'Some of it was stupid stuff': Pat Ryan annoyed by the hyping up of Cork
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Cork manager Pat Ryan said his side's attitude against Waterford was "a huge improvement" on where it was in defeat to Limerick last week. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie
Cork manager Pat Ryan said there was a lot of ‘twisted stuff’ going around after the 16-point beating they received from Limerick last Sunday. They took the learnings and now they have a chance to go back to the Gaelic Grounds and right some of those wrongs in the final on Saturday week.
Work-rate, attitude and character has to be the standard going forward.
“It's hard not to get drawn into the hype and some of it was stupid stuff altogether and a lot of it was coming from outside the county," he said.
"You heard people writing off Limerick, some of our own people, 'are they off their game?'
“From my point of view, that was very annoying. I think, sometimes, fellas would be building you up, hoping that you'd get a kick in the ass.
“I thought there was a lot of twisted stuff around it, to be honest with you. If I could find a better word I'd find it, but I thought there was a lot of twisted stuff around it.
“From our point of view, we just knuckle down, try to be the best team we can and try to represent the jersey and the Cork people as best we can.
“I think our lads are trying to insulate themselves as much as they can and take away the noise.
“I think the learning we got the last day – if you're against any inter-county team, but especially against the likes of the Limericks – if you're a small bit off, they will just make an idiot of you and that's realistically what happened last Sunday.
“Look, we have a chance now to go up to Limerick and represent the jersey – it's not going to be any easier, they're not going to go backwards from last week, that's the level that they're going to be at again the next week, if not even better.
“I don’t think we were the fist team to get a hammering off Limerick. If you are anyway off they are going to pulverise you. We were a sitting duck going up to them, they had been waiting for us.
“But from our point of view the attitude last week wasn’t good enough. The effort wasn’t good enough. I don’t think we played brilliant hurling today but today was about attitude and character.
“Credit to Waterford. If you look at Waterford over the last couple of years they went up to Tipperary when they were out of the championship and beat Tipperary.
“Last year we were lucky Clare got a 65 to win that game and that put us into the All-Ireland series. They’ve always performed in that last game, great character, great hurling people in Waterford. They were never going to die today.
“We went eight points up and the game was going away from them but they battled like dogs. They had a lot of good players to bring off the bench as well - Austin, Dessie and Patrick Curran. They got a good jump out of their bench.”
Similar to the impact from Cork's strong bench, especially with the number of players that were out injured.
“From our point of view the attitude was where we wanted it to be. That was a huge improvement on last week. Credit to our fellas, we had a couple of injuries but the lads that came in did very well and the subs that came off the bench did very well as well.
“Everyone stuck together after a bad week last week. A big hurling and sporting county, there was obviously a lot of negativity around. Amateur athletes get to see that because they have to go to work and listen to people. But they stuck together and we drove on.
“That was our goal at the start of the year to win enough points to get out of Munster and get into the All-Ireland series.
“Look, we left an awful lot of chances behind us today. But it is a knockout championship, there is going to be a bit more trepidation in it, a bit more nervousness in it. Both ourselves and Waterford knew if we didn’t win we would be out of the championship. We played a small bit like that, with a bit of nerves.
“The scores we missed were brutal scores, for want of a better word – it wasn't long-range scores or long-range pot-shots, we missed a good few scores around the D that would be unlike us a bit.
“That's something we'll work on, because our efficiency has to be really, really high against Limerick. It wasn't high the last day against Limerick, so efficiency is a key part of our game and what we need to get to if we want to be having any chance in that Munster final.”
Along with Robert Downey, Niall O’Leary and Declan Dalton, Ger Millerick is a new injury concern.
“Dislocated finger, it might be broken up the top,” he said of Millerick. "We’ll have to get a scan on that. It was more of a dislocation than anything.
‘It’s too early to say for the others. We probably shouldn’t have played Rob against Limerick. But he is our captain and you are going up to Limerick and you don’t want to be giving that away. It is a small bit of a hamstring, a tight kind of hamstring, but it's not something too bad, so we'll just see where that goes. We’d be hoping he’d be available for some part of the final.
“We want to win the final. We’re not winning enough trophies. We’re trying to put things to bed, stuff we haven’t won. It is a huge day. We had a huge support in Limerick the last day and we left them down. We are under no illusions about the challenge that is ahead of us but it is up to ourselves to make sure we represent the jersey better than we did that day and the result will take care of itself.”
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