Cork hurling manager, Pat Ryan.
By John Harrington
Cork comfortably beat Tipperary in today’s Allianz Hurling League Final, but team manager Pat Ryan still thinks they have significant room for improvement.
Having cut Tipperary to pieces in the first-half when they scored three goals, he was disappointed that their performance level dipped in the second-half.
“I'm delighted to get a trophy, obviously after losing the All-Ireland final last year,” said Ryan. “Lads have knuckled on well and the league has been good to us, we've found a couple of players and we're in a very good place from an injury perspective as well.
“That was a great performance in the first half, very disappointed with the second-half showing.
"Our energy wasn't good enough, our standards weren't good enough and that's probably the worst half of hurling, I'd say, probably that the lads have delivered since my time here.
“We try and drive our standards ourselves and the lads will be disappointed in that.
“I suppose, in fairness, we'll definitely keep the hype down anyway, we’re going up to Ennis and very much going into the lion’s den with the All-Ireland champions and that's what we need to focus on the next two weeks now.”
Winning silverware is a good habit to get in to, and Cork’s first National League title for 27 years should set them up nicely for a tilt at the Munster and All-Ireand Championships.
“Since I became with Cork, we'd no minor titles, we'd no U20 titles and we'd no All-Irelands for 20 years and no league for 27 years so you're trying to stop all that chat and all that chatter because that doesn't help a county when you're trying to get better and trying to find wins," says Ryan.
“Obviously, our job now is to get out of Munster and maybe get to that five points or six points that will guarantee you out of Munster and get into that top three and that's what the focus is.
“I think that that was a great learning there today for us as well, that we're nowhere near the levels that we want to be if we want to be beating the Clares and the Limericks and all those teams going forward.
“That's something for us to learn and try and get better across the Munster championship and get out of Munster.”