You can’t win them all.
As much as the most controlling managers would like to believe differently, you’re not going to win every game, every year but All-Ireland champions Tipperary are lucky they have Mick Ryan in charge right now.
They’ve lost a league final, they’ve lost the Munster championship opener – both within a few weeks of each other – but he’s not roaring and shouting and blaming his players, the referee or whoever else. His attitude is positive and, if anything, he enjoyed that encounter against Cork.
Christ, who wouldn’t have?
But, for Ryan, it’s also just a case of hurling. This is what might happen when two good teams play each other on a buzzing championship Sunday in Thurles.
Asked after the defeat by The GAA Hour if the quality of the game was any solace, the Tipp boss was refreshingly honest.
“Well, do you know what… no, it’s not any good to me – I’m charged and the boys are charged with minding this bunch of Tipperary hurlers – but, at the end of the day, we’d much prefer to be involved in a really, really good game of hurling and a game that’s played in the right way and in the right spirit and I think what was served up there was classic Munster championship at its best.
“We’re at the wrong side of it but I really thought Cork were good – really, really good – and were the better team on the day without a doubt.”
It was remarkably classy to stay so humble and composed after such a pulsating and ultimately heartbreaking affair.
“There were tell-tale signs – at one stage I thought, ‘God, Cork are really, really good here today’ and it wasn’t quite sticking for us,” Ryan said.
“We did create a couple of openings and we would’ve loved to have gotten some big deposits out of those openings in the first half but, look, that’s the game.
“It was a really, really good game of hurling here in Thurles and I thought it was real Munster championship. I know this is your typical, throwaway comment but I thought it was a classic game of hurling and Cork were excellent.”
He did, however, take serious exception to Colm Parkinson asking about the county’s media ban. Listen to the whole row from 32:50 below.
