They don't all emerge like mushrooms. Sometimes, Cork starlets take time to blossom

Cork manager Pat Ryan in conversation with Shane Barrett before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A match against Clare at Cusack Park in Ennis. Picture: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Cork have been waiting. Pat Ryan has too. Not for senior success per se but for his U20 All-Ireland winners to mature.

Two years ago, John Kiely spoke of the yawning gap between U20 and what is required at senior inter-county level. Bridging that crevasse takes time. Ryan agrees and points to how college students knuckle down towards the end of their studies.

“I find dealing with players that age group and having been involved with 20s, that when you get to that third, fourth year of college, fellas really start to come alive. They start to really tune in.

“The first and second year in college, fellas are partying and just getting through college. Then third or fourth year, they start to nail it down, get your education and ‘where am I going to be working’ and all these type of things.

“It happens in every county but I definitely see it in our lads, fellas get into their third and fourth year of college and start to really mature. They really want to get to know themselves and know what their character is about.” 

Ryan’s answer is prompted by the mention of Shane Barrett who, along with Darragh Fitzgibbon, is Cork’s leading candidate for hurler of the year. His cameos as a 20-year-old in 2021 pointed to a bright future and three years on Ryan considers his 2020 All-Ireland U20 winner a beacon in the forward line.

“He’s a fantastic leader, he’s really taken that leadership role, really intuitive. He’s got so much intelligence to what he does. A real leader of our forward line, to be honest with you, in the way he plays the game. Delighted with him.

“He’s a very good player. We knew he was a very good player. We had him at U20 level and he was a very good player when Kieran (Kingston) was in charge. It just takes fellas a little more maturity. He’s got injury-free, he had a great year with his club Blarney last year.” 

Some tough love has had to be administered at times to Ryan’s tyros. Taking off 21-year-old full-back Eoin Downey in the 23rd minute after he picked up a yellow card early in the Munster SHC game against Limerick seemed harsh but then Cork had been spooked from losing inside defenders Damien Cahalane to a black card and Seán O’Donoghue to a red in the defeats to Waterford and Clare respectively.

Downey wasn’t started in the opener with Waterford and his marker Seamus Flanagan went onto score 3-3. “That day against Limerick we'd have been shot if we left him on and he was sent off,” recalls Ryan.

“That was just a case of we just had to give ourselves a chance to be in the game. We have fantastic confidence in Damien Cahalane as well and he came in and performed heroically that night.” 

Downey was booked again in the All-Ireland semi-final but Ryan didn’t pull him ashore again. “In fairness, Eoin was getting on top of the game (in the All-Ireland semi-final), I thought. Seamus Flanagan was on top at the start, he was probably giving him a bit too much space, but I knew the ball would come in a bit higher and he really got on top of the game in the second half.

“In fairness, he's had more games to play as well. He played against Tipperary afterwards and then the Offaly and Dublin game so he was getting more and more experience so he was able to deal with that. We just felt we had to show faith in him and we weren't going to make that decision a second time.” 

Along with Downey, Ciarán Joyce and Brian Hayes as well as substitutes Ethan Twomey and Pádraig Power formed a third of Ryan’s U20 team that beat Galway in the 2021 final.

Ryan reflects on them as being a group defined by grit as opposed to more celebrated U20/U21 Cork panels. “In theory, probably the teams with the Shane Kingstons, the Robbie O’Flynns, the Darragh Fitzgibbons were seen as the most talented group as such.

“But I just knew we had a mix of raw athletes, big strong fellas that were really mature and had a real physical side that were going to bring something extra to a group of senior hurlers when they came into it.

“We had a really hard-working group as well. Some of the lads aren’t involved with us but my God they were just brilliant people to be involved. I could list them out to you here now that maybe they don’t have the next thing or might find it out over the next couple of years because some fellas don’t get it until 23 or 24. But they were really great team-mates, really great people to be involved with.”