Cork v Tipperary: Clare lessons to be learned but no time to dwell

Such is the compressed nature of the modern inter-county fixture list that there is no time for dwelling on past results, good or bad.

Given how last Sunday’s clash against Clare went, a good first half followed by a comeback from the home side that earned them a draw, Cork are probably happy to be facing straight into this Sunday’s game with Tipperary at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

For manager Pat Ryan, it is a case of an almost-immediate turnaround.

“We were in the gym Monday at one o'clock,” he says, “our analysis team worked very hard and the management team as well, we met at 11 o'clock ourselves and did a review of Clare, through the positives and negatives, where we can move forward, and then obviously you just turn the page.

“The fans and everybody else can talk about Clare for a couple of days but we needed to focus on the Tipperary game straightaway.” After the clash in Ennis, Ryan said that he’d have taken a draw beforehand and, as disappointing as the second half was, the key takeaway is that Cork avoided defeat at the home of the All-Ireland champions.

Such a result can never be classed as an outright negative.

“Obviously, we started well,” Ryan says, “then there was the period after half-time where Clare got the 2-1 on us – in fairness, they were always going to come back with something.

“I was proud of our lads, we went back to nine points up and took control of the game again. It’s something we have to learn from, it happened us last year as well in a couple of games and we learned as the year went on about that side of things when you go down to 14 men.

“We coped very well for a period but once they got the goal and another score or two and then the six minutes of injury time went up, you were kind of hanging on at that stage.

“Realistically, from our point of view, with the start we had to the second half.

“They got a goal, they got a run on us and the crowd behind them – momentum happens, but the good thing from our point of view was that we'd have lost that game before.

“That's what we looked at – we got our chance, took our chance and managed to get a point out of it. Whether you won or drew on Sunday, you had to win another two matches, that’s the way we looked at it.

“We know that five points will get us out of the group, we have Tipperary at the weekend and you have to take full advantage of all your home games.”

Sunday’s game comes three weeks after Tipp came to Cork for the Allianz Hurling League final, which Cork won by ten points after a good first half.

Liam Cahill’s side bounced back from that to draw with Limerick last weekend – is Ryan expecting a different Premier County animal?

“We can only focus on our own performance and what we want to bring to it,” he says.

“Championship goes up another level, we saw that at the weekend. We performed, we brought our game to another level in the first half against Clare, but it's just getting that consistency of performance.

“I think everybody has seen the progression in Tipperary and how well they’ve done. In the league final, we caught them with some early goals and the game petered out afterwards. That wouldn't really happen if it's a championship match.

“The way that we’re looking at it is that it’s going to be a huge challenge.”