Ryan: They love playing football and they like winning

Like Brian Cody, Eamonn Ryan is adamant there is no secret.

Year after year, both men have been pulled to one side in Croke Park during the months of September or October and asked what it is that separates their sides from all others and, year after year, they shrug their shoulders by way of reply.

“We never put the emphasis on medals,” said Ryan who, at 71, shows little inclination to call a halt. “The emphasis is on playing and training and enjoying it. The players try to improve a little bit all the time. To put your finger on it, they love playing football and they like winning.

“If it was the other way around they could be in trouble but their love of football transcends the desire to win the whole time because they would be out there on nights that you wouldn’t put a dog out in. You never get a dopey excuse about missing training.”

Cork’s consistency defies the accepted lifespan of sporting primacy. Eleven of the players who started yesterday have now been on board for each of the county’s seven All-Irelands and Angela Walsh was waved on in the second half to make it 12.

“Friendship is the key thing in our team,” said Brid Stack, one of Ryan’s original 12 apostles. “We’ve been like a family for the last nine years. You have girls there you socialise with, you eat with, you do everything with. And that’s what it came down to. You always want to fight and work for the person beside you because you’ve seen how hard they work in training. You’ll try your best to the very end for them.

“Then you have Eamonn Ryan as well. He’s such a legend. He comes out with such unbelievable anecdotes and stories, I don’t know where he gets them. We’re a great bunch of players, a great bunch of friends and we’ll keep going as long as we can.”

Doireann O’Sullivan’s display at centre-forward would certainly suggest they are far from done. The 17-year from Mourneabbey scored four points in her first senior final and if there were any nerves they were buried underneath a bed of intent.

Ryan, funnily enough, was less settled. “Everyone was saying we would win by this or that. The bookies odds were astronomical and that put fierce pressure on us. I was never so nervous before a match in my life. I even lost all my notes. I had to bluff away before the match. The players didn’t know what I was saying.”

For Kerry, it’s the Mick O’Dwyer years in reverse. Being the second-best team in the country must be cold comfort when the crowd next door are top of the pile and yet a first final appearance since 1993 is undoubted evidence of progress.

“Cork were brilliant. They created a lot of scoring chances,” said manager William O’Sullivan. “On balance, eight or nine points is probably the right scoreline. I have no arguments with it. Cork were a superior team and, defensively, their strength in depth is incredible.

“We don’t have anything near that strength in depth, but in the future we have some good young players coming through and hopefully we will add them to the panel and get up there. The Cork team, hopefully, won’t be around for ever, although I’m beginning to wonder.”

Join the club, William.