PAT RYAN EXPRESSED bitter disappointment with Cork’s performance against Tipperary in yesterday’s Munster SHC quarter-final in Thurles.
Selector Ryan admitted that Cork’s ‘marquee forwards’ failed to deliver at Semple Stadium but Alan Cadogan was absolved of any blame after shooting three points from play.
It was a disappointing afternoon for Patrick Horgan, Conor Lehane and Seamus Harnedy, however.
Horgan was scoreless from play while Lehane and Harnedy managed just a point from play each.
Ryan also insisted that sweeper William Egan played the role well, even though Cork’s malfunctioning defensive system has come in for widespread criticism.
Ryan told reporters: “I thought William Egan played it well, in fairness, but we didn’t work the ball enough.
“We pucked too many balls to Pádraic Maher, Ronan Maher, and it came back too fast at us. They got a couple of very good scores, they’re very good players.
It’s very disappointing from our point of view, we expected a better performance and it just didn’t happen.”
Ryan accepted that there were not too many positives to emerge from Cork’s display.
“No, not really, not many positives at all. In modern hurling work-rate is the key, and we didn’t work hard enough – we didn’t win the ground ball, we didn’t the breaking ball, we didn’t win the 50-50s, and that’s what happens. Ye all know what happens.
“We thought we’d trained well, that the lads had bought into what we were trying to do, but it didn’t work on the day.
“We’ll have to go back to the drawing board and see was it something we’ve been doing wrong, something we need to change, new players to bring in to freshen it up.”
Cadogan was a bright spot on an otherwise grim afternoon for Cork and Ryan acknowledged: “I thought Alan was a threat all the way through, was probably our stand-out player, he worked very hard.
It’s disappointing, I can’t say anything else. We felt we’d picked it up, that we hadn’t lost the players, the group, we knew we were coming up against a very good Tipperary team today but we weren’t expecting a performance like that.
“As I said, Alan Cadogan is probably the only player who could say he played anywhere near potential. That’s just not good enough.
“Our marquee forwards, who are very good inter-county players, didn’t play up to the standard today.
“It was a collective effort, Alan Cadogan was probably the only player you could say gave it his all.”
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