'That Is Not Acceptable To Us': Pat Ryan Unconcerned By 'Soft' Attitude Associated With Cork

Cork’s hunt for a first National Hurling League Title in 27 years took a big boost after an emphatic 6-20 to 0-23 win over Clare.

It’s the Rebel’s first win in Ennis since 2009.

Speaking to TG4 after the game, Pat Ryan was disappointed to see an off-the-ball clash between Cormac O’Brien and David Fitzgerald result in red cards.

48 nóim #CLAvCOR @GaaClare 0-14 @OfficialCorkGAA 6-13

Tréchleas faighte ag Brian Hayes in Inis!🤯

Things going from bad to worse for the Banner.

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"I won’t say it was played at championship pace, but there was that intensity, with no quarter given or asked,” Ryan said.

“It was a bit disappointing to see the two lads get sent off at the end. There wasn’t much in it; I didn’t think so.

Look, it’s a good win for us. It keeps us safe. There was a mathematical possibility that we could have been relegated, but with seven points now, we should be safe anyway, and we will now look forward to Galway in two weeks.

We’re just taking it game by game. We know we got some good performances out of fellas there today and some more game time into other fellas. We have another few fellas coming back next week, so they might get some opportunities against Galway in two weeks.

#CLAvCOR

'We'll back up here in six weeks time, that's the one we need to win'. 🗣️

Smaointe ón mbainsiteoir Corcaigh Pat Ryan tar éis an chluiche.

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Pat Ryan unconcerned by questions over Cork's physicality

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill asked Ryan if they have focused on improving their physicality. Ryan was annoyed with the assumed ‘soft’ nature being associated with Cork.

“Everyone is trying to compete at this level; it's about winning one-on-one physical battles,” Ryan said.

That’s what we're asking our fellas to do, and that’s been something thrown at us as a Cork team for the last 10/15 years that we couldn’t stand up to does exchanges.

That’s what we're trying to do. Over the last three years, we've proven that we're getting better at that and better conditioned. Ian Jones is strength and conditioning; the fella is doing a fantastic job with our lads, and the lads are putting in really hard work. You can see it's paying off there. They are all filling the jerseys now better than they were, and you need that at the inter-county level.

I don’t think the players listen too much to it and I don’t either since I’ve been involved, but it annoyed me when I was looking outside that would be something Cork would be never known for this soft attitude that some lads have and were nice to play against, that is not acceptable to us as Cork players or people because that wouldn’t be accepted by the great teams we had before

That’s our standard. We're going to bring physicality, work rate, and attitude. We brought it there today, but we spoke about it before. There has to be consistency by doing it every day you go out.

When asked about further aspirations for the 2025 season, Ryan and co. are only focusing on the first two games of Munster, as a Waterford win against Tipp would have eliminated Cork in the group stages last season.

We’re happy enough where we are, but at the end of the day, we still have a lot of fellas to come back into the team, and we can see then where we can get to,” Ryan said.

"Munster is a minefield just trying to get out of it.

We're coming back up here to Clare. We have Tipperary a week after that, and we can see how good they are going. That’s the key for us: getting out of Munster. We barely got out last year, only by the skin of our teeth. That’s the key to the first two games for us. Clare and Tipp try to get four points, and that will give us a chance. It's all about championship, really.

Despite only talking about Munster, a win against Galway puts Cork in pole position to join Tipp in the league final.

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