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.

Listening to the Cork lads as the great inquest drags on, more melancholic by the day, you can’t help but feel a small bit sorry for them.

In this game, at this time of year, it’s the question that constantly, inevitably, crops up in the car home.

THERE are times when you go into a big game as manager knowing the gun is to your head, when you can almost feel the cold steel pressed against your temple.

Before you can read the game, you have to know the alphabet. Ahead of the Tipp-Waterford Munster final, Larry Ryan studies the curriculum of this fixture’s glorious history.

Galway 0-20 Cork 2-17

Ollie Moran believes Allianz NHL Division 1A table-toppers Dublin have “recovered their mojo” with Ger Cunningham’s fresh eyes presiding over them in the capital.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy is eager for Cork to progress through to the Allianz NHL Division 1 play-offs this term having watched his side produce an

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Manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy offered no excuses in his post-match analysis after Cork were overpowered by Kilkenny in the Allianz NHL Division 1A opener at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday night.

Hurling: If your Sunday night drinking buddies are anything like my Sunday night drinking buddies, dear reader, and I rather suspect they may be — assuming you possess Sunday night drinking buddies to begin with — they’ll have been counting down the days for weeks now.

Former Cork selector Ger Cunningham was last night appointed as Anthony Daly’s successor as Dublin manager, being handed a three-year term.

Over time it all tells. It might take time, or in hurling it might take games, as Eamon O’Shea pointed out in these pages last Saturday. 

With the teams level at half-time, it was clear the first goal would have a huge bearing on the result. And so it proved.

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy was thrilled after his side's 2-24 to 0-24 victory over Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh today, a fitting finale to GAA action in the Cork city stadium.

Cork won’t have it all their own way, but have the confidence and the character to earn a perfect send-off to Páirc Uí Chaoimh

It’s hard not to get nostalgic as a Cork person in a week such as this, but it doesn’t necessarily mean getting all romantic either.

Those first trips down — ‘82 and ‘85 — I travelled without pressure. No big calls to make. That was the oul fella. Or maybe the uncle, if he’d landed first from Dublin. Go by Limerick and the cursing wouldn’t start until Charleville.

The same day the Cork hurlers played their last game under Denis Walsh, the Limerick footballers met Offaly in the curtain-raiser in the Gaelic Grounds.

At half-time, nobody had expected this contest to be so one-sided.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy felt Cork’s display against Wexford yesterday was “patchy” but that the Rebels were always in command.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy was quick to pay tribute to Limerick after Saturday night’s draw, but the amount of injury time played by referee James Owens clearly rankled with the Cork manager.

Managers don’t live or die by their decisions but they either win or lose by them, keep their jobs or are fired by them.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy was his usual composed self at the final whistle in Croke Park.

JIMMY Barry-Murphy was his usual composed self at the final whistle in Croke Park tonight.

The complexities of Cork men remain the same, it’s just the venues that change.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy admits that the Cork fans weren’t the only ones who thought the Rebels had snatched a dramatic All-Ireland win against Clare two weeks ago.

Reflect, regroup and return stronger. That’s the challenge facing Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy after Sunday’s drawn All-Ireland SHC final.

Midway through the first half of the minor match a dark-haired young lady materialised in the press box, instantly standing out from the people in the vicinity by virtue of being both female and attractive.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy leans back in his chair and smiles. He has been here before too many times not to know what is expected.

First indication of the direction the week might take came early in last Sunday’s Anfield skirmishes when Tom Cleverley propelled himself into the shins of Philippe Coutinho.

Size matters when it comes to supporting the Cork hurlers.

The day Cork held their press evening, Jimmy Barry-Murphy enjoyed a birthday, his 59th.

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy wasn’t in quite the same place in Semple Stadium where he faced the media after last year’s league final — in more ways than one.

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy last night slammed the Munster SHC final dismissal of Patrick Horgan.

MUNSTER SHC FINAL:

One of the downsides of all these evening kick-offs is that it’s well past midnight before you shut down the laptop.

Reading Ronan O’Gara explain the timing of his retirement in these pages the other day, it reminded us of the outlook of another Cork sporting legend on the end game.

Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy insists there is “no unrest” in the senior hurling camp and that “morale is first class” in the squad.

Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy pointed to Galway’s dominance early in the second half as being crucial in the Tribesmen’s five-point win in yesterday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

The throw-in’s a little early tomorrow, but that’s not an issue for Jimmy Barry-Murphy and his troops.

Jimmy Barry-Murphy believes creating competition in his current Cork squad is not just important for now, but also for the future.

Cork hurling manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy was honest in appraisement of his side’s performance in Thurles yesterday after the Rebels were beaten 3-21 to 0-16 by Kilkenny in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final.

Jamie Coughlan felt like as if they could keep running forever.