Cork's Saturday-night fight all right for Pat Ryan as thoughts turn from Munster glory to Croke Park

RTÉ News​

08-06-2025

Freed from Desire has curiously become an anthem of choice for two of Limerick's Munster rivals.
Clare celebrated to the strains of Gala's 1997 dance banger when they beat Kilkenny in last year's semi-final and the Cork fans belted it out on the pitch at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday night, as the public announcer pleaded for the Rebels stand-in captain Shane Barrett to come and collect the Mick Mackey Cup.
In the end, regular skipper Rob Downey, who came off the bench - despite a knee injury - to help contain the sizeable threat of Gearóid Hegarty, fought his way through the delirious hordes to do so.
Glory days, after all, to win a first Munster in seven years.
But Cork manager Pat Ryan seemed to have Elton John's classic 'Saturday night's alright for fighting' in mind when asked how his team had managed to turn a 16-point round-robin loss into a historic penalty-shootout provincial title victory.
"It was an honour for us to come up here and fight," he said. "We didn't fight the last time we came up here and the lads worked really hard, we fought really, really hard. It was vital that we represented the jersey properly and we did.
"From the throw-in, we were engaged. You have to put really, really good teams under pressure and you take your chances, whether you win or not.
"We were missing a couple of fellas, a couple of bodies came on and sometimes that actually freshens up the team.
"I suppose the key thing was that the guys stayed composed and responded when Limerick had the goal to go ahead [Shane O'Brien's in the 46th minute].
"It took penalties to separate us and we're just delighted to get the trophy."
"The referees are all doing their best"
There was almost a fight at half-time as well, the two management teams squaring up as they both sought to engage referee Thomas Walsh, presumably both feeling hard done by in terms of frees awarded. To be fair to 'Tyler', he had been equally stingy - just three each, and only one of Limerick's was scoreable.
What had Ryan been so keen to express?
"Just to say he was doing a great job!
"We're all fighting tooth and nail for the calls. The game is so fast. Thomas is a fantastic referee. We're fighting for calls. John Kiely's fighting for calls. That's just the nature of it.
"The referees are all doing their best. In fairness, there were a couple of calls that we went against but I heard John shouting for plenty of scores that didn't go his way. That's just the game.
"Credit to the officials. James Owens came on then [when Walsh got cramp in extra-time], which is tough for him, but he did a good job as well."
Cork's last experience of extra-time had ended in All-Ireland heartache against Clare but last night they overcame the early concession of two points to keep it tight until Darragh Fitzgibbon's last-gasp, equalising 65.
"We were definitely calmer, to be honest with you," reflected Ryan. "The last day against Clare, there were three or four fellas with cramps and injuries and you were saying, 'Will we bring them off or will we stick with it?' That made life a bit easier.
[Substitutes] Robbie O'Flynn, Tommy O'Connell (0-01), Shane Kingston (0-03), I thought they were really, really good. Having the ability to bring on Niall [O'Leary] and Rob [Downey, both deemed not fit enough to start] was huge."
Declan Dalton (hamstring) and Ger Millerick (broken finger) were absent today but Ryan is confident they can return with the four-week gap to the semi-final.
The penalty shootout in full:
Had Cork spent time practising penalties as a group before what was the first provncial or All-Ireland shootout?
They only missed one to Limerick's three in a 3-2 victory.
"None," insisted Ryan.
"All the lads are practising a lot [individually], I think. We had really, really good confidence in them. [Full-back] Eoin Downey probably practised more penalties than anyone. He's really talented.
"But, look, that's [goalkeeper Collins] Patrick's job and Patrick did a job for us."
From All-Ireland favourites after winning the league, to written off after that hammering, hopes will be rising on Leeside again that the record wait for Liam MacCarthy will extend no longer than 20 years.
Thought feet inside the camp will remain firmly on the ground.
"If we played that game ten times over, it would probably be a different result every time," observed man of the match Fitzgibbon after a match that was level a staggering 15 times.
His manager is well aware of the distance that remains to the ultimate goal, with a semi-final against old rivals Tipperary, the Joe McDonagh runners-up, or the beaten Leinster finalists to come on 5 July.
And who knows, maybe even a third match against opposition who were seconds away - too many in Kiely's opinion - from winning seven Munsters in a row.
"We won by penalties against a brilliant Limerick team," said Ryan.
"This is just one thing. We move on to the All-Ireland series, the semi-finals.
"It's probably going to take a bit of managing now. That's your four weeks off to manage properly and probably get a bit of advice from fellas that have done it before. That's something that we haven't accounted for before. Limerick have plenty of experience of how they deal with that.
"We know we're a really good team. We saw what we were like when we were not at it three weeks ago. That's all to play for. We're really looking forward to going to the Leinster final tomorrow."