Pat Ryan: Highs and lows but pride and confidence in Cork hurling restored
Pat Ryan, Cork Senior Hurling Manager at the press evening before the All-Ireland Hurling final against Tipperary. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
At the close of 2021, after Cork had been undone, quite comprehensively, by Limerick in the All-Ireland final, there was a sense that Kieran Kingston’s time had reached its natural end. The team, it seemed, had found its ceiling.
The following season, Cork emerged from Munster and dispatched Antrim in the preliminary quarter-final, yet the unease remained. When Galway came calling, and Cork failed to win a very winnable game, it was clear. Change was needed.
Pat Ryan arrived as the obvious heir to Kingston. The 2023 league offered hints of possibility. Ryan experimented, probed, and the team carried a freshness without discarding the familiar.
Championship arrived. I watched from the stands rather than the press box. Cork opened strongly against Waterford, and then there was the Páirc showdown with Tipperary. A draw. That draw that felt like a defeat, with Clare and Limerick looming next.
Going up to Ennis, I didn't have much hope. When Cork fell, narrowly, a miraculous turnaround at the Gaelic Grounds seemed impossible. Most fans expected the worst; anything less than a hammering would suffice.
Cork lost, as expected. But they scored 1-30. Against Limerick. Hoggy finished with 1-14, Fitzgibbon and Harnedy chipped in with four each, and Twomey, brought that 10-minute cameo that captured the attention of all who were watching.
Disappointment mingled with encouragement. Cork had fought, stubborn and unyielding, for Ryan. Something had begun. Players started to believe, fans started to believe, the script quietly shifting.
The Munster exit mattered less, the spirit shown mattered more. Hope became the overriding feeling heading into 2024.
Then the championship opened with a shock: a pitiful loss to Waterford. Clare followed. And the changes came.
Six personnel switches. A wholesale recalibration of style. More direct, more urgent. Fate, however, had its own plans: a second sending-off, another defeat. Cork’s championship smouldered rather than flared.
And then Limerick. The nation’s attention fixed on one game. Cork had run them close the season prior. Now, after two wobbly games, the odds were stacked against them.
Four points down with as many minutes to spare.
Three points, Kingston, Connolly, Hoggy. Then the swing: Hoggy’s penalty – into the top corner – sent the Páirc into rapture.
That day will linger. If the defeat to Limerick the year before sparked hope, that evening ignited an inferno.
Confidence, mojo, swagger – it was all back. Cork breezed past Tipp. They kept winning.
One more year, one more season, we thought. The resurrection of a sleeping giant, back at the steps of the Hogan Stand. League honours – check. Munster title – check. The semi-final win over Dublin – astonishing.
Ready for any final, poised to end the drought. The perfect three-year trajectory of progression.
But life is rarely a fairytale. Tipp arrived, uninvited, and reality hit, sharp and unrelenting.
Ryan may not have delivered that elusive All-Ireland title that feels like Cork’s divine right. But he came damn close. Twice.
Above all, he brought Cork to the front. He made them the team to beat. He made them exciting. He rallied the players. He rallied the fans. He gave us nights to remember – three in particular against Limerick. And there is a satisfaction, a quiet, unique joy, that comes only from watching Cork beat that Limerick team.
Above all, Ryan made us believe in Cork hurling again.
And for that, from a Cork hurling fan, thank you, Pat.
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