Pat Ryan challenges Cork GAA heroes to channel Gods of yesterday to answer fans' prayers of All-Ireland hurling title

The Irish Sun

19-07-2025

SEVENTY minutes away from ending a 20-year wait, Pat Ryan is verging on becoming a figure of worship in Cork.
But at his side's press night ahead of
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Cork face Tipperary in the All-Ireland hurling final
Credit: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
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Pat Ryan challenged Cork to challenge previous heroes
Credit: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
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Manager Jimmy Barry Murphy of the Cork hurling jubilee 1999 All Ireland winning team
Credit: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
He asked: 'What happened to him? What happened to Jesus Christ again?'
When the response cited the resurrection of the Son of God, the
Ryan's reign was on the brink of being condemned to its demise when
Championship
campaign in 2024.
But the
nails
and the cross were soon discarded.
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The prayers of Rebels supporters were answered in the form of a stirring display against
Ten weeks later, Cork found themselves in possession of a seven-point lead during the All-Ireland final.
An epic contest ultimately yielded an extra-time victory for Clare by the narrowest of margins, though the first available shot at redemption has been seized.
With their fans desperate to see the Liam MacCarthy Cup on Leeside for the first time since 2005, Ryan's men are backed by a fervent following that has been enchanted by a brand of
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Unprecedented numbers travelled to
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Amid the county's longest-ever All-Ireland drought, Corkonians have been fuelled by raw hope. But hype is the buzzword that has attached itself to the movement thanks to stunts such as a bookmaker's decision to crown their team champions before a ball was even pucked.
Back at ground zero, a
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But Ryan admitted at the time that he was irked by some of the 'stupid stuff' that was said and written about his side.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow's clash with Tipp, he remarked: 'What is hype? I don't even know what the word means or what it is.
'But you want excitement, you want fellas going to the matches, you want fellas talking about it. That's all brilliant. What annoyed me was that it was just over the top.
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'Fellas writing off Limerick and stuff like that was
driving
me mad. How was that going to benefit us as a team or benefit anyone as a team?
'We kind of have a situation where we're playing very traditional Cork hurling.
'I think there was a huge appetite all the time for Cork to go back playing really typical, traditional Cork hurling.
'That was something we wanted to do and get the fans behind us, because we knew if we got that kind of fan base behind us, we had the numbers.
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'How many clubs are we? Is it 258 clubs or something we have? So you're getting the numbers behind you.
'It's not idiotic to think that's why Dublin won all their All-Irelands, because they had thousands at the matches and when it came down to it, it made a huge difference. Even in the Dublin-Limerick game, when it came down the stretch and all the Dublin
football
fans came in, it gave them a boost. That's how we looked at it.
'That 16th man was going to be realistic for us and it was going to be a huge thing.
'It makes a huge difference to the players that people want to support them and they're looking at good things.
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'There's a lot of negativity on
GETTING CARRIED AWAY
Earlier this week, Ryan admitted to being guilty of 'probably managing instead of leading' at times during his tenure.
As Cork look to go one better than last year, he shone the spotlight on himself in search of areas for improvement
The Sarsfields man said: 'You look at yourself first and see what you're doing. I think me being more focused on the playing side of it, all the stuff that was happening on the pitch, really focusing on that.
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'Sometimes you can get carried away with the logistics side of it and I have a brilliant fella who looks after all our logistics, Dave Nolan.
'But you get carried away with making sure that the food is right, the gear is right, the
travel
is right and how our pitches are right and all that side of it.
'I think me being more focused and how we can deliver that better, and my interactions with players . . . I got plenty of feedback off the players. We met the players one to one and I got plenty of feedback off the players. Sometimes you try to be as honest as you can with players and then sometimes you're probably trying not to hurt feelings.
'I think a lot of the players would have come to me and said, 'Maybe you just need to be a bit more honest sometimes with us and just tell us what we need to do exactly'.
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'Sometimes you might be, for want of a better word, pussy-footing around the situation, but it was being a bit more direct and I think that's something that I've done this year.
'It's something I probably need to get better at all the time. It's a
work
in progress.'
'The Teddy McCarthys, the Tomás Muls, the Jim Cashmans, the Jimmy Barry-Murphys, the Seánie O'Learys — they were gods."
A Cork team has not taken residence at the summit in two decades, so the objective for the current crop is to create a legacy of their own.
However, the manager feels they must do so while upholding the rich hurling heritage of a county whose roll of honour includes 30 All-Ireland senior titles.
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Ryan, who turns 49
next
week, said: 'I think that's the standard.
'That's what we have to live up to, what the Cork
jersey
represents to the people of Cork.
'Fellas might say it's cocky or arrogant — we haven't won an All-Ireland in 20 years — but I can only talk about my generation.
'I grew up in that situation and the Cork jersey has to mean something to everyone every time you put it on. That goes back to the public following us.
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'When the public see that you're representing the jersey right and you're doing it in the right way and you're giving everything for the jersey, no matter win, lose or draw, they'll still back you.
'As I keep saying to the lads, they'll criticise me. They'll say, 'Pat Ryan should've made this decision or Pat Ryan should've done that'.
'But the lads gave everything and that's what you're looking to do all the time. To be honest, that's the way I grew up.
'The players I grew up idolising in the 80s, there kind of was no soccer, there was no
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'The Teddy McCarthys, the Tomás Muls, the Jim Cashmans, the Jimmy Barry-Murphys, the Seánie O'Learys — they were gods.
'It's like the