Cork's Impressive Win Sets Up All-Ireland Final Showdown

Twelve months on and Cork are back in sight of the summit. After coming within a missed jersey pull of securing a replay against Clare in last year's extra-time All-Ireland final defeat, the Rebels easily negotiated Saturday’s potentially tricky semi against a Dublin team that had knocked out Limerick with 14 man.

Manager Pat Ryan tried to convince us afterwards that winning 7-26 to 2-21 \"wasn’t perfect\" and there would be \"lots of stuff we will go after as regards what we want for the All-Ireland final\" but if they are capable of playing at a level above this on 20 July then Kilkenny or Tipperary might as well stay at home. He did admit that \"lads were really clinical today\" after watching his team score 4-13 in the first half and 3-13 in the second, Alan Connolly (3), Brian Hayes (2) and Tim O’Mahony (2) sharing the green flags between them as the Rebel forwards ran amok.

\"We’re targeting goals all time, targeting fast starts all the time,\" Ryan told RTÉ Sport. \"I thought we left an awful lot of scores behind us but that is me being a bit critical, maybe over critical. I'll probably be on to the lads about a bit more work-rate as well. We were kind of happy that we were winning and putting it into the back of the net but our tackling from behind wasn't good enough.

\"John Considine - a great Cork hurler - always said to me 'try and get the same score in both halves' and that is what we’ve been pushing for. Trying to make sure we’re not lulling off, we’ve had lulls in a lot of parts in games during the year. That’s something we’re going after and that is a key thing for us. Delighted with our fellas.

Defeated Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin was generous in his praise afterwards, saying of Cork: \"That was by far the best performance over 75 minutes that I’ve seen this year, by a long way. They are going to take some beating I would say.\"

\"Their goals, we couldn't live with their pace and power inside. They were breaking the line, they had the composure and presence of mind in tight scenarios to be really aware of who was outside and just popped the ball outside and they did that extremely well. They were quality, quality goals. They're obviously coached very well and I’d say it’s something that they work on very hard. It's very, very hard to deal it.\"

\"We're back where we were this time last year, the idea is to go one better\" - Pat Ryan

How have Cork bounced back from the heartbreak of last July to win league and Munster titles and set up another shot at ending the record drought? Not fixating on the All-Ireland final helped.

\"We knuckled down, we got back in,\" said Ryan. \"We probably refreshed the panel a bit more. The competition within the squad has made fellas step up their game.\"

\"Looked at areas that we didn’t do well as a management team, our S&C, all that side of it, physio - that side of things we could improve on. Spoke to players about that. Really went after performances in the league to make the panel as competitive as we could.\"

\"I think we got an awful lot right last year, I don’t think that was the reason we were beaten. We came up and we performed. We were 1-07 to 0-3 up after 15 minutes. Fellas say you should have done this or done that, slept in this hotel or the other. We just came up against a brilliant team.\"

Croke Park was a sea of mostly red on Saturday. Last year’s clash with Limerick was the first hurling semi-final to sell out Croke Park at maximum capacity (82,300) and the feat was repeated yesterday, with around 80% of the crowd in red, making it feel like a home game for Cork.

The hype will continue to build as the fans of the small ball's second-most successful county anticipate a first All-Ireland title since 2005 but that, and the favourites tag they will carry, are things Ryan is happy to accept, rather than play down.

\"We've probably been favourites for lots of games all year,\" he said, \"bar probably the Munster final.\"

\"What I always say about favouritism, I'd always prefer to be favourites because that means you're doing something right. If we're winning matches, and we're playing well and performing well, you're going to be favourites.\"

\"But, as we know ourselves, you have to turn up and perform. We were favourites probably for the All-Ireland final last year with the bookies and we didn't win. It's just about being focused on ourselves and making sure that we're ready to go.\"

\"We're in the All-Ireland final. That is a special place to be for us. We came out of here fifty-one and a half weeks ago, and for us to get back into a final shows the character and strength and commitment to the jersey the lads have.\"

\"Our job now is to make sure that we get focused back in, fellas get recovered, fellas are ready to go. Try and take as many distractions as you can around it, but, at the same time, fellas need to enjoy the two weeks.\"

\"We're amateur athletes. There's going to be a great buzz around Cork, you embrace it. Unfortunately, we can't go away to Dubai for two weeks and relax and chill out and prepare outside there. Fellas have to go back to work, they have to meet their colleagues, or school or whatever they're doing.\"

\"We'll enjoy the next two weeks and the county board can look after the problem with tickets!\"

Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-final between Kilkenny v Tipperary on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.