That defeat rests solely on the shoulders of Pat Ryan, no one else. We all saw the team on Friday night. I suspect that a lot of people were thinking the same thing as I was but were giving the benefit of the doubt until the match.
The team looked stale, no buzz of excitement about it. No sense of intrigue as to what direction the the team would take. We picked 3 thirty somethings in our forward line. We picked a midfield that has zero physicality to have the ability to stop runners and turnover ball.
We all saw the game, the result was inevitable from a long way out. This Cork side needed a reset, they have needed it for a number of years to be honest. There are players starting for Cork today who should be thanked for their service and asked to step down in order that the next generation can be brought on. Imho it should have been done 5 years ago. Pat Ryan should have done it year 1 and given himself time to bed in new players. It didn't happen, he persisted and we fell short again today. The psychology around our team is awful. We have no siege mentality, we get it periodically and then it disappears. An example today was the treatment of Mark Coleman, he was pushed, shoved, screamed at constantly by Waterford players all through the match and it was tolerated and watch by his team mates with little or no reaction.
We look on Limerick, KK, Tipp, Galway as our peers in the game, that would not happen to any player in their jersey. No one is screaming for all in 30 man brawls or to start flaking guys over the head but I'm sick of seeing this passiveness in us year in, year out. We are now in a do or die fixture next weekend against Clare at home in PUC. Clare who refused to play a fixture last year in PUC and got their way because it was too far for them to travel. They play Cork whose supporters are asked year on year to travel to every corner of the fucking country often multiple times a week or weekend for that matter who put up with it and travel regardless. The team should be frothing at the fucking mouth to put them out and and to draw some kind of line in the sand ascto where we are going or what we want to go with ourselves.
Sorry for the rant but I've had gutsfull.