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A dejected Brian Lawton after Cork's defeat to Dublin. Ryan Byrne/INPHO
Wounded Rebels

'Any fella that would have a clue about hurling would know that that wasn't good enough'

Cork fell to a third defeat in a row last night.

CORK SELECTOR PAT Ryan pulled no punches in the wake of the Rebels crashing to a third successive Allianz hurling league defeat last night.

When the final whistle sounded, Cork were ten points adrift of Dublin but a late barrage of scores had put some gloss on the end result.

With five minutes left, Cork trailed 4-20 to 0-14 and that was reflective of a game where they were second-best to a dominant Dublin outfit.

“It’s a very disappointing result, a very disappointing performance,” admitted Ryan.

It was not good enough. A lot of fans travelled up to watch the team and that’s not good enough from a management perspective, from a player’s perspective.

“We need to take a good look at where we’re going and what we’re at. We need to do something to make sure a performance like that doesn’t happen again.”

Ryan believes only a couple of Cork players put in the required levels of application on the night.

“We just had maybe two or three fellas who showed that application over the whole 70 minutes. Brian Lawton tried very hard for the whole 70 minutes. He was probably our best performer, he covered acres of ground.

“I think Stephen Murphy was very good when he came on. You couldn’t blame him for any bit of the performance. Luke O’Farrell looked dangerous when he was on the ball.

“We trained well last week. We had an A versus B match and fellas were tuned in. I didn’t think that performance was in us but we were comprehensively beaten by Dublin.”

Damien Cahalane dejected Damien Cahalane dejected after Cork's loss to Dublin. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Cork had made six changes to their starting side from the previous game against Waterford but it did not alter their losing streak.

“At the end of the day we have what we have,” outlined Ryan. “We made wholesale changes from the Waterford game. We’ll see who’s going well on form and who’s going well in training.

“We had a lot of good players that we brought in on last Tuesday night and who played excellently in it, (training), we added two to the panel today, Cian Buckley and John Cronin.

But there’s three or four young fellas we brought in on Tuesday night that played excellently. Maybe we need to start looking at those fellas.”

Pat Ryan Cork hurling selector Pat Ryan Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO

Ahead of next Saturday’s home tie against Kilkenny, relegation fears are growing for Cork but Ryan insists both players and management alike must step up.

“I think relegation is the least of our worries at this stage. Getting ready for Tipperary and being able to perform in the championship, so I don’t think relegation is a worry as we’re standing here after that performance.

“There’s no sugar coating it. Any fella that would have a clue about hurling would know that that wasn’t good enough.

It’s about manning up now, you can’t hide from it. What we’re looking for is a response from the lads.

“In fairness we’ve to take it on the chin as well as a management team. They need to see a response from us.

“You have to have respect for yourself, respect for the jersey, respect for your teammates and I think respect is the big word that we need to have for each other.”

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