Otherworldly Reactions as Cork Stuns Dublin

GAA fans have had their say after a sensational display saw Cork trounce Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final.

A buoyant Pat Ryan urged his Cork team to embrace the ‘buzz’ after their 20-point devastation of Dublin.

A full house, dominated by a

travelling Cork army

, watched Ryan’s team shoot 7-26 to blitz the Dublin fairytale and move within 70 minutes of ending the county’s 20-year wait for the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

And, irrespective of who wins today’s second semi-final between Kilkenny and Tipperary, Cork will be raging hot favourites to win the All-Ireland in two weeks’ time.

It’s not a position that spooks Ryan. ‘I think we’ve been favourites for lots of games all year, bar probably the Munster final,’ he said afterwards.

‘We’re amateur athletes. There is going to be a great buzz around Cork, and you embrace it. Unfortunately, we can’t go away to Dubai for two weeks, relax and chill out and prepare out there.

‘Fellas have to go back to work, meet their colleagues or whatever they’re doing, but we’ll enjoy it – and the county board can look after the problems with tickets,’ he grinned. ‘What I always say is, I’d always prefer to be favourites because that means you’re doing something right.

‘That’s the way I look at it. It’s up to the lads: if you’re winning matches and performing well, you’re going to be favourites, but, as we know ourselves, it doesn’t make a difference what the bookies are going to do: you have to turn up and perform.

‘We were favourites for the All-Ireland final last year I’d say and we didn’t win. It’s about being focused on ourselves and making sure we’re ready to go.’

Expectation has been sky-high on Leeside since Cork’s epic Munster final win over Limerick on penalties, and when Dublin then stunned the hurling world by beating Limerick in the last eight, Cork was immediately installed as front-runners.

They handled that burden with ease yesterday, shooting 4-13 in the first half and another 3-13 in the second to leave Dublin reeling.

Cork supporters were dominant in the 81,200 attendance, and demand for tickets will be at fever pitch for the next fortnight.

Ryan, though, has no concerns about his players being exposed to the hype that is sure to ensue.

‘I think we got an awful lot right last year in what we were doing,’ he said, referring to their preparations for last year’s decider when they were beaten by Clare in extra time.

‘That wasn’t the reason we were beaten. We came up, and we performed; we were 1-7 to 0-3 up after 15 or 20 minutes.

‘Fellas say, “Should you have slept in this hotel? Should you have done this or that?” Look at the start we got. We came up against a brilliant team.

‘It took an awful lot out of us last year to perform in the semi-final against Limerick, and we were never going to hit the heights that we needed to. We were really proud of the lads last year, and we’re really proud of how they dug down.

‘What I always say is, I’d always prefer to be favourites because that means you’re doing something right.’

Ryan was rich in his praise of the players for the way they rebounded from losing last year’s decider, and highlighted an overlooked aspect of their preparations this term.

‘It’s a small little thing, but the weather was much better this year, so the fellas were looking forward to going to training.

‘If you’re not really involved around teams, sometimes you can think the weather is the same, but the weather this year was fantastic, and it made a huge difference around Páirc Uí Rinn and

Páirc Uí Chaoimh

.

‘There was a great buzz and the year just flew.’

Niall Ó Ceallacháin, the Dublin manager, was devastated after seeing his team getting blitzed.

‘By far the better team won the game, absolutely no question,’ he said. ‘No excuses. We had to be better in lots of ways. I thought they were excellent, though, as well. They were very well set up and were extremely sharp, full of energy, very aggressive.’