Pat Ryan: Cork panicked a bit in the last ten, but it was Limerick after all
FOCUSED: At the All-Ireland final media night, Cork manager Pat Ryan reflected on an epic semi-final, and its key moments.
CORK manager Pat Ryan admitted he thought Alan Connolly threw the ball for Brian Hayes’ disallowed goal in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick.
Connolly was adjudged by referee Thomas Walsh to have thrown the ball in the first-half attack but slow-motion replays showed the pass was legitimate.
“At the time, I thought Alan’s was a throw personally but then when you see it back and it wasn’t a throw,” said Ryan at Monday evening’s All-Ireland press conference in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
“Ethan’s (Twomey) wasn’t. I think Ethan’s glove gives a bit of a look that he’s throwing the ball all the time but it’s actually the glove in hand and he’s kind of long-limbed as well. He’s a kind of a loopy hand-pass and I knew his wasn’t and we’d a great ball in the middle of the field with Shane Barrett, six points up. It could have been a real changing moment. We were getting an opportunity to go seven points up and they were taking a free to take it back to five.
“I knew his wasn’t but I thought Alan’s (pass) was. I thought it was a free, I actually thought he was fouled coming into the ball but there were loads of those decisions. I thought Thomas Walsh did a fantastic job with the game as a whole. You couldn’t argue with it. He was in charge of a great spectacle of hurling.”
Cork won’t be able to train in Páirc Uí Chaoimh early next week due to Ireland senior women’s Euro 2025 qualifier against France next Tuesday July 16 but Pat Ryan said it’s not an issue.
“It’s not going to impede our training. Páirc Uí Rinn next Tuesday. We kind of rotate between Páirc Uí Rinn and sometimes we go to Fota (Island), so there’ll be no issue there.”
With no injuries to report, Cork had a gym session in the stadium on Monday and analysed the victory over Limerick. Ryan wasn’t happy the team didn’t score for the last 10 minutes of the game.
“It was a disappointing thing from our point of view and we probably didn’t stick to the way we wanted to play, probably panicked a small bit and didn’t use the ball well enough in those last 10 minutes. But we were obviously up against a very good team like Limerick who are very good at closing games out.”
The Sarsfields man is currently into the second of a two-week parental leave break from his work with Pfizer, which has helped him prepare for Limerick and now Clare.
“I’m lucky in my job, I have good bosses and stuff like that so I took two weeks’ parental leave. That prep that you needed to do before Limerick needed to be done.
“Obviously, I was confident that we would win and I knew that this week would be a really, really helter-skelter week and I had that planned into it.”
Cork didn’t return home until 2am Monday morning due to traffic but for most it was a pleasurable bus ride back. “Fellas were delighted, it was a huge task going up to Croke Park and beating Limerick. There is no point telling you how good a team they are.
“Look, there was great satisfaction in that win. We had a few drinks down on the bus and fellas were ready to go today for a gym session there now. Fellas are in great form and we’ll be back in training on Wednesday.”
As they did for the All-Ireland semi-final, Cork will travel to Dublin the day before the final.
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