playing for three, four, five years, all the way up to Patrick [Horgan], who’s been there for 13 or 14 years – does that mean that he hasn’t had a brilliant career? Of course it doesn’t.
“It’s not something we’ve been used to – there are lots of kids alive that have never seen Cork win an All-Ireland and the reality is that we’ll be judged on whether we can deliver an All-Ireland in the next couple of years for Cork.”
And would he still feel similarly?
“I would,” he said, “I would. I won't back away from stuff I've said before; that would be my thing.
“You'll be judged by other people but my judgement as a Cork person, as a person who's played, as a person who's watched games and been involved in going to matches when we won All-Irelands in the 1980s and the 199os, that's what's expected.
“I think that's the expectation when you take on the job, that you're going to win All-Irelands. If you don't, I suppose failure, is it the right word? It's probably a harsh word at times.
“But it's true, to be honest with you, because you have to win All-Irelands if you're going to be the Cork manager. You have to win All-Irelands.
“It's as simple as that. You don't shy away from that.”
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