Progress must now

well-founded, as they were beaten again by Waterford in their opening outing in Munster before Galway shattered their All-Ireland aspirations at the quarter-final stage, running out unflattering winners by twelve points.

Developments in 2015 prompted manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy to vacate the hot seat with a year still to run in his tenure, obviously believing he had gone as far as he could go with the team.

With a new back-room setup, headed by Kieran Kingston, in place, the hope was that Cork might be capable of arresting their slide last year, but, as things transpired, their record during the past twelve months appeared to confirm that they are firmly berthed in hurling’s lower echelons at this juncture.

In nine competitive outings between league and championship, the Rebels came up trumps just twice – against Galway in relegation play-off and against Dublin in the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers at Pairc Uí Rinn.

In fairness, they performed well in a couple of league games, and they were very unlucky to lose to Kilkenny by a point at Pairc Uí Rinn, while their win over Galway up in Salthill was fully merited, suggesting that things were beginning to shape up promisingly in the leadup to the championship.

True, they had scarcely raised a gallop in the last league outing in the group stage against Tipperary at Thurles, but that was a dead-rubber fixture from a Cork perspective, as they were already out of contention for a place in the play-offs

That game was sandwiched by their narrow loss to Kilkenny and their victory over Galway, which meant they had measured up admirably in their last two outings of consequence prior to the championship.

They were completely outgunned by Tipp, however, in their opening test in Munster, and their season ended on a real low note when they were eliminated from the All-Ireland race by unrated Wexford, who proved no match for Waterford next time out.

In light of how disappointing Cork were last year, it goes without saying they won’t be burdened by any lofty expectations ahead of this season’s National League, which gets underway next Saturday night when they take on Clare in Pairc Uí Rinn.

Over the past few weeks, the management have cast a very wide net in a bid to unearth a few new players, with a view to strengthening the squad, and the results have been reasonably encouraging, as several of the rookies put their hand up in the recent Munster League.

Cork won all five of their games in the pre-season competition, coming out on top in a keenly-contested decider against a fairly strong Limerick side at the