LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

CORK BRIDGE THE GAP BUT FOCUS NOW ON MUNSTER

- PAT NOLAN

PAT RYAN may have cribbed about the second-half showing, but he'll know his Cork side go into the Championship in rude health after ending their League drought.

Winning the League wasn't critical to Cork's season but having reached the final in front of an expectant home crowd, anything less than a victory here would have been damaging to a side that has been on an upward trajectory since midway through last year's Munster Championship.

In the end, they stormed to the title with four successive wins, the last three achieved in a particularly comprehensive manner.

They hadn't won a League title since 1998 and had lost five finals in the meantime, to go with the four All-Ireland finals they had lost from 2006 on.

It was Cork's first silverware at senior level since the Munster title of 2018.

Their first time to lift a trophy at the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Numerous boxes have been ticked, which can only help as they turn their attention to their biggest hex of all — the 20-year gap to their last All-Ireland.

Ryan has already banished ghosts at underage level having delivered a pair of All-Ireland under-20 titles, where Cork had gone without for 22 years.

The minors, in 2021, also bridged a 20-year gap.