Real reason behind Pat Ryan’s Cork departure ‘revealed’ in report – and it wasn’t amicable

Ryan has seemingly chosen loyalty to his staff over the Cork role

Ryan announced on Saturday that he would leaving the Cork hurling job after three years.

His Cork side were stunned in this year’s All-Ireland, losing to Tipperary after a second-half collapse.

And a report in the Sunday Times suggests that the Cork board wanted Ryan to remain in charge for another three years, but only if he changed his backroom staff.

Ryan reportedly saw the board’s request as a lack of faith and trust in his direction, and were “imposing conditions he wasn’t prepared to accept.”

A line in Ryan’s departure statement on Saturday is a nod to that loyalty to his backroom staff. He said: “In life, sometimes loyalty is a word linked to weakness, but I was reared to believe it to be the ultimate strength of a person’s character.”

Ryan says bust-up rumours are ‘disgusting’

Ryan has also rubbished rumours that there was a half-time bust-up in the All-Ireland final defeat by Tipperary, where they were six points up but ended up losing by 15.

He told the Irish Examiner: “To be honest, sometimes fellas think when you’re the manager that you hear everything that’s going on.

"I didn’t hear it until I went back into work on the Thursday or the Friday. And I was like: ‘What are you on about?’ And then fellas were showing me text messages.

"And my attitude was, maybe we should have a fight. And that was my take. Absolutely, totally false. Absolutely no truth in it.

"And, look, the disgusting point from my part is that they were totally made-up stories, and then individual names were attached to it.

"Absolutely, under no circumstances did anything like that ever happen in my time with three years involved with Cork.”

O’Connor favourite to replace Ryan

O’Connor won three All-Ireland titles with Cork, captaining them to in the 2004 final.

He led Charleville to the Cork Intermediate title in 2018, and looks to be the early frontrunner.