Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy has stepped down from his position.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy insists he remains the Cork hurling manager - though for exactly how much longer he refused to speculate. And he admits he was “selfish” in accommodating dual players in recent seasons, insisting the day of senior inter-county doubling up is history.

Cork hurling legend Tomás Mulcahy has ruled out succeeding manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy and wants his former playing colleague to see out his term as Cork hurling manager.

Tomás Mulcahy has emerged as the hot favourite to be the next Cork senior hurling manager as doubts persist about Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s willingness to continue in the position next season.

When the playwright Tom Murphy wrote A Crucial Week In The Life Of A Grocer’s Assistant, he might have been a bit previous in choosing his subject.

The stats from Sunday’s semi-final loss to Galway will offer few crumbs of comfort for Jimmy Barry-Murphy and his management team. 

“I can’t wait for next year.” Jimmy Barry-Murphy might have said the words but there was little enthusiasm or defiance in his tone when he made the vow.

If Jimmy Barry-Murphy didn’t know he was doing something extraordinary, he must surely have realised it when Dónal Óg Cusack lauded his changing of the script after the qualifier win over Clare last Saturday week.

They mightn’t know it but Brian Cuthbert and Jimmy Barry-Murphy are following similar journeys, following paths they hardly envisaged when they became managers of Cork’s football and hurling teams but ones borne of necessity more so than design.

Sunday’s Munster final wasn’t a classic of the genre, by general consensus, though it was still a very good game.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy praised the character of his players on Saturday night, but he also cited his team’s structure in their win over Clare.

Wexford in Wexford Park. A test that got the better of the 2013 All-Ireland hurling champions last year and even spurred the Model County’s footballers to a shock victory on Saturday.

Cork’s inability to break down the Waterford ‘system’ once again proved their downfall in Thurles.

I have given the Cork team and management the benefit of the doubt over the past three years, a point I was reminded of by an old Waterford friend departing Semple Stadium on Sunday evening.

Eight first-half wides and a similar number of aimless deliveries into attack contributed largely to Cork’s Munster championship exit, according to Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy is concerned by the growing tendency of his team to flop on the big occasion.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy has bolstered the Cork defence with the readdition of Brian Murphy to the panel.

Jamesie O’Connor has questioned Cork’s ability to “cut teams apart” and feels they don’t have the same ability to create scores as his native Clare, Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Consistency, or lack of it, must be the biggest concern for supporters of the Cork senior hurling team at present.

A major gamble by Cork's JBM?

Aidan Walsh is reaping the rewards since quitting football to concentrate on hurling with Cork

Jimmy Barry-Murphy admits the Cork hurling management erred in stifling club activity prior to last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

The sun out, the ground hardening and an enticing double-header of NHL semi-finals on offer tomorrow.

Cork travel to face Galway in the Allianz NHL on Sunday and boss Jimmy Barry-Murphy has made a raft of changes for the game, a total of five alterations since the win over Dublin.

Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy is hopeful that defender Christopher Joyce, substituted with a knee injury on Saturday, will soon be back in action.

Dublin 1-20 Cork 0-34