Diagnostics done, Pat Ryan plots a better version of Cork in 2025

When everything else is taken into account, Pat Ryan believes Cork's All-Ireland final defeat to Clare came down to skill. 

Pat Ryan, Patrick Horgan and Ethan Twomey, all Cork Senior Hurling, as Cork GAA launch their Golf Classic in aid of the Cork Senior Hurling tour fund, at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Páirc Uí Chaoimh had never seen anything like it. Cork had only secured two points but the stadium was rattling like a boiling tin, the pitch flooded in a sea of red and white, everybody bobbing and weaving in an ocean of happiness, giddy with delirium and ecstasy.

All-Irelands haven’t been celebrated as much but everything about that evening in mid-May when Cork beat Limerick was incredible. In one of the best matches ever played, the way in which Cork rescued their season with a goal and a point in the dying minutes added to the intoxicating breathlessness and smothering euphoria of such an eternal occasion.