BY SEÁN HOLLAND
WHILE Cork hurling supporters are still licking the wounds of the 3-29 to 1-34 defeat to Clare in the All-Ireland final, manager Pat Ryan did have some good news, alluding to star forward Patrick Horgan returning for the 2025 season.
Horgan overtook TJ Reid in the all-time championship scoring charts last Sunday, having scored 12 points against Clare, and now leads the Kilkenny man by nine.
The Glen Rovers star is 36 years of age but is enjoying his hurling more now than ever. Speaking on his top-scoring performance in the final, Ryan said ‘Yeah, look, Patrick doesn't need any plaudits. He’s like that. That's the way he expects to play himself, and that's what he expects.’
The Cork boss added that it’s not the drive for personal accolades that drives Horgan but his love for hurling and wearing the Cork jersey, something which he expects Horgan to do in 2025.
‘Look, he doesn't really read into it. I know people don't believe it, but he doesn't actually read into the top of the scoring charts at all. He just chases the whole fact of being able to play hurling with Cork. That is his main aim all the time. Patrick will be back again next year ready to go,’ Ryan said.
Speaking after the heartbreaking loss, Ryan pointed to where he felt his side fell down last Sunday. Firstly, he alluded to his side's second quarter slump. The Rebels started off as well as they could have hoped for, scoring 1-8 from their first nine shots. But the Banner fought back. Ryan put that down to a drop in defensive intensity from his forward line.
‘We allowed too many short puckouts,’ he said. ‘They were able to work the ball out and we lost our shape inside in the full-forward line, trying to tackle from behind. But, look, there were loads of ebbs and flows. They did a lot of good things that troubled us, we troubled them too but we’re obviously disappointed,’ he admitted.
Another aspect of the game Ryan felt his side struggled with was that the shot selection and execution let them down late in the game.
‘We had a couple of opportunities to take scores and didn’t. At that stage, every score was vital. It just gives you that bit of momentum,’ the Cork boss said.
‘It was probably played over 100-odd minutes, we just missed too many goal opportunities. We had a couple of great goal chances we didn’t take and didn’t give the final ball better. That was our undoing.’
Ryan was incredibly humble in his post-match comments highlighting his own team's failings rather than pinning any blame on decisions made by referee Johnny Murphy. Firstly, on Seamus Harnedy’s goal-bound effort that was deflected wide by Clare’s Conor Cleary.
‘From where I was, back on the opposite 45, it looked like it. I don’t know, to be honest. I don’t think that that affected it. Obviously, there are a couple of decisions that go your way and don’t go your way. At the end of the day, Clare are the champions and we won’t be giving out about any of that stuff,’ he said.
Another topic of discussion was Clare corner back Conor Leen pulling the shirt of Robbie O’Flynn as he attempted to level the game with the final puck of the game.
‘Somebody said that to me, to be honest, I didn’t see it. We can’t do anything about it now. We just have to move on and see where we go,’ said Ryan.
