U20 All-Ireland win 'a stepping stone' for Cork hurling, says manager Pat Ryan

Cork manager Pat Ryan celebrates at the final whistle. Picture: INPHO/Ken Sutton

Cork U20 manager Pat Ryan acknowledged that a first All-Ireland title in 16 years - and first at the U20 grade in 23 years - was a boost for Cork hurling, but he was also keen to focus on his side’s achievement on Saturday night in Nowlan Park.

“You could say that (boost for Cork hurling), but what we’re delighted with is that the lads have been great for us.

“There’s a lot of good players there now who’ll come out of the U20 group and we’ll be asking them to go back to their clubs and show that form with their clubs, and hopefully that’ll be a stepping stone for them with Kieran Kingston and the seniors next year.

“This is what it’s about, development, but we hadn’t won one in a while and we needed to win one.”

Ryan and selectors Brendan Coleman and Wayne Sherlock were involved when Cork won the U21 All-Ireland in 1997 (with Sherlock also winning at the grade in 1998).

“We know what it’s like to win an All-Ireland, that connection is there and we know the bond that brings to players - there’s a great bond among those players anyway, and we’re thrilled for them.

“A lot of the players were in the U20 final against Tipperary but that was a very good Tipperary team that got a lightning start that day.

“I can’t praise our lads enough, their families, their clubs, for what they did during Covid. The way they came back to us was fantastic, they came back to us in super shape.”

Ryan said Cork are back training very soon for the 2021 championship: “We’ll go back at it Monday night.

“We’ll leave the lads who are involved celebrate away for the next couple of nights in a nice, controlled, Covid-friendly environment, and we’ll be back Monday to get ready for the 20th.

“But it’ll be easy to get the lad back training after winning, it’d be fairly hard if you didn’t.”

Characteristically, Ryan paid tribute to the work done by his predecessor as manager in the grade, Denis Ring: “One thing I’d like to say is that a lot of this work goes down to Denis Ring and his group, they did fantastic work the last couple of years, and some of it was maligned.

“You can see the development they put into these fellas, the work they put in, and a lot of this victory goes down to them as well.

“We’re all driving on, we’re delighted with our backroom staff, delighted with our players and the management team that we put together - it’s very easy when you have very good players.”