If you're not making it better, if you're not improving it, you can't hog the job

ON A dank Monday afternoon in December 2022, Pat Ryan pointed his car for Limerick.

- BY PAT NOLAN

It was the launch of the Munster Senior Hurling League, the competition in which he would make his bow as Cork senior manager and one which they actually went on to win.

But preseason fare wasn't what Ryan was being quizzed about that day. Cork were entering their 18th year without an All-Ireland having been beaten by Galway in a poor quarterfinal the previous June.

It was put to Ryan that patience was required from the Cork public.

He quickly shot that one down.

"In a county like Cork we want to be successful," he said.

"They demand to be successful. To ask them to be patient I think is the wrong thing."

On that basis, he was asked if his three-year term would be deemed a failure if he hadn't delivered an All-Ireland by the end of it.

Again, while acknowledging the "brilliant work" of his predecessors, Ryan didn't shirk it. "We're coming from a county that has fantastic success in hurling down through the years and if we don't win an All-Ireland it will be a failure," he said.

It's now a pleasant Monday evening in July and Cork are hosting the media ahead of the All-Ireland final which, barring a replay, will complete his three-year term.

He's covered a lot of ground over that period, particularly in the last two seasons as the team has taken shape and, more than any other side, has broken Limerick's spell of dominance.

They've reached back-to-back All-Ireland finals for the first time since 2006, won a first League title in 27 years, a first Munster in seven years.

The improvement is obvious but does Ryan stand by the black and white assessment of 31 months earlier, that his reign will be deemed a success or failure purely based on the outcome of tomorrow's final?

"I would," he says. "I would. I won't back away from stuff I've said before. That would be my thing.