Pat Ryan agrees Cork must work harder up front to ease pressure on defence

Cork selector Pat Ryan admits the Leesiders “didn’t raise a gallop” in their heavy defeat to Dublin last week, saying Kilkenny are a “daunting” prospect this evening.

“It was a bad performance,” says Ryan. “A watershed where we can look where we’re going, maybe, but it was a bad performance. It’s unacceptable to the players and it’s unacceptable to management. Nobody minds being beaten but you must get past the first furlong.

“We didn’t raise a gallop after the first ten minutes. And we accept that as a management team, we put the players out to play a certain way and if that doesn’t happen then we have to take that on the chin.