Was at Richmond as a neutral. (Was also in McDowells beforehand, but in the bar side rather than the lounge so didn't see what went down at all. Sounded like fairly serious ruck for 3/4 minutes. Brian Kerr was at the bar shaking his head but possibly because he was next in line to order when they stopped serving.
Anyway, I thought Pats deserved the win, but mainly for the resilience they showed to a late Cork onslaught, because it wasn't pretty. Very few chances created by either side other than from set plays. Pats played some nice combinations but in completely innocuous areas. Cork were much more direct but utterly ineffectual in open play - the three Pats centre backs were all up for the challenge and very impressive.
Clifford got man of the match and it's hard to disagree, although I thought Webster was very impressive for Pats on his debut. On the other hand, Drennan sturggled to make an impact, Forrester was anonymous and Rhys McCabe played like a wind-up mouse, charging around the place sometimes to good effect but often recklessly.
Not much to shout about for Cork. I liked the look of Griffin the fullback, and Daire O'Connor had some bright moments but the game bypassed him a lot too,
Great to see such a big attendance and that it was matched around the grounds. No doubt it'll be an outlier for the season, but hopefully the average will trend upwards.
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