BY JOHNNY CAROLAN
THE pre-match form-lines for Sunday’s Munster SHC opener between Clare and Cork can be looked at in two ways.
On the one hand, the Rebels have not beaten the Banner County in the championship since 2021, with five meetings in the Munster round-robin having only yielded one victory, and that in 2018.
In Pat Ryan’s era, there have been defeats in Munster in 2023 and 2024 as well of course as last July’s All-Ireland final. On the other hand, though, Cork go to Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg as the Allianz Hurling League champions, with a six-goal return in Ennis among their victories.
Unsurprisingly, Ryan isn’t putting too much stock on that result six weeks ago, though he is keen to come away with a first championship win in Ennis for Cork.
‘I suppose we probably needed to win that match more than Clare,’ he said.
‘We were trying to get to a league final and they had a few fellas who were just back from injuries so we were probably in a better state than they were on the day.
‘Obviously, when you’ve been beaten by a team a good few times, you want to stop that but, from our point of view, championship is where it counts. They’ve beaten us the last three times since I’ve been involved, though there’s only been a puck of a ball between the teams each time.
‘The way we look at it is that it’s a four-game competition and you need six points to get out of Munster. If we can get two points against Clare in Ennis, that starts our journey along the way very well.’
In terms of team selection, Ryan and his management are in the nice position of not having any new injury worries to contend with beyond those which they had for the league final.
‘Micheál Mullins, Conor Lehane and Darragh O’Sullivan won’t be in consideration for the weekend,’ Ryan said.
‘They should be back for the start of July. Otherwise, it’s the same group as for the league final, once everybody comes through training this week.’
The league final win over Tipperary bridged a 27-year gap for success in that competition, though Ryan was left unhappy with the second-half performance in that game. He has no fears regarding a hangover, though.
‘It's going to be re-focused anyway,’ he said, ‘we all know that championship is where it’s at.
‘The best thing about the league final is that we won and there are good vibes and you put something that was kind of hanging over us – not winning a national league for 27 years – out of the way. You don't need to be talking about that going forward.
‘It was great preparation for what we wanted to do. That type of match was as good as two or three training sessions for us.
‘We were cognizant of what way we wanted to play and how we wanted to play and it was great preparation for Clare. We’ve been back on the field and we had a good session at the weekend, gym Monday night and then out on the field again Tuesday and Thursday so it’s all ready to go for Clare.
‘Obviously, there's no point telling people what Clare will be like – they have a great home record above in Ennis and we don’t have a great record against them in the last couple of years in the championship. It’s something that we’re mad to rectify.’
