Cork v Dublin: Pat Ryan happy with result but room for improvement ahead of semi-final

The performance have been short of perfect but, given where Cork have come from, manager Pat Ryan was pleased with the result against Dublin.

Having lost their opening two Munster SHC games, the 0-26 to 0-21 All-Ireland quarter-final triumph made it four straight victories – just the second time in five championships under the round-robin system that a third-placed side has made it to the semis.

“We’re delighted to be in the semi-finals,” Ryan said, “we’d have bitten your hand off for that after the Clare game.

“Huge congratulations to the players, we got a huge challenge from Dublin outside there. It probably wasn’t the best of hurling but, look, we dug out a win, a whole-panel win, lots of fellas came on and gave us a bit of pride off it.

“Obviously, we had a small bit of sickness going around the squad, which didn’t help as well. We’ll try to get fellas right and hopefully be ready to go in two weeks’ time.”

Overall, the game struggled to really get going. A potential factor in that was the unusual scheduling of lunchtime on a Saturday and Ryan agreed that there was an impact in that.

“I suppose it was a bit dead,” he said.

“That was the same for both of us, with wides and stuff like that. But, look, it was the same for both teams.

“I think you could see, it’s very hard to have a really high-standard match at quarter past one on a Saturday and that’s what we saw.”

The game marked the first time this year across league or championship that Cork had failed to score a goal. But for a great block by Eoghan O’Donnell on an early Patrick Horgan effort, things might have been differently but Ryan knows green flags are likely to be needed in Croke Park.

“Ah it’s a huge disappointment,” he said.

We know where we’re at as regards the ability that we have in the inside forwards but, in fairness, they defended well.

“They kept fellas back, they were physical in the tackle and what they wanted to do. We knew they were – they have a very good full-back line, obviously Eoghan O’Donnell’s a fantastic player.

“From our point of view, we still created chances and probably could have taken a couple of them.

“We were disappointed to miss the one or two early – that would have given us a bit of a launchpad to go forward.”
The flipside of that was that Cork didn’t allow Dublin any goals of their own and ensured that they stayed on top throughout the second half.

“We could have tacked on another couple of scores, just to make it easier for ourselves,” Ryan said, “and we were a bit sloppy around the place.

“We probably made one or two wrong decisions, when they were coming at us with puckouts and just moving the ball.

“That’s something we’ll work on and we’ve two weeks; there’s a small bit of recovery there now too.

CONGESTED

“In fairness to Dublin, they play a very good running game and it’s hard to get traction at times and they shoot from distance.

“It becomes a bit congested and a bit unorthodox, really, for want of a better word.

“It made it a bit harder for our fellas to settle into the game and get their hands on the ball but we still put up a good score and we’ll build for two weeks’ time.”

Dublin manager Micheál Donoghue was proud of how his team responded to their Leinster final defeat but felt that poor shooting was costly.

“I thought we had opportunities and we didn’t take them,” he said.

“At this level, when you don’t take the opportunities you can rue the result. I can’t fault the boys’ attitude because it was top-class. We took a fair bit of criticism, and understandably so, after the performance in the Leinster final. But I thought they responded brilliantly to a man. When we reflect on it, we missed a lot of opportunities and maybe the chance to progress.

“Equally you have to think of the opposition that you’re playing. When you get down to this stage of the Championship, you’re playing the top teams in the country. Cork have had a brilliant few weeks in getting back into it.

“They’re a top-quality side with great management in Pat. We congratulate them and wish them well going into the future.”