“We’re a united club and it’s a great chance for lads to show how much the club means to them and you can see that,” says Ryan. “In conjunction with that, we’re doing something for Teddy with the games against Galway and Meath in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on December 9. We’re lucky to have plenty of good people in the club and parish willing to put shoulders to the wheel.” 

It's in his brief as Cork manager that he felt some of the kindness wasn’t exactly sincere. There was plenty of backslapping for Cork when they failed to qualify out of the Munster SHC for the first time in the round-robin era. Commendations for how they died on their shields against Clare and Limerick.

But Ryan wanted none of it. “I’d be straight up about it – it’s false pity. Nobody gives two fecks about Cork if you’re not from Cork and rightly so. We can go back to times when teams often said they couldn’t beat Cork so why would a man in his 40s or 50s now give two fecks about Cork?

“I would have taken it with a pinch of salt and found it more mischievous than anything. Look, it’s up to ourselves. We’re 18 years waiting for an All-Ireland, whatever it is waiting for a league title and the only way you can get that done is by hard work.

“In fairness to the lads, they’re working hard, we are and so were the previous management teams but we just weren’t good enough to win those things. The one thing we were happy with last year was the consistency of effort from the lads but we need to bring more to that.”

Ryan admits Cork last season “threw a lot of darts at the board” and 2024 will be about “being more structured, more streamlined in how we play”. He explains: “We’d a big squad last year and a lot of fellas got game-time and that creates a great spirit in the group. But it also prevents you from fellas really getting used to the system you want to play and developing on-field relationships with each other. You look at the best teams out there whether it’s Dublin in football or Limerick in hurling, there’s not too many changes.” 

For the non-playing personnel, there were lessons too. “We’d be very happy with how we prepared for the Waterford and Limerick games but as a management team looking back there are areas we would love to have done better against Clare and Tipperary. The challenge for us is to not let it happen again.” 

Recently, Ryan spoke of the need to make opponents’ purple patches less damaging. In those periods, do Cork have to play cuter? “It wouldn’t be in my philosophy, to put it that way, or seeing going on in games but it’s kind of needed unfortunately because you’re trying to get messages on and you can’t.

“Traditionally, fellas would always slowed down the game but without the maor foirne more gamesmanship has crept into the game, which I would like to see out of the game. Monitor a runner who can go around and give messages two or three times. It would make things cleaner and efficient.” 

Facing Clare, Kilkenny and Waterford in Division 1, Group B next February and with more on the line because of the proposed league changes, Ryan anticipates another hectic start to the season. Even though the panel includes approximately 20 Fitzgibbon Cup players – “probably the most of any county” – Cork’s attitude to the league is to try and win it.

"Who are we in Cork not to take the league serious anymore? If Limerick don’t want to take the league serious, fair enough. They have what they have.

“You’re still trying to train through the league and making sure you get preparation but we’d be fools and disrespecting the Cork jersey if we say ‘oh, we don’t want to get to a league final’. It couldn’t be further from the truth.” 

Cork’s two home games in the Munster SHC come back-to-back in the middle of the campaign, the second against Limerick on Saturday, May 11 before they finish up against Tipperary in Thurles.

“Cork people always love going to Tipperary so it’s not really an away game as much as Walsh Park, Limerick or Clare. It’s not a neutral venue but traditionally we love going there. Tipperary are probably more disadvantaged than anyone because it's not really a home game.” While disappointed that Sarsfields were beaten heavily by Ballygunner in last Sunday’s Munster Club SHC quarter-final, Ryan doesn’t believe it reflects poorly on the state of the game in Cork.

“I was coming out of Walsh Park the last day and a fella said, ‘Jees, it’s bad for Cork hurling’. I was like, ‘To be honest with you, there was no Sars fella starting on the Cork hurling team last year’.

“We have 60 teams playing in our main championships excluding the junior clubs. If you went around the country, you’ll five, six, maybe seven club teams playing to inter-county if not Fitzgibbon level. I think everyone else is chasing up after that.

“Fellas wouldn’t realise that 12 of our guys won their first county medal. Our management took the game really serious and would have serious ambitions but when you win your first county title, it’s hard to get up for it (Munster) and you could see it. You can say you want it but until you play a team like Ballygunner you don’t know. It’s a good eye-opener for us as a club.”