Ricken: ‘It was either man up or die’
“Relieved, but not surprised,” was Keith Ricken’s summation of his team’s astonishing first-half comeback.
With Dublin having kicked 1-6 without reply in the opening 12 minutes, Cork, playing into the wind, completed an 11-point swing to lead by two at the break.
“We left ourselves wide open and got caught. But what were we going to do, crawl into a corner? There was no corner here. There were another 45, 50 minutes to play. We were not looking good so it was either man up or die,” said the victorious Cork boss.
“They stuck at it and the one thing we’ve had all year is that if we concede or if we score, we need the same reaction from the next ball. That’s what I really love. When the goal went in to put us 1-6 down, we won the next ball, we settled down, went up the field and got a score. Then we got the next score after that.
“Just to see that bit of confidence and belief in them, that’s all they need. To finish the half as they did, it was fantastic. But it’s in this group. I’m not going to use the word ‘special’ about this group because they’re not, they’re ordinary boys, but they’ve bought into this system.
“They’re a great credit to this generation. They’re resilient, tough, they soak up all the information you give them. To be back in contention at the short whistle, I was absolutely relieved but not surprised.”
Also pleasing the Cork manager was the composure and coolness shown, which belied the players’ teenage years.
“Throughout the year, we spoke about love, trust, and honesty. Everything we spoke about is action-based, it’s not thought-based or feeling-based. And because of all that, the last product we produced this year was hope.
“Once you came back the way we came back, we had hope, the crowd had hope, Cork football has hope. So I was delighted for them to experience that as young men. I hope that will stand to them as long as they play football but also in their lives.”
He’s hopeful too for the future of Cork football.
“Every All-Ireland is significant for Cork, they don’t come along too often. There are a lot of brilliant football people in Cork who have done so much down through the years. They’ll take confidence out of this. The next generation of coaches are fantastic, I do see them working with the U15s and U16s at CIT. They’ll do their bit when they take over.
“Cork football will never go away. It might take a dip the odd time, but the big thing is that when the wheel does turn for you, you are ready for it and that is what we are trying to do.”
Meanwhile, Dublin manager Tom Gray alluded to his team’s below-par decision-making in the last 20 minutes as a factor in their failure to come out on top, as was the loss of Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne and Karl Lynch Bissett to black and red cards respectively.
“Ten minutes into the second-half, it was a draw and the game was there to be claimed. In fairness to Cork, they made better decisions than we did in the last 20. It was just little things, things which didn’t work quite as we would have liked, but that is not to take anything from Cork. They have fantastic forwards. A lot of them are going to be playing for the seniors in years to come.”
Gray added: “The three goals Cork scored were very important. It brought Cork into the game at a time when we were going very well. We probably weren’t as good defensively as we would have liked. Unfortunately for us, it was not our day.”
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