Unhappy fringe players a sign of progress for JBM

Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy says some of his panellists are “very unhappy” not to be on the first 15 — and that’s just the way he wants it.

“Without getting into specifics, there are a number of players who are very unhappy not to be playing, I’d say, but that’s a good thing to have. It’s where we wanted to get to, to have real competition for places.

“When I was involved with Cork before we had a very set panel and team and you didn’t have the spread of players you’d like to have. But the game has changed so much now, the intensity is huge and fitness levels are massive, and no team finishes a game now without using 19, 20 players.