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Murphy: Cork have stepped up and young guns have bright futures

They’ve rattled off 4-50 in their last two games, 4-74 including the Tipperary game and seem to have cured their goal-scoring shyness, but Brian Murphy isn’t running away with himself about Cork’s Championship credentials.

Considering those statistics, he’d also be mindful Cork have been shipping a few blows too, conceding 4-33 in total against Offaly and Wexford (6-53 throwing in the defeat to Tipp). As Jimmy Barry-Murphy progresses in developing this team of his, the corner-back can see the pluses and the minuses.

“There has been a few changes and a lot of fellas have retired over the last couple of years so there was always going to be changes,” said Brian. “With injuries, we had things enforced on us and, in fairness to the boys, they stepped up big time and a lot of the young fellas are great leaders in the set-up and that’s great to see.

“They’ve bright futures ahead of them. The reality is though two months ago when we lost to Kilkenny we were the worst in the world so we’re not foolish enough to think we’re world-beaters.”

In Murphy’s mind, Cork are second tier, striving to join the big league. “The reality is Kilkenny, Tipperary, Galway and possibly Waterford are the top tier teams and we must try and get to that level.”

As much as this season has been about experimentation and trial and error, reaching the last six of the championship was high on Cork’s list of priorities.

“At the start of the year, we were like the Cork public and didn’t know what to expect,” admitted Murphy.

“We set ourselves a target of the quarter-finals in the championship and have achieved that, but we have to knuckle down next week in training and see where we can go from here.

“There’s a lot of stuff that went right [against Wexford] but a lot of stuff that went wrong as well.”

Victory on Sunday week will mean a first Cork SHC appearance in Croke Park in two years — a significant gap for a county with such hurling heritage.

Getting back there would give the likes of Conor Lehane and Darren Sweetnam some much-needed experience of GAA HQ.

“I’m not sure whether all the lads have played in Croke Park or not but it’s going to be a big day whether you’ve played there five times or 20 times,” said the Bride Rovers’ man.

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